Today, most people depend on the Internet to find information and access various products and services. For this reason, many companies have created sites where their clients can reach them easily.
With the help of a web page, firms can also expand their customer base significantly by exposing them to worldwide consumers. As a result, the enterprise is more likely to see an improvement in its revenue. In addition, it could also boost their profitability and enhance growth as well.
What Limits Excellent User Experience on a Website?
Despite the several advantages the Internet offers customers, many sites aren’t accessible, especially to people living with disabilities. Some factors hindering excellent user experience (UX) on a web page are low vision, blindness, as well as cognitive and learning impairments. Additionally, the inability to identify various colors and mobility difficulties limiting efficient use of a mouse or keyboard could also prevent good UX.
How Enterprises Can Better Their Websites’ Accessibility
Most people who live with the above disabilities use assistive technologies to navigate the Internet. However, many still find it challenging to access some websites, even with the said tools.
Therefore, entrepreneurs, managers, and marketers have a moral obligation to prioritize inclusion. This way, they can ensure that everyone interacting with their sites can sufficiently access and comprehend the information they’ve provided.
In some states, if a business’ web page isn’t accessible, a company risks getting into a legal battle with consumers requiring these adjustments. In truth, it might be challenging to ensure your enterprise’s site is fully usable for everyone. In this case, at least ensure it’s compliant with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
You may now be wondering what you could do to increase your business’ site accessibility. This article provides some of the best tactics that could help you out.
Below are some strategies you could use to ensure your web page has no barriers limiting excellent UX:
1. Have Website Accessibility Tools on Your Site
The first measure you could take is to buy accessibility tools for your company’s site. These can be screen readers or space, cursor, and size adjusters to help people with low vision or the visually impaired.
Also, tools that can stop animation, flashes, flickers, and blinks can be helpful for readers with epilepsy. In addition, programs that allow hand-free keyboard and mouse navigation and speech-to-text conversions could also help those with mobility disabilities.
All these technologies are widely available, and even though some require you to pay for them, they can be quite beneficial in increasing site accessibility. If you haven’t dealt with any of these before, consider the simplest ones you can find, then advance as you grow.
Alternatively, you can visit various web pages similar to yours and identify the tools that might be helpful for your site. Also, you can consult a site developer with experience in this area for more insight.
2. Ensure The Forms On Your Site Are Accessible
If you’ve got forms on your business site, it would be helpful to make them more accessible as well. To do this, ensure all fields are well-marked. Also, consider clear and permanent labels instead of placeholders. In most cases, these disappear when a customer starts typing.
This can be challenging, especially if a client forgets what a specific field was for in the middle of filling it or needs to make some corrections. In this case, they might have to delete the information they’ve written to see what they were required to enter in that specific box.
Also, ensure any mandatory fields are distinguishable. Using different shades for these could make it difficult for those with color blindness. Therefore, consider using other identifiers, such as symbols like the asterisk.
However, you must issue instructions that the fields with such signs aren’t optional. For instance, you could consider providing this information besides the character you’ve used or at the top of the form.
3. Structure Your Content With Headers
Headers can also help increase web accessibility. Therefore, use these to organize and structure your content on any page properly. Doing this can improve UX, as it makes information easier to read and understand.
In addition, sufficient headings also help text-to-speech programs navigate web pages and read content more efficiently. As a result, you can reduce your site’s bounce rate and attract more people as most individuals tend to refer accessible pages to their friends or family members.
On top of that, since headers ensure your content is well-structured and organized, they can also improve your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking. As a result, this could increase traffic to your web pages.
4. Have Alternative Texts for Any Images
If your site has images, adding alternative texts can benefit people with low vision or the blind. Therefore, consider adding descriptive information that allows customers to comprehend pictures on a page when using screen readers. Also, if you’re a product seller, it might be frustrating for clients if an image fails to load. In such a case, alternative text can help.
Adding information for the images on your site can also be beneficial to you. It’s because they can improve your ranking on search engines. However, to guarantee this, make sure each picture has a descriptive summary and utilize keywords where necessary.
5. Ensure Videos Are Accessible
Sometimes, you might need to add videos to your web pages. While these can improve reader engagement, it might be challenging for the visually impaired to comprehend information in such content.
In addition, it can also be difficult for people who are deaf if there’s any audio in the video. To eliminate these hindrances for such users, ensure you use closed captions or descriptive texts.
Conclusion
Improved technology has caused most people to rely on the Internet. Today, you’ll find most individuals researching or getting products and services online. However, some pages can be inaccessible, especially to persons who are colorblind or living with visual, learning, hearing, cognitive, and mobility disabilities.
Fortunately, if your business site isn’t fully accessible for everyone, there are certain things you could do. Some of these are highlighted and well-explained in this article, including getting website accessibility tools and structuring your content with headers.
Also, ensure the forms on your site are well labeled and have alternative texts for any images. Lastly, make sure your videos have closed captions and descriptive information.
