This is a post I’ve wanted to write for a while now, but I had to wait to not be a hypocrite. That happened this week when we launched our new website. In addition to hopefully being more aesthetically pleasing and useful, down in the lower right of the page, you can see our accessibility controls. These controls help any user better see the site, whether making the text bigger, the contrast higher, the links highlighted, or the font changed to be dyslexia-friendly. We still have a way to go but every step forward is important.
Moreover, it’s important not only in the ways we know—it complies with the law, it leads to greater inclusion, and our donors tend to be of an age where screen reading is harder—but in some less obvious ways. Here are a few additional reasons to undertake an accessibility audit of your own.
It helps with search engine optimization. A start for strong web accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the Web Accessibility Initiative. These guidelines aim to make all web content perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, helping all users access all content.
That said, many of the things you would do to make a site easily read by different assistive technologies are the same things you would do to make it easily read and understood by web spiders. Google can’t actually see your images (that’s why they always need you to tell them what squares of pictures have stop signs in them); they need ALT tags to “see” the image the same way a blind user would. The same is true for transcripts for videos and other text alternatives to non-text experiences.
In fact, Google’s Webmaster guidelines say explicitly to “ensure that your pages are useful for readers with visual impairments, for example, by testing usability with a screen-reader.”
It increases usability. For example, WCAG standards say a person should be able to navigate your site without a mouse (that is, just with the keyboard). To do that, your content must be logically organized and hierarchal. That doesn’t just help someone who has trouble using a mouse; it helps everyone.
Similarly, ALT text on images can help people with slower connections browse your site more quickly and easily. And just as you would adapt your copy to help non-English speakers or those with language challenges engage with it, using simpler words and non-jargon helps increase the quality of your writing.
It improves your brand impression. A study in the UK found that people representing more than 10% of that countries’ total buying power left a website because of its lack of accessibility. Here in the US, just barriers to browsing for the blind leaves $7 billion on the table each year. You can assume correctly that nonprofits are similarly losing donations.
That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Just as you are more likely to tell more people if you have a bad experience than a good one, think of all the people a poor site has turned away from donating and the word of mouth that comes with that. This is especially true since most nonprofits have, as part of their mission, a goal of helping those who have challenges in their lives; thus a non-accessible site can cut against your mission.
This is a journey for us; we’re working to get better on ethical grounds alone. But there are plenty of reasons to want the web untangled for all.
