With almost 70% of the global population now using the internet, accessibility is becoming an increasingly prominent focus in the development space. Simply put, websites need to cater to everyone, regardless of impairments or disabilities.
Accessibility isn’t an optional feature, either, but a requirement under UK law for both public and private organisations. Site owners have a responsibility to adjust their platforms for users with disabilities, ensuring everyone can access the website with the same level of ease.
As a business, it’s important to see accessibility improvements as a way to enhance your website, too, creating a better user experience for your entire customer base. However, diving into a development project isn’t always simple. If you’re struggling to know where to start, make the process more straightforward with these four key considerations.
1. Why Are You Trying to Improve Accessibility?
Before beginning development, you need an outline of your intentions to help guide your next steps. Clarify exactly why you’re trying to improve accessibility before you begin.
Are the improvements necessary to comply with legal standards? Are you seeking out an accreditation or certification? Or is the project a push to improve your business’s overall inclusivity and user experience?
The reasons behind your development will have implications for the entire project. Let’s take a closer look at how to help you understand more about which route you should take:
- Accreditations and compliance: Meeting specific standards requires a rigorous development process involving reviewing standards, auditing, testing, and third-party reviews to ensure you’re ticking the necessary boxes. Be prepared for a lengthy project and resource-heavy development.
- Improving inclusivity and user experience: This approach will require more upfront research to understand the needs of your diverse user base, including those with disabilities. You’ll also need to implement more creativity during development, and conduct multiple rounds of user-focused testing (like A/B testing) to align your solutions with user experience.
2. What’s Your Budget?
The aims and scope of your development project will have a direct impact on your budget. When considering the amount you’re likely to spend on the work, I recommend breaking your planning down into three different categories:
- Allocating resources
- Prioritisation
- Future planning
Allocating resources involves looking at how much you can invest in the project and where it’ll be spent. If you’re outsourcing the project, your budget will be for the cost of the team you’re hiring. If you’re carrying out all or part of the development in-house, you’ll need to allocate funds to different tasks. These might include purchasing new software, user testing, and implementing new features. The scope of your project and your budget need to work harmoniously, and a smaller budget could mean your development moves in increments rather than a single overhaul.
When dealing with budget constraints, you’ll need to implement prioritisation for an incremental project. Focus your initial funds on the impactful accessibility features that you’ve identified as most important to your users. If your key objective is to obtain accreditations, explore the minimum number of changes needed to meet standards.
Improving website accessibility is likely to be a continuous project over the years that changes as your user needs or expectations do. Future planning ensures that you’ll be able to carry out ongoing maintenance, testing, and investments in new technologies as they emerge, with a budget that extends beyond your initial development.
3. Don’t Use Overlays or Quick-Fix Tools
The quickest route isn’t always the best. When it comes to accessibility tools that are marketed as simple (including overlays and quick-fix solutions), they might be an appealing option for meeting your goals while exerting minimal effort. Be aware, though, that these quick fixes come with risks.
For instance, overlays and quick fixes usually only affect the surface of your website. They might change your front end, but they don’t dig deeper into the structural issues of your site’s code in the back end. This could mean that your site doesn’t meet compliance standards or improve user experience.
Many quick fixes also don’t integrate well with the assistive technologies needed to improve accessibility, like screen readers and keyboard navigation software. Rather than improving inclusivity, you might be creating a more frustrating website for those with disabilities.
In terms of legal standards, too, many quick fixes simply aren’t up to scratch. They’re the equivalent of putting a plaster on a broken leg, and your users, testers, and auditors will quickly see through these shortcut solutions.
4. Don’t Forget User Experience and Usability Testing
It’s easy to become bogged down in meeting standards and ticking boxes, but don’t forget that your users are at the core of your project. It’s highly advisable that you carry out usability testing on real users throughout your development, trialling your changes to assess their suitability. This includes testing the website with users who have impairments and disabilities.
You may carry out pre-development tests to identify the areas of your website that need improving. It’s also a smart idea to retest throughout your development, checking that the solutions you put in place meet user expectations.
As mentioned, many development projects happen in phases and increments, and I’d recommend testing after each phase to ensure user experience remains a core aspect of your process.
During testing, go beyond compliance. Meeting the legal standards is a great first step towards accessibility, but if you want to prove your commitment to inclusive user experience, you shouldn’t stop there. Your usability testing should guide your next steps after meeting compliance, transforming your website with a user-centric, accessible design.
Learn More at MemberWise
Accessibility is about more than downloading a few quick-fix software patches. The considerations I’ve discussed today should help you better understand how you can meet the needs of your users from the code up, but there’s more to learn for a truly accessible website.
On the 14th November 2024, I’ll be hosting a talk at MemberWise to look deeper into the top of website accessibility. If you’re embarking on a digital transformation or development project, be sure to attend for a comprehensive, insightful exploration of this crucial topic.
GRM Digital is an award-winning, full-service web development and digital marketing agency. If you need help converting more website visitors into paying members, contact GRM Digital and we’ll be happy to help.
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