In short: With more and more people relying on the Internet to access information and services that make many aspects of daily life easier, it is essential to ensure that websites are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities—a group that represents 15% of the world’s population. This guide covers: Understanding the digital accessibility requirement, What does “accessibility” actually mean?, The less obvious benefits of website accessibility, Expand your potential customer base.
With more and more people relying on the Internet to access information and services that make many aspects of daily life easier, it is essential to ensure that websites are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities, a group that accounts for 15% of the world’s population.
In this article, we will explore what the digital accessibility requirement entails and how to assess a website’s accessibility to ensure that it benefits as many people as possible.
Understanding Digital Accessibility Requirements
The digital accessibility requirement refers to all regulations and laws designed to ensure that websites are designed to be usable by everyone.
In France, this requirement is covered by the Law of February 11, 2005, on equal rights and opportunities, participation, and citizenship for people with disabilities. A decree dated July 24, 2019, specifies the resulting legal obligations.
As its name suggests, this law requires that the websites of public agencies and private entities that provide services to the public meet a certain level of accessibility.
What does “accessibility” actually mean?
Web accessibility is measured based on the four principles defined by the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), with the goal of ensuring that online information and services are accessible to people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities.
- Perceptibility: Information that users can understand using at least one of their senses.
- Usability: The ability of all users to interact with the application's components or navigation.
- Comprehensibility: The ease with which users with disabilities can understand the information presented and the application's interface.
- Robustness: The extent to which content can be correctly interpreted using various technologies or user devices.
The Less Obvious Benefits of Website Accessibility
In addition to complying with government regulations, an accessible website offers several business benefits.
Expand your potential customer base
Website accessibility helps improve the user experience for everyone, making it a beneficial initiative for all your users.
This results in information that is even clearer, more organized, and easier to read for both users and search engines, thereby enhancing your brand image among:
- Older Adults
- Children
- Left-handed users
- Non-native speakers
In addition, accessibility allows your users to easily browse your website, regardless of the quality of their Internet connection or the device they use to access it.
Enhanced SEO Performance
Rich content on an accessible website makes it easier for search engines to understand the content, thereby recommending it to relevant users.
Better search engine optimization means more traffic to your website and more potential customers!
In addition, simpler and more intuitive navigation significantly reduces bounce rates, an important metric for both search engines and conversions.
Improved Codebase Quality
In addition to reducing the number of bugs, a higher-quality codebase provides a better user experience (UX) and faster loading times on any device.
Increased Ecological Efficiency
Accessible websites also mean greater energy efficiency, with less unnecessary content, thereby contributing to energy conservation, as highlighted in a report by the National Digital Council (CNNum).
Enhanced Brand Reputation
An accessible website gives the impression that your company is capable of putting itself in the customer's shoes, beyond what is considered standard practice in your particular industry.
Website accessibility shows that you also prioritize basic human needs above all else.
Website Accessibility – How to Evaluate It?
Assessing a website’s accessibility is a crucial step in ensuring its compliance with laws and regulations regarding digital accessibility.
1. Perform accessibility tests— both automated and manual
Accessibility testing allows you to easily identify accessibility issues on your website or app so you can proactively fix them.
However, it is nearly impossible to detect all potential accessibility issues by manually reviewing the entire site, as many accessibility issues are related to back-end development practices.
As a result, no-code automated testing tools are often used by organizations to identify website accessibility issues.
Automated accessibility testing is particularly useful for detecting elements such as empty links, the presence of alternative text, basic color contrast, and the presence of form labels, for example.
However, manual accessibility testing is necessary to evaluate:
- The readability of your content in situations where assistive technology, such as screen readers, is required.
- Keyboard navigation without a mouse. A compliant website must not only be compatible with various assistive technologies, but also be navigable using only the keyboard.
2. Conduct regular accessibility audits
Accessibility is evolving alongside new web accessibility requirements and the technologies that drive them.
Regular web accessibility testing allows your QA team to stay constantly up to date on accessibility issues, which is more difficult to achieve with quarterly or annual testing, for example.
Mr Suricate Simplify accessibility testing with no-code automation
Digital accessibility requirements are a reality that every website owner must comply with. However, they go beyond mere legal compliance. They represent a commitment to a more inclusive Internet that is accessible to everyone.
The early and consistent integration of automated accessibility testing into the development process ensures that quality and accessibility are proactively managed at every stage of the software development lifecycle.
A no-code test automation platform such as Mr Suricate to integrate accessibility testing into your quality assurance strategy, significantly reducing turnaround times.
FAQ
What does “accessibility” actually mean?
Web accessibility is measured based on the four principles defined by the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), with the goal of ensuring that online information and services are accessible to people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities. Perceivability: Information that users can understand using at least one of their senses.
Website Accessibility – How to Evaluate It?
Assessing a website’s accessibility is a crucial step in ensuring its compliance with laws and regulations regarding digital accessibility.
Further Reading
To see the solution in action, check out our accessibility tests.
