Website accessibility: the power of inclusivity

Oct 09, 2024

sales, marketing and service

Your next loyal customer might be someone that can’t navigate your site. Websites that don’t allow you to zoom in, even when the font is too small to read. Getting unclear error messages when filling out a form. Not being able to use keyboard. For non-disabled people, these experiences can be mildly frustrating. But for people with disabilities, they can make life online impossible. But when someone feels supported and empowered by your digital experience — that’s memorable. Accessibility isn’t just about removing barriers; it’s about building trust that keeps people coming back.

Inclusivity benefits everyone

The 2024 WebAIM Million report on accessibility of the top 1 million home pages notes that more than 96% of the scanned websites have accessibility issues like limited color contrast, inexistent text for interactive elements or missing input labels. This only takes into account issues discovered by automated tests on individual pages.

Looking at the bigger picture of a website, the positive effect of accessibility becomes even more powerful. When reviewing conversion rates in the context of this topic, PayPal discovered that “approximately 37% of consumers leave e-commerce websites if they have poor navigation or limit payment options, meanwhile, 42% decide within 10 seconds whether they’ll stay or leave a site”. Understandable navigation and offering alternatives are essential accessibility features.

For people with a disability, fixing these problems greatly boosts their participation on the web. It empowers them to independently access information, make decisions, and fully engage with your brand — without barriers. But accessibility isn’t just for people with disabilities — it creates smarter experiences and makes digital spaces more intuitive, efficient, and welcoming. Accessible content benefits everyone.

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WCAG and the European Accessibility Act

To provide guidance around web accessibility, the WWW Consortium (W3C) developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): a list of success criteria that work with around 4 core principles. It defines rules about focus, keyboard navigation, pre-recorded media, color contrast, labelling, consistent navigation, offering alternatives for non-sighted users, …

WCAG is referred to by many existing legislations. Currently public sector bodies have to comply with these rules in some extent. However, the new European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires much more services and products, for instance commercial websites or banking apps, to comply with these guidelines. It was created to harmonize accessibility legislation within the EU. The act will be enforced by all EU member states as from June 28th 2025. The goal is to improve the web for millions of people living with disabilities in and outside of the EU.

A process, not a checklist

Accessibility requires more than just following the WCAG standards. It’s crucial to adopt a pragmatic approach at the start of a project, with input from all actors involved. As such, it requires a mind shift for all people involved. Imagine using the web differently than what you are used to.

For example, content creators and copywriters have to create meaningful text or consider alternative labels for buttons and images. UX experts and designers must make sure that interaction is understandable and contrast and target size are correct. The team managing the data needs to add information that is unambiguous.

A better web

Another important advantage of an accessible web is that it also positively impacts other aspects of an online presence. Improved HTML positively impacts SEO because of better semantics and improved page structure. Converse rates grow since more people are able to discover information and understand your website. It is clear that working on accessibility is the right thing to do.

At delaware digital, we combine all these strengths. We have been building our expertise and experience regarding web accessibility. We can help you building a better website. Our frontend experts embrace the semantics and declarative nature of HTML, as well as the adaptive features of CSS. Our UX and design team builds inclusive interfaces and we help your content creators improving the content of your site. Let’s work together to make the web a more inclusive place—reach out today, and let’s get your site on track for EAA.