Benefits: The business case
There are, two very good reasons why businesses should start taking web accessibility seriously:
- An accessible website will make you more money
- An accessible website will save you money
There are seven explanations for this:
Your website will be easier to manage
An accessible website separates the content (the words and images that we see on the screen) and presentation (the way that these words and images are laid out) of each page. Each web page has an HTML document that contains the words and images for that page (the content), and calls up a CSS document that includes the presentation information - this CSS document is shared by all the pages on the website.
To adjust the layout of your website, you only have to make changes in the CSS file, saving considerable time (and therefore money) .
Your website will be compatible with new technology
In the near future, the use of PDAs, mobile phones and in-car browsers will all regularly be used to access the Internet. The people making use of these new technologies are generally high-income individuals . In order to reach this lucrative target, you'll need a website that can work on these machines. To test your website, try accessing it on the, which shows how your site will look on a mobile phone.
Your website will appear higher in the search engines
By making your website more accessible to web users, you're also making it more accessible to search engines . Search engines can't usually understand images, JavaScript, Flash, audio and video content. By providing alternative content to each of these, search engines will have a better understanding of the purpose of your website. The more confident a search engine is of what your website is about, all other things being equal, the higher it'll place your website in the search rankings.
You won't have to incur legal fees
The RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission) have been exerting pressure on companies and the government to make their websites accessible. Indeed, the DRC has published their findings from their formal investigation into 1000 websites.
Your website's download time will significantly improve
As of March 2004 just 25% of UK web users were connected to the Internet via broadband 32 . If your website takes much longer than ten seconds to download many of your site visitors will be clicking away and you'll lose their custom.
The usability of your website will be enhanced
There is a large amount of overlap between web accessibility and usability. It's been shown that a usability redesign increases the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100%.
You'll gain good publicity
Make your website accessible to everyone and you can tell the world about it.
