Web accessibility is a hot topic nowadays. Everyone wants their website to be more accessible as it will help them reach more people. That’s where the role of a digital marketer comes in. Today, we will be discussing the relationship between accessibility and digital marketing. How these two are connected and why accessibility is such an important part of digital marketing. But first, let’s understand what accessibility is.

Understanding Web Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the usability of websites and other digital tools for people regardless of their abilities and disabilities. The designers and web developers are encouraged to create websites and digital tools that are free of barriers for people with disabilities and in accordance with W3C’s POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust) principles.

Importance of Web Accessibility in Digital Marketing

More and more sectors are going digital nowadays and therefore, the possibilities are also increasing for digital marketers. In such scenarios, how important is web accessibility? According to the world bank, 15% of the world population has some form of disability. If your apps, digital tools, and websites do not have accessibility features, it will be hard for them to use your product or service.

Making Web Accessibility A Priority

Web accessibility will protect you against fines and lawsuits if the accessibility standards are followed. Not only does an accessible website give every user a great experience, but it will also help you avoid legal complications. For that, you should conform to the accessibility requirements of your province, state, or country. Some regulations you should know about are:

Digital Accessibility

Digital accessibility consists of not only web accessibility but also includes other forms of digital media. Your documents, video and audio content that you put out, and your mobile apps.

If you want everyone to engage with your content, no matter where you put it, digital accessibility is the way to go. An accessible website will help you enhance your public image, and will have improved usability that can drive more engagement and loyalty from your users.

Factors to Consider for Digital Marketers

Factors to Consider for Digital Marketers

This is where web accessibility will be the closest to the digital marketing efforts of a website/app. To create and market an accessible website, a digital marketer needs to know a few things about disabilities first.

Disabilities can be temporary, permanent, or even situations. For example, someone recovering from a fracture can be temporary, while a nursing mother is a situational type. Understanding different types of disabilities will help you create better marketing campaigns and add specific improvements to your website or application.

Here are the types of disabilities to consider

1. Limited Mobility

People suffering from limited physical movement or mobility impairment may find it hard to move the mouse or press certain keys together. This may also include limitations like gripping, clicking, and pushing objects. For example, you can add an on-screen keyboard for certain mobility issues.

2. Visual

These refer to temporary, partial, or permanent blindness. It can be blurry vision, light sensitivity, color blindness, or complete blindness. A good example of an accessibility feature for such a disability would be text to speech feature.

3. Auditory

Complete or partial hearing loss is a common disability. For this disability, you can provide subtitles to your video content.

4. Speech

Speech disabilities, as the name suggests, hinder people’s ability to talk. Close to that, some language disorders hinder people from reading or writing at times.

5. Cognitive & Neurological

These kinds of disabilities affect one’s ability to learn, perceive, memorize, etc. These could also result in poor motor conditions, impaired judgments, or confusion.

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Benefits of Having An Accessible Website

As a digital marketer, you benefit a lot from having an accessible website/app. Here is how”:

1. Better search results:

Accessibility features are considered good SEO practice and therefore can help you bring better search results. You can provide alternative texts to your images, page titles, proper headings, sitemaps, and more to make your website more accessible, and thus, more SEO friendly.

2. Reaching out to Targeted Audience:

With more accessibility, you will increase your chances to reach your target audience. Moreover, you will stop people from moving away from your website since it is easier for them to use.

3. User Experience:

Great user experiences always translate to better audience retention and search engines will also favor the websites with better user experience.

Importance of Inclusion

And it doesn’t stop at only making your application or website accessible. If you include disabled people in your team, it will help you understand the issues with accessibility right away. Active inclusion of people with disabilities in the team has been proven to increase the morale of the team and motivate them. The increased diversity and elimination of the stigma against discrimination will make for a better team that can move ahead with unity and grow your business.

Conclusion

In today’s digital world, making your digital products accessible to more and more people is a necessity. Not only will it help you avoid law-related complications, but as a digital marketer, it will also help you take your product to more people and provide a smooth experience for them.

If you are also looking forward to hiring a digital marketing expert to add accessibility to your project, Infiraise can help you with that, and more! Get in touch today for all your digital marketing needs.