If you are designing a website, one of the things you have to be aware of is how people with certain disabilities will be able to use the site once it’s live. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have been developed to make things a little easier on website developers, business owners, and governmental facilities.
These guidelines have been established so that all businesses with websites will follow the same protocol when developing or revising their website. There are even sites such as AccessiBe and others that make the task much easier on you so that nothing important is overlooked or forgotten.
WCAG 2.0 and AccessiBe
Several versions of the WCAG are currently available, the 2.0 version came out in December of 2008. Version 2.2 is scheduled for 2021, but they all basically address the needs of disabled individuals who are trying to access various websites. Certain laws require that all businesses accommodate certain disabilities as best as they can, which includes those such as:
- Blindness and sight-impairment
- Deafness and hearing-impairment
- Certain physical disabilities
- Certain emotional disabilities
- Cognitive or motor disabilities
Basically, by law, your site must accommodate individuals with most types of disabilities, and AccessiBe is just one of the programs that will make sure your site does just that. AccessiBe is an AI-generated program that makes it super easy for people with disabilities to navigate your website, including helping with the two biggest challenges faced by disabled persons: keyboard navigation problems and problems seeing the monitor or screen.
The WCAG may sound complex, but they really aren’t. They simply list the steps your business must take so that disabled clients can still utilize your website. This applies to mobile websites as well, so if you want your business website to be accessible to these individuals even if they are using their mobile phone, these guidelines can educate you on how to do just that.
The guidelines are very specific and, therefore, you’ll know exactly what to do to make sure your website satisfies all laws that require businesses to accommodate people with disabilities.
These things being said, while it isn’t difficult to get your website compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), many businesses find they still need some assistance in this area. Fortunately, there are companies that specialize in reviewing your website so that they can find and then fix any issues that make it more difficult for people with disabilities to visit your site with ease.
A lot of times, you may not know that your site can’t accommodate people with disabilities. If you do recognize this, you may not know what to do about it. That’s where companies such as AccessiBe and others can come in and help.
Making it Easy on Yourself
When you hire a company to come in and make sure the WCAG rules are being adhered to, they don’t just come in once, fix the problems, then leave. Their efforts usually involve some type of software that continually looks for any problems so that the problems can be fixed sooner rather than later.
The software is also set up to monitor the site constantly so that it remains ADA-compliant from that point on. These companies’ services are meant to help your website 24/7, and they cost a lot less than you might think.
The fixes they utilize to make sure your website remains compliant include both automatic and manual fixes, and since the software works 24/7, it never misses anything. These programs catch all sorts of problems that exist with your website, from the tiniest to the most problematic challenge out there.
The last thing you want if you run a business is to have a website that doesn’t accommodate all of your potential customers. These people will simply visit another business’s website if this happens, which means they will never be your customer in the end.
While making your website ADA-compliant may sound complicated, it really isn’t, especially if you rely on one of the many companies out there that will evaluate your site and make it compliant for you. Let’s face it, you may easily understand what the WCAG rules are but when you view your website, it’s easy to get confused about what to look for first.
Companies that come in and evaluate your site know just what to look for and can even have your site compliant starting that day. This is a huge stress-reliever for businesses that feel a little overwhelmed by the process of making everything compliant.
They don’t just look at your website. They also look at your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and others so that everything is compliant. Companies such as AccessiBe make it fast and simple so that you can concentrate on other work-related tasks.
You can click here if you want to explore AccessiBe further, but if you haven’t further explored what the WCAG rules mean for your business, now is a perfect time to do so.
