It's no secret web accessibility lawsuits are on the rise and that industries from education to retail to hospitality are increasingly adding compliance measures to help their websites and apps stay compliant with laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
With so much focus on the compliance aspect of accessibility, here's a reminder that you're doing the right thing for your customers and your business while improving everyone's experience.
Go ahead and feel good about it
While the law can't force anyone to care about why their websites have to be accessible, it is okay to view accessibility as more than a legal checkbox — it is okay to feel good about it and take pride in it.
After all:
- Customers should be able to expect that businesses value them enough to make their websites usable for them, but unfortunately most websites still are not accessible. If yours is or you're working to make it accessible, go ahead and feel good about it.
- Accessibility has benefits way beyond the obvious, including reaching a wider audience, boosting your brand, improving SEO, and investing in cleaner technology. If you're adding these unexpected benefits to your business and your bottom line, go ahead and feel good about it.
- Prioritizing website accessibility can inspire creative site design, making the experience better for all visitors and leaving them with a great impression of your brand. If your website is both beautiful and accessible, go ahead and feel good about it.
- Some aspects of accessibility are quick to check and easy to fix, but depending on the systems used and the types of content you want to use, some best practices take hard work to get right. If you power through and don't quit until you know everyone can access your content, go ahead and feel good about it.
- The legal lens is focused on accessibility and even though this article was about the feel-good piece of accessibility, the fact is the legal question can't be avoided. So, if you're protecting your business from complaints and lawsuits through accessibility, go ahead and feel good about it.
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