How to make your website accessible to people with disabilities - Insurance Finances

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Have you ever realized that one in five of your target audience may have a disability that prevents them from using your website effectively?

According to the Census Bureau , 1 out of 5 people in the United States is considered disabling to some extent.

Digital marketers tend to invest time in building customer personas to include all types of demographics (married, baby boomers, single, etc.), but Most marketing plans don't mention one-fifth of the US population has a disability.

This led to in a recent wave of web accessibility lawsuits and scandals in the United States, where web accessibility is regulated by Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) .

But creating an accessible website is more than just ADA compliance. It is about giving an opportunity to a large portion of your potential customer base to buy from you or join your community.

Here's how to make your site accessible:

1. Make sure all your forms and CTAs are accessible

Online forms come in all shapes and sizes, from a simple contact form to a college application. Your website forms are the final conversion path that leads readers down the sales funnel. Functional forms are essential for a conversion-focused user experience.

If a user has a disability and requires the use of an assistive device, the form's format and lack of proper labeling can create a barrier.

• All school labels must be appropriately labeled and easy to navigate.


• Add clear and concise instructions.


• Buttons must be clear. For example, college scholarship application forms or applications should be marked with “Submit application”, rather than just “submit”.


• Make sure your form is fully keyboard-operable (try scrolling through fields with the TAB key).

This is a detailed guide on make forms accessible .

2. Provide Written Explanations for Image and Video Content

Infographics have become a popular marketing tool over the past few years, but they have the limitation of making information inaccessible to some users. People with visual disabilities may be using screen reader software, which relays information through auditory or braille output, making it impossible to "read" the image on the page.

Because of this, it violates one of the other W3C principles: content assurance viewable . This can be remedied by including or linking to a text-only version with a detailed image description. You can use all sorts of visual aids to try and turn your infographic content into text-based content, including:

Taking care of the basics – image alt text – is another essential step here. Use Ranking SE to analyze the images on your page and know if they are accessible and SEO friendly. After registration, use section Check out their website to run the analysis:

3. Use logical hyperlinked text that provides clear instructions

Hyperlinks are what make the world wide web a real “web” – they connect web pages together, allowing users to transfer from one platform to another.

Hyperlinks are also essential for usability, allowing users to easily access related products and content.

With one click, users can access additional information related to your content. This can even be beneficial, sending users to your products or to other parts of your website.

Most screen reader software can jump from link to link, as a way to skim text. Navigating can get really confusing if all you do is label your links with the standard “click here” or “more” tag.

Be descriptive when creating your links and make sure your users know where your links should send them. This way, assistive technology users will know if they want to click on the link or continue to engage with your content.

Again, use site checking tools like SE Ranking to double check your links are working and provide clear navigational instructions.

4. In general, Write in a clear way

Creating clear and concise content is one of the most important aspects of web accessibility, allowing you to reach people with disabilities:

• Difficulty in vision (your content should be easy to understand by hearing it out loud with assistive devices).


• Cognitive difficulty (your content should be easy to focus on).


• Difficulty learning (your content should be easy to understand).
  

Serving all people with all kinds of hardships means building a positive brand with a strong reputation. It also means allowing all of these people to convert when they feel like engaging with your site.

Text Optimizer is a semantic analysis tool that includes a “content quality and clarity” check. It will run through your content to suggest areas for improvement in your word choice, sentence and paragraph length, variety – but clarity – of your vocabulary, and more.

Example of TextOptimizer

Make sure your TextOptimizer score is 85% or higher.

5. Stay accessible across platforms and technologies

Clear and accessible content is only one part of the puzzle. Essentially, the W3C guidelines emphasize that the concept of strong of your website, that is, making sure your website can keep up with changing technologies.

Every aspect of your website should have an understanding purpose; otherwise, it should be removed. The principle of understanding must be achieved on all aspects of your content.

While content accessibility is important, unless it can be accessed on a mobile device or by assistive technology, it does not meet the W3C Guidelines.

All aspects of the website – from coding and choose a theme to consistent site performance – should aim to make your website easier to use and access. Regular testing on different platforms can also ensure that everything is working smoothly.

Fortunately, emerging technologies are there to help website owners maintain and monitor accessibility standards. accessiBe uses artificial intelligence to automate and monitor your overall website accessibility so that it is fully accessible through any website updates or technology changes:

6. Check and Check again

Finally, the most important step is to keep testing. There are many other aspects to developing an accessible web presence beyond content, but you can't control everything.

Here is an in-depth DYI web accessibility testing guide will guide you through the entire process of optimizing your website, including:

• Navigate the page and the page accordingly.


• Appropriate readings (including buttons, links, menus and menu items, lists, tabs, etc.).


• Handle pop-ups appropriately.


• Proper header hierarchy.


• Appropriate image description.


• Describe and validate the appropriate form fields.

You can also install accessiBe (mentioned above) to automate web accessibility timization and testing. You don't need any technical knowledge to install or use the tool.

Accessibility and usability are both essential for conversion optimization. Making your site clear and easy to understand will also help search bots crawl your site more efficiently and rank it higher, so the time you spend making your site can visit will definitely pay off.

Use the tips above to increase conversions while also making your website accessible to a large portion of your target audience.

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