How can we reach a broader audience? This is a question asked at every web team meeting. Whether the context is marketing, outreach, or education every group that post content to the web wants to have it seen by a wider audience.
So we launch strategic plans to get more traffic to our site, but is it possible that we are unknowingly limited those who encounter our site through its design. Do we forget that not everyone who uses our website sits at a desktop computer on a high-speed corporate network.
So we ask at the outset
Is our site perceivable by all
Is our site operable by all
Is our site understandable by all
IS our site robust
Answering yes to all of these questions means that we have a truly accessible site.
Accessibility isnŐt just about doing good works or being socially conscious. At the heart of it is about building standards compliant well-designed web apps. Accessible web apps work everywhere. They are truly accessible. Poorly designed products are by their nature inaccessible regardless of the users physical capabilities.
Long gone are the days where the Internet is only available through a workstation locked down to a desk. Mobile devices of every kind access content on the Internet. Accessible to all also mean accessible everywhere. Sites that resize with ease and are structured logically make your web app infinitely more usable and at the same time accessible.
Restrictions on web apps come in many forms. The device that a person uses to interact with the web is the key to accessibility. Screen readers are one technology that has received much attention when it comes to accessibility, but there are so many more to be considered.
Accessible web design benefits developers and content creators in many ways.
Those benefits can come in the form of financial growth because of the expanded audience that can now take advantage of your site.
Accessible sites are standards compliant sites.
In many case of many sites the law can require accessibility compliance.
But most of all by building accessible websites and web-based apps you make your site open to all.