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Web accessibility ensures openness, fairness and equality. You'll also be pleased to hear that if implemented correctly, web accessibility also saves time and money.
This Business Case for Web Accessibility highlights a mere 20 benefits of developing web sites to standards and guidelines outlined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C are the main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web. To support the findings, Usability Testing and the re-development of inaccessible sites was performed and analysed.
Making a site accessible increases the number of people who have access to the information within it, meaning more people can benefit from what a site provides.
This includes users with disabilities, estimated to be 10-20% of the population in most countries according W3C. An inaccessible Web site is losing out on potential business, as the estimated disposable income in the UK is £45 billion.
Following the WAI Web Content guidelines, developers can support users who have low literacy levels and the audience of whom the language of your Web site is not their first.
As studies have shown that most people scan Web pages rather than reading them word for word, the use of simpler, conventional language instead of marketing or technical terms will increase comprehension and satisfaction.
Making a Web site accessible allows search engines to index a page's content with ease, as page file size and code weight is reduced. As a result, pages rank more highly in search engines.
Utilising web standards and abolishing JavaScript or Flash navigation, allows search engines to navigate through the site just as well as a human can, meaning more of a site is "crawled" which equates to more pages being indexed by search engines and more visitors from users searching for terms found on indexed pages.
Higher placement on search engines is the best form of advertising, costing absolutely nothing and eradicating the need for search engine advertising, which can amount to huge savings.
Adopting Web standards and following WAI Web Content guidelines will allow Web sites to transpose gracefully on multiple formats and devices without having to spend time and money re-producing the same content. In the UsabilityTests we performed, users found that versions of the accessible sites were equally as easy to use on both graphical and text-based browsing devices.
This is achieved by separating structure from presentation with the aid of CSS and ensuring that content relevance and importance is not portrayed through colour alone.
The W3C’s WAI Web Content guidelines describe a number of techniques that can enhance a Web sites ability to reach a global audience – leading to more business opportunities.
Using CSS and Web standards, developers can assist access for low-bandwidth users by separating stylistic mark up and presentation from content.
Browsers cache Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files - making them available instantly to all subsequent pages that utilise them. From research carried out it is clear that developing with Web standards significantly reduces file size and therefore, a decrease in Web page download time.
Web Accessibility directly contributes to improved usability of a Web site, as proven in the Usability Testing we carried out. Improving the usability of a Web site is crucial for businesses to build up strong public relations. Users that find a site difficult to use will avoid a repeat visit.
Our test subjects revealed they had a far better browsing experience when testing the accessible sites versus the inaccessible sites. A combination of clear navigation, speed of data display and presentation gave the users a more satisfying experience through better response, more quickly retrieved pages and improved usability.
Accessibility improves Web site efficiency by reducing the need for alternative formats and re-production of content. Developing with Web standards cuts down on the amount of code required, leading to further benefits discussed below.
The separation of content from presentation by using CSS, as recommended by the W3C, makes site maintenance more efficient and less time-consuming.
The use of CSS means a single change in one file can make changes site wide, saving time and money that would be spent changing each page individually.
Developing to standards and guidelines makes transforming to new standards possible using software rather than by hand. Therefore, keeping up with the latest standards does not require much effort.
The increase of Web traffic and the capabilities of user interaction; leads to higher server loads for all site owners. It has been proven that Web standards can decrease file size, reducing the size of the content that servers have to transmit.
Clearer navigation makes the finding of information more efficient and therefore reduces the number of requests that need to be sent to the server.
The lower the file size of pages, the less bandwidth needs to be consumed, decreasing the total amount of server bandwidth. A large amount of bandwidth is expensive; therefore reducing the size of your pages by half could save a considerable amount of money.
In the UK, the Disabilities Discriminations Act (DDA), which is in force to ensure that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users, asks Web site owners to take "reasonable measures" towards making their site accessible.
Steve Berry from the Disabilities Direct Service confirmed that "reasonable measures" included following WAI Web content guidelines. Incorporating the WAI Web content checkpoints into a Web site from the outset will reduce legal liability.
Implementing Web accessibility will reinforce a business' socially responsible attitude. Accessible sites are an overt demonstration of commitment to openness, fairness and non-discrimination.
Given the current trend of inaccessible Web sites, demonstrating a social responsibility brings positive public relations and shows the business is professional by adopting the best possible practice.
Following standards and guidelines is good for accessibility. Web sites written using standards are accessible to a whole range of devices, computers, mobile and other hand held devices. The benefits of standardisation, all of which have been proven through implementing accessibility and usability testing, are discussed below:
Future proofing, the process of trying to anticipate future developments, is another benefit of Web accessibility. Using standards is widely regarded as the best way to minimise possible negative consequences, and to seize opportunities.
Without web standards, web sites render differently on modern graphical browsers. Adopting web standards ensures that the concept and design of a Web site is consistent on all browsers. Modern browsers are developed to standards too (some better than others), so it is important to tell browsers that the page you are asking it to render is standards compliant.
Web standards have been designed so that sites are backwards compatible, meaning sites are still accessible when viewed in older browsers. Web standards also allow forwards compatibility, to let browsing technology catch up to the latest standards. If a browser cannot interpret certain features of the latest standards, they are simply ignored.
Following standards and guidelines means that Web developers can share code between developers. If developers did not follow standards, code re-use would be virtually impossible without documentation.
Web standards allow for developer-to-developer compatibility, saving employers money and allowing developers to produce products that are more effective.
The benefits of making a site accessible, in accordance with the W3C standards and guidelines, include; increased audience reach as the support for the disabilities communities is improved, improved usability as a result of adhering to web standards, improved efficiency – which incorporates savings in maintenance and server costs.
Other benefits include; reduced legal liability and demonstrating social responsibility as a result of conforming to the DDA and lastly, cross browser, forwards, backwards and developer-to-developer compatibility – thanks to using web standards and conventions.
Web accessibility ensures openness, fairness and equality. When implemented correctly, Web accessibility saves time and money.
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