Why does every website need to be accessible?
The struggle to make web pages more accessible is becoming a more and more pressing matter and for many people it is like Pandora´s mythical box of evils that should never be opened (or even talked about). Still, I want to tell you why it will be important for you.
Maybe I should introduce myself first to give my words that bit of credibility a self-published article on the internet can have. I’m Patty. I work as a digital Designer at a digital agency in Germany and I’ve been working for our client, a car manufacturer, for almost six years now.
When I was briefed on making their website accessible over a year ago I had no idea how challenging this endeavour was going to be.
At a first glance a project like this may seem like a nuisance without a benefit.
I talked to my mom about my work and her first question was “Why are you doing this? Blind people can´t drive. It´s not like it is a bank website.”
And indisputably — yes — chances are good that blind people won´t be driving soon. (Until self-driving cars will be around?)
BUT there are many reasons why that is not a valid argument.
I have one thing to clarify, before I go in to detail:
WCAG is not only for blind people, especially all sorts of colour contrast adjustments. Blind people don´t care which colours you use.
The contrast ratios are for everyone with vision impairments like colour blindness, or reading glasses or a short attention span.
But now on to the article.
For simplicity purposes I am gonna stick to talking about WCAG, the only really measurable guideline catalogue around, since this is also the most commonly used system to measure accessibility. Yet, if it is also the best one I might discuss in another article.
But as you will see, that the specific standard has little impact on my argument later on.
Legal requirements
To begin, let’s talk about the most commonly seen reason for companies to adopt accessibility policies: Legal requirements. Almost every major country in the world has mandatory legal stipulations for governmental and banking pages to comply with the so-called WCAG AA standard and for some countries this requirement applies to all websites operating in their legislative area. At the moment that includes Israel, Australia and Norway. Canada will be starting to adopt those policies in 2021, as well and many more to follow suit since the European Accessibility Act has been drafted and proposed
In 2017 plaintiffs have filed at least 814 federal lawsuits about allegedly inaccessible websites in the U.S., So if your company doesn’t want to risk paying a delicate legal fee, there is no real way around it.
Demographic developments
Legal stipulations aside, there’s the target demographic issue. Even though only about 15% of the people have a legal disability, those 15% statistically tend to spend more time online than able people. For one, that’s because it provides an easy and hassle-free way to socialise without worrying about the obstacles of leaving one’s house or traveling across town, but also to take part in everybody’s favourite SFW activity online: shopping.
Buying stuff online is easy, because text descriptions, reviews and a lack of closing hours make shopping from the comfort of your couch easier than in real life. Surprise, disabled people are doing that, as well. You wouldn’t want to miss out on such a big demographic, just because you didn’t care to spend a little time and effort on accessibility, would you?
Someone sued Playboy recently — and rightfully so — because he wasn’t able to enjoy their content as a blind person.
Holistic humanitarian approach
Of course, after we made all this huge extra profit from making our product available to everybody, there is still the social and humanitarian aspect.
The internet has evolved to a second home, that people spend a huge part of their lives in. As a society we make great efforts to make as many public spaces accessible to everybody. Starting with elevators and escalators to guidance systems for the blind.
We all should start seeing the online world as what it is. The biggest public space we have.
Everyone is talking about inclusion and equality. In almost every aspect of life there are very heated and justified discussions about treating all people equal, no matter their background.
And in that day and age, do we really have the gall to say “Do we really need accessibility on our page, when our product by nature is not? ”?
Sounds backwards-thinking in an era of social media and hashtag scandals, when companies have faced shitstorms for less, to be honest.
What about the grand-dad who — even though he can’t safely handle a vehicle any more — is planning to buy a car for his grand-daughter’s graduation?
What about blind people who share the excitement for the concept of cars whose continued passion makes them incredibly ardent and viable brand ambassadors?
Types of visual impairment
To get a grip of which kinds of impairments we are talking about I will give you some insight.
Let’s start with the most obvious demographic:
Blind people and other visual impairments
It’s the first thing that comes to mind and also the biggest impact for requirements, since blind people usually use screen readers and screen readers need a certain structure to be able to properly reproduce the content. If you are curious how good (or bad) your product does, you can check your website right now by using a screen reader Chrome extension, but don’t blame me if you don’t like the result.
Blind people also need alt-texts for videos or images but also aria-lables for non speaking buttons or links like “read more”.
Temporary or aquired disabilities
Being accessible includes a ton of other stuff, as well — keyboard operability for example. While that is also useful for all sorts of able people, it’s a godsend for people with all sorts of disabilities. Amputees, Veterans, older people or otherwise “able” people who simply broke their arm and cannot comfortably use a mouse for a few weeks.
As a side effect, by thinking about a coherent content structure, you probably also also ensure a better visual structure of your page which in turn greatly enhances the usability for everyone.
Best agers
Another known fact is that the population overall is getting older — specifically 114,26 mio people in the us are 50 years or older, that is very roughly a third. And older people tend to have vision impairments, like reading glasses. But that does not stop them from driving a car themselves or buying an expensive car for someone else.
There is a Study by Nielsen that concludes people’s ability to use websites declines by 0.8% every year after your 25th birthday. Which also results in the fact that people over the age of 55 are way less likely to complete a purchase online.
Since we all are not getting any younger soon, we might also include some thought on cognitive accessibility to our website.
There is a great article by John Brownlee, if you want to explore that topic further.
Disability and context
Disability always depends on your context and it doesn’t hurt to give that a moment of consideration. Are you using speech? So a lisp or a strong accent can be considered a disability, that you should consider.
That being said we are very far away from “blind people aren’t our target group”, because it is about so much more.
I mean just think about it: Damn! what a case the Playboy could actually be — to have some saucy alt-texts describing your bunny of choice? Rumors are people read Playboy for the articles anyways.
In the long run everybody will profit
My overall point is that accessibility has a holistic and selfless approach, so your target group does not matter for once, to reach the greater goal of inclusion.
And just like in real, haptical life that can also benefit healthy people.
Can you walk stairs? Sure. Do you like to take the elevator to the 24th floor?
I guess so.
So let´s all get our heads out of our own asses and at least try to make life better for the people around us.
After all — so far as the Greek myth is concerned — when all the terrible misfortunes had left Pandora’s box, there was still one thing left inside: Hope. — cheesy, I know.
If you have any specific questions regarding web Accessibility, feel free to contact me via: patty.forster.design@gmail.com
