Why a Sustainable Business Needs Accessible Digital Content
What would you do if you knew your content wasn’t reaching over 25% of your audience?
The adult disabled community accounts for over 25% of the population.¹ That’s a large group of people who rely on tools like captions and screen readers to interact with the online space.
This means if your content is not accessible to them, they’ll just move on.
Digital accessibility is more than just a buzzword. It’s vital for a successful business.
What about the commuters watching videos on mute on their way to work?
The parents who are biding their time while waiting for their children to fall asleep?
The neurodivergent customers who have trouble processing large blocks of text?
The students using captions to learn English as a second language?
The conversation around accessibility encompasses more than the most obvious needs of the disabled community.
There are significant intersections of the population who interact with the digital space in ways businesses don’t often consider.
With this context in mind, is your digital content accessible?
Or are you missing out on touchpoints with a large part of your audience?
One of the core tenets of Do Better Digital™ is that user experience has to be a top priority.
When founders and their teams see through the eyes of their customers and provide them with real value, they can begin to align with their raving fans.
But when your audience interacts with digital content differently than you do, that goal can seem insurmountable.
It’s understandable that many founders view accessibility as something that is difficult, time-consuming, confusing, and costly. Fortunately, as with any goal, making accessible digital content standard practice in your business can be achieved one tiny step at a time.
This quote motives me when I’m trying something new:
If we want to do better in the digital space, we have to start somewhere.
We also have to recognize that the first step is just that — a start.
Our digital presence must evolve as we do. That’s what Do Better Digital™ is all about:
It centers around Maya Angelou’s statement that when we know better we have an obligation to do better.
As a result, learning to do better is a lifelong process.
I have always approached business with an eye on accessibility. But a conversation in October of 2020 with disability rights activist Jennifer Brown opened my eyes to how much work I still have to do.
Based on my education so far, I’ve implemented several changes to the way we do things at our company.
These practices are now the standard at Realign Consulting. They help not only with accessibility but also with SEO (which is just bonus points as far as we’re concerned).
Some of these practices include…
- Including alt text for all of our images so screen reader users can more fully engage with our content,
- Using “camel case” with our hashtags (ex: #DoBetterDigital) so screen readers and people with visual processing issues can more clearly read them, and
- Posting a YouTube video of our podcasts, complete with custom captions, so that Deaf, hearing-impaired, and people who want to watch on mute can benefit from the information we provide.
We’ve even included an accessibility plug-in with our new site to ensure our entire audience can get the most out of our content.
And you know what? Each of these changes has brought us nothing but increased engagement.
I’m not trying to toot my own horn here.
I want fellow business founders to see that making accessible digital content is a journey that takes time. But it’s a journey that starts with a single step.
In over a decade of helping businesses create sustainable strategies, I’ve found that “the right thing to do” is generally also good for your business.
You don’t have to choose between what’s right and what works.
If you’re not addressing accessibility in your digital content, you’re missing vital touchpoints with your customer base.
Is that something your business can afford?
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more about what we’ve learned as a team about increasing access to our digital content.
In the meantime, why not begin brainstorming areas where your audience may not be able to fully engage with what you’re putting out on the web?
The first step is always to identify the problem. If you’ve read this far, hopefully we’ve compelled you to start to solve it.
Next week, we’ll give you some anxiety-free solutions that won’t break the bank.
UPDATE: To access our tips for creating accessible digital content all in one place, check out our blog, “How To Create Accessible Content For Sustainable Engagement And Growth.”
[1]: CDC Article. Disability Impacts All of Us. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html#:~:text=61%20million%20adults%20in%20the,is%20highest%20in%20the%20South.
