What is Website Accessibility?
Web accessibility is about ensuring your website reaches the largest audience possible particularly users with disabilities such as visually impaired and blind people. Website accessibility is an increasingly important issue as a result of the application of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to the accessibility of public information.
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is affiliated with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and works with organisations around the world to increase the accessibility of the web. The WAI are the internationally recognised definitive set of guidelines for accessible web design.
Here, at Over the Edge Websites, we work to these guidelines wherever practicable to ensure that your website is accessible to as many people as possible.
An accessible website offers huge benefits to your business:
- A website coded to accessibility guidelines will function correctly in all internet technology, both now and in the future. This will save you re–developing your site every couple of years each time some new technology appears (e.g. PDAs, web TV etc)
- Better Search Engine Rankings – the more accessible your web site is for your visitors, the more accessible it will be for search engines. Accessible web sites contain more search engine readable content as they rely less heavily on images and Flash animation to get their message over.
- Faster Page Loading Times – accessible web sites use less code; have fewer images and generally less ‘bloat’, so your site loads faster for all visitors. A happy visitor soon becomes a happy customer.
- Enhanced Public Image – advertising the fact that you have considered all aspects of accessibility will serve you well in all aspects of public relations.