Is your digital content accessible?
Listen to the audio version by clicking the play button above.
Is your website or blog accessible?
If your digital content, such as your website or blog, is accessible, that means it’s designed in such a way that people with disabilities can use it.
Wikipedia’s comprehensive article about web accessibility helps to explain what this means.
If like me, you find that article a bit overwhelming, the New Zealand Blind Foundation explains more simply what an accessible website is and what steps you can take to improve the accessibility of your digital content.
While there are no requirements for non-government associated websites to be accessible in New Zealand, incorporating accessibility into your web content provides various benefits. Most obviously, it ensures people with blindness and low vision can use your site.
Additionally, it helps people with cognitive, neurological and physical impairments, as well as non-disabled people doing things like accessing your content on a mobile phone.
The benefits of having an accessible website flow both ways, as it will help to improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) and increase your market share.
I freely admit that the technical requirements to achieve web accessibility are over my head.
When I first unveiled my own website, it was, knowingly, not an accessible website. Even though it was only supposed to be a stop-gap measure, I knew it was not good enough - especially for an accessibility consultant. But making the upgrade to an accessible website was beyond my capability, so I called in business branding organisation The Eight Project to help me.
They revamped my website to be as accessible as possible, with the bonus of helping me refresh my branding in the process.
Since making my website accessible, I have had a reader email me to request an audio version of each blog. I thought that was a great idea for several reasons, not least because some people simply prefer listening to reading.
After a bit of research, I found a versatile free text-to-speech resource called Amazon Polly. It turns my written blogs into audio files that are now available alongside each of my blog posts - yet another step towards increased accessibility for my web content!
All in all, having an accessible website is an excellent idea. Just like having an accessible built environment, the benefits extend far beyond a small group of people.
So, what steps will you take to improve your digital accessibility?
