The Future of Born Accessible: Integrating Accessibility into Design From the Start

Every business aims for an online presence that reaches the maximum audience. Well, the largest possible audience translates to 5.3 billion users who use the internet, and reaching that many people requires catering to a very diverse set of requirements. Apart from legal prerequisites for your webpage, one aspect plays a huge role in this process, and that is how accessible your web design is.

 With 1.3 billion people worldwide experiencing significant disabilities, it is crucial to incorporate effective accessibility into your web design. The impact of accessibility extends to a huge audience base and tremendous inclusivity.

In this blog, we’ll cover the benefits and impact of an approach called born-accessible design.

Table of Contents:

• An Overview of Born Accessible Design
• 8 Ways Born Accessible Design Steers Growth
• 5 Key Practices that Will Elevate Accessibility
• Building an Inclusive Future

An Overview of Born Accessible Design

Let’s start with a quick overview of born-accessible design before revealing how significant an impact it can make.

While accessible content focuses on ensuring digital content and technology are accessible to all users, born-accessible design takes it up a notch. The concept is to incorporate features and standards right from the inception of the design.

It focuses on eliminating barriers and promoting equal access to information and services for users with diverse needs. This proactive approach that starts during the developmental phase ensures every product, website element, and content piece is created and delivered to enhance usability and foster inclusivity.

Also Read: 5 Tips on Improving Healthcare Website Accessibility for Patients with Disabilities

8 Ways Born Accessible Design Steers Growth

Now, the first impression of accessibility and its main focus is to foster an inclusive place for all users, no matter how diverse.

Here are nine ways how born-accessible design is full of perks for your business:

1. Maintaining Legal Compliance

Maintaining legal compliance is paramount yet a basic goal for every business. Born-accessible design is a powerful tool to achieve and maintain this objective. By designing for accessibility principles, your web design aligns with the established accessible design standards outlined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offering a proactive approach to meeting and exceeding legal expectations.

2. A Better and More Consistent Audience Reach

Businesses that implement accessible design take longer to understand the expanded audience’s needs. The born-accessible design has opened a business to an additional 1.3 billion people since its inception.

With more time and experience on their side, businesses have a headstart in blending their strategy with the needs of this audience. The result is a higher, more consistent, and well-understood volume of organic web traffic, lead generation, and sales.

3. Enhances User Experience for All

The fundamental approach to digital accessibility is that it focuses on developing web pages with a user-centered design. Aspects of an accessible user experience include high-contrast themes and minimalistic content layouts.

Considering that these changes improve the reading experience and content retention, it is an improved user experience for everyone, not just those who need it.

4. Get Prioritized by Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization involves constructing content for best visibility on search engines like Google or Bing. Content must be visible to reach a wider audience.

Accessible web design delivers more value to more users, and search engines recognize the content as a better fit. With better accessibility, your content will be among the top results when users search for certain keywords. Born-accessible design boosts your business’ SEO rankings and helps with higher web traffic.

5. Fostering Brand Reputation

Embracing born-accessible design isn’t just a design choice; it’s a forward-thinking step. The approach of web accessibility from inception signifies a dedication to inclusivity and showcases a brand’s integrity and empathy.

Businesses enhance their reputation through born-accessible design and organically cultivate positive customer sentiment. The overall advantage of advertising is that it solidifies a brand’s position as one that values and embraces the evolving needs of its audience.

6. Immensely Cost-Effective

Reconstructing web design to include relevant accessibility standards involves a ton of additional costs. According to a survey by Hubspot, a web redesign costs between USD 15,000 and USD 30,000, and through born-accessible design, the cost of retrofitting accessibility is mitigated.

7. Builds Brand Loyalty through Social Responsibility 

Born-accessible design is a massive step towards societal inclusivity and is perceived as a commitment to a brand’s social responsibility. Through born accessibility, businesses can carry out their responsibility toward building a better environment for the global user community.

Incorporating accessibility at such an early stage helps foster a stronger and more loyal community for the brand.

8. Future-Proofs the Business

The primary intent behind accessibility is to create a supportive and inclusive environment, and through that intent, this large audience that requires accessibility also helps steer the future of business. As our digital and technological landscape constantly evolves to enable people to surpass their limitations, embracing born-accessible design helps companies ensure longevity and adaptability.

While accessibility brings a lot to the table, born-accessible design has such tremendous potential and impact on our present and future, that its importance is more apparent than ever. Let’s dive into essential practices that you must incorporate to boost accessibility. 

5 Key Practices that will Elevate Accessibility

Born-accessible design is crucial for the growth and continuity of every business. Here are 5 accessibility best practices that, when implemented during the design phase, have the most significant impact on building an inclusive future:

1. Keep the Platform Technologically Relevant

With technology constantly growing, your webpage and platform must be compatible with assistive technologies such as voice recognition software, screen magnifiers, braille displays, switch devices, and screen readers.

Incorporating a developer’s dashboard that keeps updating compatibility with moving times is also essential to stay accessible and avoid future re-design costs.

2. Develop Accessibility through Multisensory Content

Immersive technologies have constantly excelled at delivering an elevated experience. Through its multisensory content, it successfully engages its users and also works phenomenally well with assistive technologies that aim to bridge any gap brought about by impairments.

Presenting content and product information through intricate audio descriptions, haptic feedback, or voice-guided interactions serves as excellent areas to imbue with VR and AR and enrich the overall experience, especially for users with diverse abilities.

3. Prioritize a Conscious UI and UX Design

A crucial part of born-accessible design is developing an optimized and empathetic User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). While building a platform’s UX and UI, each function and element must be crafted with as much consideration as elements of accessibility.

For example, to deliver detailed research on appropriate color themes, contrast styles, retainable page layouts, and a clear web page organization structure, a conscious UX and UI design is imperative.

4. Pay Close Attention to Multimedia Accessibility

To deliver an equally engaging experience for users with and without visual impairments, delivering accessible multimedia makes a huge difference. This is done by incorporating explicit alternative texts for pictures, detailed product descriptions, well-captioned videos, and transcriptions for audio files.

5. Incorporate AI-Powered Audits and Tests

Regular accessibility audits and testing processes are fundamental to staying relevant and keeping the quality of accessibility strong. With the help of AI tools, setting up troubleshooting algorithms helps automate the identification of potential accessibility issues. This reduces the time for identifying and resolving any dip in accessibility standards.

Read more on ways to boost your web page’s accessibility here!

Also Read: Accessibility Laws Around the World: A Comprehensive Overview

Building an Inclusive Future

While accessibility fosters inclusivity, as we’ve seen in this article, legal compliance, a massive audience reach, and a strong brand image are just a fraction of its potential for a business’s continuity. Incorporating born-accessible design is an approach that embodies the symbol of growth and progress toward a future of accessibility amidst an ever-growing technological landscape. 

While developing a conscious UI/UX design and keeping your platform compatible with assistive technology are key practices that will take you a long way, adopting the right approach to born-accessible design keeping in mind your relevant brand mission and vision can prove to be a challenging feat. That’s where you can depend on the experts at Hurix Digital to create ideal born-accessible solutions designed to fit perfectly into your digital journey.

So don’t hesitate! Contact us now!