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A large portion of population across the world suffer from some form of disability. Despite that, businesses unintentionally, often fail to cater to the needs of these consumers. This oversight, makes it difficult for people with special needs easily access goods and services.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), was established to bridge this gap and ensure that people with disability have complete access to goods, services and information. And as of January 2018, ADA regulations have set a deadline for websites to become fully compliant by mid of 2018. Which means if your documents and website are not accessible, your developers need to ensure web and document accessibility and do it quickly.
Why is document accessibility important?
A good place to start would be to avoid any kind of discrimination and ensure complete accessibility for people with special needs. Besides morality, according to the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) it is illegal if your web pages are not accessible to the disabled, which means you stand a possibility to be prosecuted. Lastly and most importantly, you need to ensure that your entire website fully complies with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.0 AA, PDF U/A, Section 508, and HHS.
Are you missing potential business opportunities?
Document accessibility is not just about regulatory requirement, it also enables you to drive business growth. As our population ages, number of people with disabilities would also grow. You do not wish to lose this market share to your competitors. By creating accessible electronic documents, you are in a position to connect and engage a very large segment of the population and also offer them a chance to access your products or services. Besides, accessibility also enables you to nurture loyal customers – who can be your brand advocates influencing other people within their family and friends circle. As business owners, all you really want is satisfied and happy customers. By making your website accessible you make every visitor and customer feel welcome, which also reflects positively on your brand and shows that you care.
How can you make documents accessible?
An online accessible document includes alternative text descriptions, visual elements and a certain reading order. For instance, if there are images that are important in order to understand a document then they must be tagged appropriately. Using assistive technology, the alternative texts and reading order help accurately and comprehensively communicate the information to the reader. Here are a few ways to make your document accessible – Convert your website to Web Format/HTML, create accessible version Excel, PowerPoint and Word, tag PDF documents or simply outsource it to an experienced third party.
Creating an inclusive and richer experience
A successful business ensures their marketing and delivery/distribution of products and services are inclusive. Therefore, you need to focus on making your website accessible so that you can meet the needs of disabled customers as well. This would not only help you comply and avoid any risk of litigation but also ensure that all your potential customers have easy access to your site. Accessibility has the potential to help you expand your consumer base and offer enriching customer experiences.
Whether you are looking to improve your content accessibility or create accessible documents from scratch, we can help you every step of the way. Click here to know more.
