Having an accessible website

helps your customers

Be Found

Accessibility is an important factor for search engines when ranking results; non-compliance can lead to lower rankings.

Be Compliant

Better search results and a more accessible site can help your customers to more find - and buy - what they’re looking for.

Be Successful

If your website is found to be non-accessible, you could be taken to court for discrimination against the disabled or face repetitional damage.

Quick Facts

15% of the world (or 1 billion people) experience some form of disability. Almost 300 million of those have vision impairments, according to the World Health
Organization.

Users with vision impairments will use tools to describe what is on-screen, or to aid their vision by rendering specific elements separately from the page.

The use of screen readers has grown from 12% of disabled users in 2009, to almost 90% today. It’s estimated that 70% of UK websites are not compliant with accessibility laws, and more than 90% of the most popular US federal websites fail to meet basic accessibility standards.

Up to 10% of people in the US have reading difficulties, including dyslexia; 7% of
working age adults have a severe dexterity difficulty; and 5% of the population in the
US, UK and Canada suffer from hearing difficulties.

Most lawsuits for web inaccessibility focus on blindness or vision impairment. There was a 181% rise in accessibility lawsuits and litigation in the US in a single year, between 2017 and 2018.

People with disabilities spend half a trillion dollars annually, but 73% of people with disabilities in the UK were unable to complete basic transactions on more than a quarter of the websites they visit. Of those customers, 82% said they would spend more if websites were more accessible.

Need help to be

more accessible?

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Frequently

Asked Questions

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Why do I need to make my website accessible?

Making your website accessible means that the millions of potential customers with disabilities have the best possible chance of finding and using your website. Simply put, you’re losing out on many potential sales without an accessible site.

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Who decides what accessibility looks like?

The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, determines accessibility standards based on in-depth research and expert knowledge. W3C was founded and is led by the creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee. They publish and update guidelines at w3.org.

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What is “Accessibility”?

"Accessibility” refers to the ability of internet users with some form of impairment to access your website. That impairment could impact sight, hearing, or ability to navigate a website. Web accessibility guidelines state owners must consider four principles when developing a website: people can see and hear web content; the website is accessible using typing or voice commands; sites use clear, common language; and sites can adapt to assistive technologies.

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What do I need to consider?

W3C’s web content accessibility guidelines, or WCAG, aim to provide a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations and governments internationally. “Content” generally refers to the information in a web page or application, which can include the text, images and sounds, or the code and markup that defines the site’s structure and presentation.

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What impact can color choices have?

Customers with vision issues could find it hard to distinguish between colors, and so strong contrasts between colors on your website are advised. This helps the 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women globally who suffer from color blindness.

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Can’t the user’s website browser just fix this?

No. The browser a customer is using can’t change the way you’ve designed your website, although it could increase the font size. Accessibility must be addressed at the code level before you put your website in front of customers.

We can help you to

get accessible

Our experts understand what it takes to help customers with disabilities move through your website with ease. Let’s chat about how we can help get you compliant, and get your customers shopping.

Get in touch