Accessibility is now a requirement for many organizations due to new regulations that have come into effect. But that’s not all – it comes with its own set of benefits.
‣ See our Guide to Understanding Website Accessibility for a full explanation of why accessibility is important and what regulations you need to be aware of.
Accessible sites allow you to reach a wider audience. 17% of people have a disability. Don’t shut them out.
Protect yourself against accessibility lawsuits and the regulatory dragon! There are currently a number of regulations that may apply to your organization!
Accessible sites are easier to navigate for ALL, not just those with disabilities. The result? High engagement, more time spent on site, and improved conversion rates!
Accessible sites rank better in search engines. The reason? There’s significant overlap in the best practices for both. Improving UX and user engagement is not only good for your audience but also a silent SEO superhero for your site!
The end result of making your site accessible, more usable, and better SEO optimized is an increase in customers that ultimately translates to enhanced bottom-line growth.
59.7 million Americans have a disability (17% of the population)
Two-thirds of e-commerce transactions are abandoned by people who are blind because of lack of accessibility
Half a trillion dollars are spent by people with disabilities each year
1
We put websites under our nerd-oscope and conduct a thorough analysis to identify exactly where your site currently is, and what improvements need to be made.
2
After identifying all issues, we’ll work together to develop a tune-up plan that offers solutions that fit your needs and budget. Then, we either advise your development team on how to best implement the plan or we make the necessary changes for you.
3
You’ll never have to worry about updates and changes to your site negatively impacting it over time. We catch any issues early on with a monthly or quarterly monitoring plan, keeping up with the latest tech and trends.
You have a company to run and clients to serve. But you want updates and answers without having to chase anyone. With Nerder, you can contact anyone on your account directly, anytime, for a timely and well-thought-out response. And we’ll update you without waiting to be asked.
We leverage our extensive experience and thorough research to craft our Accessibility approach. Accessibility is not just a bunch of guidelines - there’s also an art in how to best achieve your desired results.
Each of our web leads and developers have ten to twenty years of website development and optimization experience. We take expertise seriously and never stop investing in our team to ensure you get the kind of results only the best in their craft are capable of.
There is no copy-paste treatment with any of our clients. We understand that each situation requires a custom solution, so we build dynamic, living strategies that best reflect your needs and goals.
Nerder has a full team of specialists, ready to advise on how to best achieve your accessibility needs. Nerder's team of accessibility experts have transformed websites, making them more inclusive and giving users the ultimate online experience! Meet the gang that makes it all happen.
Website accessibility is the practice of designing and developing websites in a way that ensures people with disabilities can easily and effectively use and interact with the site. It aims to eliminate barriers that may prevent these individuals from accessing online content. These disabilities include visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities.
Website accessibility is generally broken into four main points. Accessible sites should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (aka POUR).
When something is perceivable, site elements can be observed through the senses. An operable site is defined as users successfully using all controls, buttons, and other interactive features. For a site to be understandable, a user needs to be able to make sense of your site’s content. And finally, a robust site is one that all users can follow reliably with whatever technology they use.
Some of the more common aspects of website accessibility include implementing features like:
There is no one standard for website accessibility, but the most accepted is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The W3C created these guidelines over 20 years ago and has made a number of updates since. There are three levels of WCAG accessibility – A, AA, and AAA – but AA is the most commonly recommended.
You can figure out if your website is accessible through several accessibility tests. These can be done either manually using on screen readers and other tools, or by using a validation tool. If you aren’t an expert, the easiest option is to work with a company who can provide an accessibility audit and report, so call us! We provide the information and give context for any findings to ensure you understand what needs improvement.
The straightforward answer is that everyone deserves an accessible website. The more detailed response is that folks who have difficulty accessing the internet without the assistance of accessibility tools need accessible websites. This list includes people with visual or hearing impairments, folks with cognitive disabilities, people with neurological conditions, and other conditions that limit how someone would be able to use your site.
Yes, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requires all government bodies and all businesses who are open to the public to follow accessibility compliance standards, regardless of the size of that business. The consequence for offenders is most often a lawsuit, the number of which has been growing quickly, hitting 4,035 lawsuits in 2022.
The first lawsuit was resolved on June 23, 2021 when a California federal district court judge ruled that Dominos had violated Title III of the ADA because their website failed to meet accessibility guidelines for a blind man, ultimately ordering the pizza company to bring its website into compliance with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
Since then, there have been thousands of other successful lawsuits, so the ADA is now assumed to apply to all businesses that are open to the public (Title III), in addition to state and local governments (Title II).
The ADA requires meeting WCAG AA standards, which apply to both websites and mobile apps, as they’re both regarded as public accommodations under the law.
Yes, accessibility is a legal requirement for many organizations in Canada, though not all. In Ontario, the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) requires public and private companies in Ontario with more than 50 employees to make web content accessible.
Following Ontario’s lead, the ACR (Accessible Canada Regulations) are being rolled out across Canada as part of the ACA (Accessible Canada Act). Currently, government agencies and companies with more than 100 employees have to get compliant (the deadline date was June 1, 2023), with businesses with 10-99 employees needing to be compliant by June 1, 2024.
No, accessibility widgets and overlays are not a good solution for ensuring your site is accessible. These solutions are really just a band-aid approach, covering up some issues, but not actually solving critical accessibility problems. They also slow down your website and negatively impact the user experience. Their use can even leave you open to legal risk. In fact, websites using overlays have had a number of lawsuits filed against them, including over 250 lawsuits in 2022 alone for websites that were using accessibility widgets and overlays.