3 Reasons to Make Your Website ADA and WCAG Compliant

When was the last time you went to a website and found that the text was too small, the colors were too obtrusive, or you couldn’t read the characters in those annoying CAPTCHA images before completing a form?

Depending on how often you use the internet, it’s probably something that happens quite often.

Now, think about this same scenario, but happening on almost a daily basis… and sometimes leading to not being able to use a website or online business at all.

This is what’s happening for millions of people throughout the world on a daily basis. But thanks to coming regulation, laws and advanced technologies, website accessibility for all audiences is getting more attention than ever before.

With all of this in mind, today we are going to highlight three different reasons why making your site and business ADA and WCAG compliant for all audiences.

And best of all… not only with such implementation protect your site from unexpected and harmful legal action, but it will also provide for a much more enjoyable on-site experience for your audience with any existing disabilities.

1 – It’s Easy to Set Up and Increase User Engagement

When setting up anything new on your site or online store, it’s important to make sure it’s done correctly. Unfortunately, all too often, the site owner knows how to create content and market their sites, but not how to do the technical stuff.

Thanks to solutions like accessiBe, the process of setting up complete accessibility on your site is now easier than ever before. Through the use of their AI-driven technology for accessibility, any site can become fully compliant within a short period of time.

The way the process works, is a simple five-step process.

1. Install a single line of JavaScript code
2. The accessibility interface instantly appears on your website
3. accessiBe AI starts scanning and analyzing your website
4. After up to 48 hours, your website is fully compliant and certified
5. Every 24 hours, the AI scans for new and revised content to fix

Unlike other solutions where you would need to hire a custom designer, programmer and site support to complete the full project, web accessibility providers can be implemented on your website to remediate every webpage within several hours.

By implementing such a solution, users will have an improved user experience on your site, while also catering to the needs of those with disabilities and site usage limitations.

2 – Protect Your Company from Unwanted Lawsuits

Running a business on the internet is tough.

Outside of the normal marketing, competitive factors and complaints from random customers and site visitors, there is also the slight chance of having frivolous lawsuits come your way for whatever reason possible.

One way to drastically improve your chances for not having such lawsuits and legal discussions coming your way, is to make sure your site is 100% compliant for all audiences. If not, then someone might come to your site and say that your business wasn’t catered to their needs, and now you are held liable for such actions.

There are already plenty of laws in place in reference to web site content, usage and the rights of users that access your site. Without the necessary usability settings on your site, your business might be next on the list for legal action.

In the world of the internet, it’s better to be safe than sorry. With ADA and WCAG compliance getting more attention every day, it’s now more important than ever before to make sure your business is protected in all ways.

3 – Everyone Deserves Access to Your Site and the Internet

Last but not least, the third reason why it’s so important for every website and business to have complete website accessibility features in place, is simply that it’s the right thing to do.

According to the CDC, there are over 61 million Americans that are living with disabilities on a daily basis, which often limits the way websites and the internet can be accessed as well. When broken down into different types of limitation factors, the CDC provided the following stats:

• 8 percent of people with a disability have a cognition disability with serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions.
• 8 percent of people with a disability have an independent living disability with difficulty doing errands alone.
• 9 percent of people with a disability are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing
• 6 percent of people with a disability have a vision disability with blindness or serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses.

Take a moment to look at your internet-based business and think about the amount of people accessing your site on a daily basis. How many of them are potentially limited by visual, hearing or other disabilities listed above?

Now think about your business again as a brick and mortar company with a physical location. If you knew customers were coming in that needed a wheelchair ramp, or better lighting in the store to cater to their needs, wouldn’t you make these changes? Of course you would!

At the end of the day, your site is your business, and everyone should be granted access and usage to the best of their abilities–no matter what existing conditions they might have.

Make Sure Your Site is ADA/WCAG Compliant Today

With more business and day-to-day activities taking place on the internet today, it’s more important than ever to make sure your site is fully compliant to all audiences.

And with regulations and lawsuits quickly coming to arise in this discussion, it’s also a serious question of if not right now–then when?

Website accessibility and ADA/WCAG compliance are serious issues, and if you aren’t currently making the changes to have your site and business compliant, you may regret it in the future.

Implement these changes today to not only keep your business and site safe, but to also better cater to the needs of your visitors and customers as well.