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3 Ways to Address Your Digital Accessibility
If your business is considering addressing its website’s or software’s digital accessibility, you may have done a quick Google search to gauge your options. And, honestly, what you saw may have been a little overwhelming.
There are a variety of solutions available when it comes to fixing up your website or software’s accessibility. In the sea of options, it can be tough to know which one is the right fit for your company.
Which options are even worth considering?
Depending on where your website or software is in its development process, you’ll have a few different options to choose from to improve your digital accessibility. Below, we’ve listed the 3 best digital accessibility solutions available to most businesses:
1. Best Before Launch: Bake accessibility into your website or software as you create it.
This is the best way to address your digital accessibility because it ensures that your website or software is accessible before it goes live. Baking accessibility into your digital asset is the most cost-effective option in the long run, saving you both time and money by preventing the need for a complete accessibility overhaul down the road.
Unfortunately, even though more and more companies are starting to understand the importance of digital accessibility in general, many do not realize its importance until after they’ve created their digital assets. So while this first approach is the best overall, it may not be a viable option for some businesses.
2. Best for Fixing an Existing Inaccessible Website or Software: Perform a manual, human-led audit and remediate any issues accordingly.
Receiving one (or a series of) human-led, manual audits is the best way to tackle websites or applications that have existing accessibility problems. Digital accessibility is a complex and nuanced industry that heavily relies on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, also known as the WCAG. The WCAG has been accepted around the world as the universal standard to reference when fixing up a website’s accessibility.
But, the issue is this: testing a website against every part of the WCAG requires nuance and decision-making skills beyond the capabilities of a computer. Full and accurate WCAG accessibility testing requires a real human to do the job.
While the cost is usually higher for manual, human-led auditing, it is also the only way to ensure full conformance with the WCAG. If your business is concerned about potential legal action, full conformance with the WCAG will mitigate your legal risk and ensure you comply with state and/or federal law.
3. Best for Budget-Conscious Businesses Who Want Immediate Results: Use an overlay that also offers accessibility customization options to your web users.
An overlay is a good introductory solution that offers essential accessibility options to your users, typically in the form of a toolbar or widget that sits on top of a website.
Overlays can be particularly useful for businesses that are just starting to address their accessibility and want to provide immediate options while considering further accessibility measures that need to be taken. The main benefits of using an overlay are that they provide your web users with immediate accessibility support, such as the ability to change color contrast or increase the font size on a website, and they are also typically offered as an affordable monthly subscription. Saving money while increasing your website’s digital accessibility support is extremely appealing.
While overlays can be beneficial, there are two key points to keep in mind when considering whether or not to use one:
- An overlay will not get your website or application fully compliant with accessibility laws or fully conformant with the WCAG – it will only offer some accessibility options and fix simpler accessibility issues. Overlays can typically satisfy about 30% of the WCAG Success Criteria.
- Overlays are considered a temporary solution, and are not meant to be used indefinitely.
Which Option Should You Choose?
All three of the options listed above are beneficial for various reasons. The main things businesses should take into account when deciding how to tackle digital accessibility are their timeline, budget, legal risk, and level of desired accessibility.
If you haven’t finished your website or software yet, consider including accessibility options and features before your official launch. Contracting out to an expert for consultation, training, or even an initial round of manual auditing can be extremely beneficial.
If you’re interested in manually auditing and remediating an inaccessible website, how will you get the digital accessibility expertise you need? If you don’t have an existing accessibility team, the learning curve is extremely steep. An important aspect you’ll need to consider is whether or not your company wants to hire an expert internally and expand your team or potentially contract out. Internal hiring is typically more expensive, but can offer continuous support. Contracting out to an expert often includes some sort of accessibility training and support for your existing team as well as access to additional resources.
If you’re interested in using an overlay, you have the potential to offer immediate accessibility support to your users while sticking to a tighter budget. However, overlays can never offer full accessibility support and will not protect businesses from legal action. Overlays are best used as a temporary solution while getting started on your accessibility journey.
Interested in learning more about digital accessibility and your available options?
Contact [Your Company/Representative Name] at [Phone Number or Email Address] to schedule a quick consultation for free.