You may dismiss this article thinking that your company is already fully accessible. You have ramps into your offices, elevators to every level. You have wide aisles or corridors and wide doors for wheelchair users. While these are all good and vital steps to take, there is more, and companies, like accessiBe, are helping bring about change.
Our online world
Most companies now have an online presence. Especially over the last couple of years, when shops and offices the world over closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, the need to still carry on business using the internet became essential for many companies to stay alive. We all appreciate the value of the internet and how much it can help our lives.
You could be understood for thinking that the internet has been a great tool for those with disabilities and has improved their lives and the opportunities open to them through its existence. While this is correct, just having the internet isn’t enough for many disabled users and a large number can find some websites impossible, or very difficult at least, to use.
Website accessibility
So, what can be done to make our websites easier for disabled users to visit? There are a number of things, just small changes, that can make things much easier for a disabled person. For example, if your website includes forms that need to be filled in, often these are indicated by colours or boxes on the page. For some disabled users, this can be very confusing and hard to follow. Have you ever seen how some forms contain an asterisk after the question? Simple things like this can help a person to understand where the questions are and where they need to respond.
A very important key for some disabled users is the ‘tab’ key. This is because it is often used to replace the use of a mouse. Some cannot hold or use a mouse, while others may try but it is a painful and slow experience. Unfortunately, some websites require the use of a mouse to access every part of it. By making your website fully accessible with the use of a keyboard will make such a difference to some disabled visitors to your site.
Summary
We have looked at just a couple of examples at how improvements can be made to help those with disabilities. And as you can see, these are not major changes, but will make a massive difference to the lives of some. It is the right thing to do to give everyone the same chance at viewing and using your website.