Accessibility is widely understood when it comes to physical locations, with infrastructure accommodating people living with disabilities and ensuring they have equal access to businesses. However, when it comes to internet accessibility, people are slightly more confused.
In this article, we’ll be breaking down internet accessibility, and demonstrating why WCAG compliance is vital for your WordPress website. From discussing how internet accessibility benefits everyone to sharing how complying with these regulations can actually benefit your online presence, you’ll soon understand the importance of WCAG.
We’ll be covering:
What is WCAG?
What are the main reasons for complying with WCAG?
Final thoughts on WCAG compliance for WordPress Websites
Let’s get right into it!
What is WCAG?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of standards that, when followed correctly, ensure that a person with a disability can access and navigate an online website. These standards are set by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), which are formed from a group of various accessibility experts from around the globe.
These standards are set to ensure that everyone who accesses the web has a fair opportunity and equal experience when navigating the internet. The typical changes involved are about making your website more compatible with the range of accessibility technology already available.
Ensuring that you’ve written in captions for photos for software that reads webpages aloud and included alt text for photos are some demonstrations of the changes you could make.
Currently, the full WCAG 2.0 AA is the baseline for all users.
What are the Main Reasons for Complying with WCAG?
Nearly a fifth of the American population have some type of disability, which means many, many people need accessibility tools to navigate the web. This number only increases as the population gets older, with over 50% of over 65’s having a disability.
The internet should be a place where everyone has easy access. A disability shouldn’t, and thanks to WCAG it doesn’t, make this valuable resource completely inaccessible to the user. There are several core reasons for WCAG compliance:
– Equal Access
– Avoid penalization
– Boost your website’s SEO
Let’s break each of these benefits down further, demonstrating why it’s a good idea for your WordPress website to adopt these positive changes.
Equal Access
By moving to a universal design which places emphasis on accessibility, the Council of Europe’s data demonstrated that everyone benefits – not just those that require accessibility tools. While the rise of accessibility software like text to speech readers have allowed people living with disabilities easier access to the internet, these functions simplify navigation for all users.
For example, while text to speech may be a vital function for those that are blind, those that aren’t still have access to this tool – saving them time and boosting their own efficiency when online.
Web design is no different to this, with WCAG compliance actually making everyone have an easier time online. From making webpages more easily understood to providing extra information on websites, compliance makes the internet a richer place for all.
Everyone should have equal access to the internet. Simply by changing a few things about your site, you can ensure that everyone that comes to access your website can access it equally, despite any disability they may be living with.
Avoid Penalization
In 2017, the Winn-Dixie case saw a Florida judge decide in favor of a blind person that was suing a supermarket for their inaccessible website. The website in question couldn’t be accessed by text to speech software, leaving the blind person unable to download coupons, see store locations, or access product information.
After the Winn-Dixie case, 2018 saw an incredible boom of successful lawsuits around websites that were not complying with WCAG. In 2018 alone, there were 1,000 successful disability lawsuits, totaling millions of pounds in payouts for businesses that could have just complied with the regular standards.
The importance of WCAG compliance for WordPress websites cannot be overstated, with many of these successful lawsuits being against websites using this hosting platform. From solely a financial perspective, by complying with these regulations, you’ll be saving your company money and protecting it from discrimination American Disability Act lawsuits.
SEO Ranking
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your site in terms of searchability to ensure that you rank higher on Google and other search engine pages. A business with very good SEO will rank much higher than one with worse SEO.
Considering that less than 10% of search engine users ever click on page two, if your business isn’t on the first page, you’re most likely not going to be getting much traffic.
One of the many impacting elements that you can change on your website to boost SEO comes back to accessibility. By ensuring that all of your photos has alt texts written, you don’t use photos with text, and that you have description photo captions, Google will look more favorable on your website.
If you’re trying to grow your WordPress blog audience, one of the best ways is to focus on improving your site’s SEO. A large part of this is ensuring that your WordPress website complies with WCAG standards.
Final Thoughts on the Importance of WCAG Compliance for WordPress Sites
WCAG guidance is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. In actuality, the changes you’ll need to make on your WordPress site to comply are minimal. Just take a look through the WCAG Guidance page and see where you can improve your site.
By incorporating these changes, not only will you be making the internet a more accessible place for all, but you’ll also be protecting your site from lawsuits and boosting its ranking in search pages.
Accessibility is a win for everyone.
