In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which seeks to ensure that people with disabilities are treated with equal measure as everyone else. This Act ensured that businesses and providers of public essentials and services took the vital steps to cover persons with disabilities (PWDs). Additionally, even buildings are supposed to have measures that accommodate people with different types of disabilities. In recent years, the use of the internet has gained widespread popularity.
This means that websites and mobile apps are required to be ADA compliant. You must have a website that offers accessibility to PWDs. If you're wondering whether it's worth having an ADA website, we hope these tips might convince you otherwise.
1.Escalates Your Target Audience
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread lockdown in many countries. Many people are now working from home, which has increased internet use. You might be missing out on potential clients if your website is not ADA compliant. A key element of ADA site compliance is to help your site reach a large number of disabled people. In the U.S, we have more than 40 million PWDs.
This figure translates to about 18 percent of the U.S population. Most of them might be fascinated by the services or products you have to offer. If they get to your site and realize your site is not ADA compliant, they will have a challenging time navigating the site. This means you will lose clients who will move to your competitors.
2.Helps to Boost Your SEO Strategy
With the increase in technology, SEO has evolved to crawl pages that have more human interaction. One of the critical guidelines of web content accessibility (WCAG) is the accessibility to screen readers. Screen readers scroll your site, and they perform the same function as search engines. Your website will appeal to many users, screen readers, and search engines. In the long haul, this will help to improve your SEO rankings.
3.Avoid Penalties and Legal Implications
Initially, the ADA didn't mention websites since many people didn't use this technology in the '90s. However, this has changed with time since technology has improved, and many businesses have websites. Business owners need to make sure that their websites are accessible to everyone. In the new guidelines, all your updated site pages need to be grade-A compliant.
Additionally, having an AAA grade is the highest and means your site also meets the WCAG rule. Many businesses have been hit with lawsuits in recent years. Suppose you have a website that is accessible to everyone. In that case, you can easily avoid some of these penalties and legal cases.
4.Improves Your Reputation
As we mentioned earlier, having an ADA compliant site can increase your potential customers. If your website is easily accessible, people will realize that your business values them. Suppose someone visits your website and realizes its ADA complaint. In that case, they will spread the news to their friends, family members, or acquaintances. This helps you to stand out from competitors and improves your reputation. Additionally, it might lead to an increase in conversions.
It would help if everyone had an equal opportunity to access services and products. Ensuring that your website is accessible to everyone is an ethical and moral obligation. Additionally, this is also a win-win situation for the business and customers. This will help to promote fairness and inclusion.
