Society is comprised of people from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities, sexualities, races, religions, and physical and mental capabilities. As part of a diverse society, businesses should ideally be accessible to as many people as possible, including those who are living with physical or mental disabilities.
According to a report produced by the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.3 billion people accounting for 16% of the world population, are living with significant disabilities. This makes it extremely pertinent that businesses adopt systems and facilities that are accessible to a majority of the population.
Besides being the most inclusive and ethical choice, business accessibility can also benefit your organization in multiple ways.
What is Business Accessibility?
Business accessibility refers to the ease with which the organization’s products, services, and facilities can be used by the company’s employees and customers. A high degree of business accessibility is desired to be able to provide reach as many people as possible and ensure meaningful interaction with them.
In business accessibility, special attention is given to people with physical and mental disabilities.
Digital accessibility is a part of business accessibility, and it deals with the design of technological products and services so that people with various disabilities can partake in the use of the products and services.
Many people with disabilities rely on digital products and services for online shopping, working from home, banking, healthcare, etc. However, due to inadequate design, many online products and services are not accessible to people with disabilities.
This is why digital accessibility is extremely important in the modern age.
How Accessibility Helps Your Business
Business accessibility is a basic requirement and the right thing to do. It also benefits the business in numerous ways.
Legal Compliance
Many countries have laws governing physical and digital accessibility.
Businesses that are not accessibility-compliant may face serious repercussions. Every business should strive for at least a basic level of compliance to avoid potential legal action.
Wider Audience Reach
Since 1 in 6 people worldwide experiences some kind of a serious disability, the more digitally accessible a business is, the wider the audience it will be able to reach.
Businesses that reach a larger customer base are more likely to enjoy higher sales figures and greater profitability.
Improved User Experience
Business accessibility not only makes it possible for people with disabilities to use a company’s products and services, but it also improves the overall user experience for all its customers.
Digital accessibility means ease of use, text clarity, and better navigation—practices that benefit users of all abilities. Companies that don’t make their websites and apps accessible run the risk of automatically excluding a considerable portion of potential users by preventing them from building meaningful relationships with them.
Brand Image
An accessible business is likely to be viewed more favorably by customers. Just as bad accessibility can ruin a brand’s reputation, good accessibility practices can help build your brand image.
Companies that make an effort to be more accessible so that they can serve all of their customers more efficiently will gain more goodwill in the marketplace.
Better business accessibility will make your company stand out.
Improved SEO
Search engines like Google are dedicated to providing the best search results to their users. Search engine crawlers take into account the user experience of your website and rank it accordingly.
Accessibility is paramount to providing a great user experience, and companies that have a higher degree of accessibility are more likely to be ranked higher. It will boost your SEO efforts, which in turn will improve your ranking.
How to Make your Business Accessible?
Now that you know how important accessibility is for growing your business and improving profitability, let us understand how you can make your business accessible.
Make Accessibility a Part of Your Digital Strategy
It is a lot easier to implement accessibility while still planning your website content, so start with making accessibility a part of your digital strategy.
Figure out who your primary users are and what they require before determining the baseline for your website. Consider elements like colors, contrasts, alt text on images, font styles, use of interactive elements, etc., while planning and developing your website.
Review Your Existing Websites
Review your existing websites periodically to ensure that they continue to meet the accessibility standards in your country. You can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) accessibility tools to uncover missing accessibility features and fix them.
Tools that actively monitor new accessibility issues are available for use.
Take Into Account Visual Disabilities
Various types of images and the colors used have an impact on how people with visual disabilities can access them. These factors also influence the alt text added to the images to make them accessible.
Providing appropriate alt text alternatives with the images is necessary to ensure ease of accessibility by those with visual impairments.
Consider Hearing Impairments
To make your audio content accessible to those with hearing impairments, you can include different types of video transcripts. Transcripts are written text recordings of audio that help people with hearing impairments understand the audio content.
Transcripts can be used for both audio-only and audio with visual media content.
Ensuring Accessibility Involves Teamwork
For a business to be truly accessible, everyone involved needs to be actively engaged in the endeavor.
Discuss accessibility with others in the company, ranging from the CEO to junior management members. Everyone has to be on board to start working on making the business accessible to as many people as possible, and this goal can be achieved by investing in an effective training management system.
How Can Hurix Help You with Business Accessibility?
If you are a business owner looking to scale up your accessibility, there are several things to consider and work on. There are numerous benefits of working with an industry expert to review your business’s current level of accessibility and figure out the missing links to implement.
For over two decades, Hurix Digital has been actively engaged in making business spaces more inclusive and accessible. Contact our experts at Hurix to understand your accessibility needs better and implement a reliable, accessibility-compliant system to serve your customers more effectively.
