The Dangers of a Company Website with Poor Accessibility
A dependable and well-constructed company website has long been a monumental advantage in the business arena, so much so that failing to have one may be like taking a precarious step towards obsolescence.
This does beg an important question, however – in a digital-centric modern landscape, how important is online accessibility?
The answer is very, and failing to make sure that your business is prepared to cater to the millions of online users with disabilities can result in disaster for your entire operation.
Here are some of the dangers that low website accessibility rates can bring and how best to avoid them.
It Establishes a Barrier
Barriers between your brand and your customer are never usually a good sign, particularly when said barriers exclude people from your products and services that they might desperately need.
Breaking down barriers and boosting your inclusivity is vital to business and helps you reach everyone, regardless of their personal situation.
Great tools can help you with this, like a dependable video captioning service which identifies speakers. This can serve to make your visual content more engaging, interactive, and accessible, while similarly, it can help streamline your in-house communication efforts.
Plus, it can even improve your SEO rankings, which in turn increases your reach and makes your site more accessible in the first place.
It Breaches Compliance Laws
Depending on where you are in the world, there may be some stringent laws regarding online accessibility for businesses.
Breaching these laws can lead to some devastating consequences, especially for small businesses that may have not seen a lawsuit coming.
These compliance laws can have lasting and far-reaching effects too. For example, according to the New York Times, U.S. news outlets even block European users out of fear of breaching GDPR rules.
Complying with these rules is essential as a modern business, and not just GDPR rules, but those from other organizations too, like the ADA and the FCC.
Perhaps the best possible way to avoid a compliance breach is to design your website to be more accessible from the ground up by choosing an accessible theme, a CMS (content management system) that contains accessibility tools and options, and by ensuring that your site is clear and easy to navigate around.
It Damages Reputations
A bad reputation spells even worse news in business. Tattered reputations can be difficult to fix, and moreover, they can be marred in the blink of an eye.
If you fail to create an accessible website, you could be inadvertently destroying your reputation from the inside out. A disgruntled customer that tells their friends your brand is inaccessible can lead to a dip in positive publicity.
Avoiding this at all costs is critical in the website building process, so do not overlook the importance of a functional and engaging design.
A fix for this could include writing a clear accessibility policy and making it easy for your users to find and read. Just make sure you stick to it, as keeping your word can get you far in business.
Chicano | Fighting/Writing for Diversity | DM since 08 | Anime Lover | Site: https://www.thegeeklyfe.com | info@thegeeklyfe.com | http://twitch.tv/that_deangelo | https://linktr.ee/deangelomurillo
Post a Comment
