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Digital accessibility means designing and developing digital content so that people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities can understand it.
With an estimated 1.3 billion people around the world experiencing disability, creating inclusive web experiences isn’t only preferable—it’s a strategic priority for leading businesses. Why?
Because in addition to ensuring equal access to the web, companies have much to gain from digital accessibility, including enhanced compliance, SEO, and user retention. For the same reason, web accessibility is a key part of Scopic’s web development services.
If you’re interested in understanding why accessibility matters for your business, the key standards and guidelines to comply with, and web accessibility best practices, this article is for you.
What is digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility is all about creating digital products that can be accessed by everyone, including those with disabilities. The guidelines established by WCAG, ADA, and EN 301 549 play a key role in ensuring accessibility across different regions, with factors such as language, layout, keyboard navigation, and color scheme all contributing to a more inclusive digital experience.
When these principles are properly applied, they ensure that assistive technologies like screen readers and specialized keyboards can function effectively, allowing users with disabilities to fully engage with online content.
Why Accessibility Matters for Businesses
Digital accessibility is an ethical obligation, as it provides equal access to information and services for people with disabilities. At the same time, companies that implement UX accessibility strategies often discover far-reaching advantages.
The benefits of web accessibility include:
- Enhanced SEO: A study found that websites with stronger accessibility scores consistently perform better across core metrics. Those with higher accessibility compliance saw a 23% increase in organic traffic, ranked for 27% more keywords, and experienced a 19% boost in Authority Score.
- Compliance: Companies that ignore web accessibility standards risk legal action and reputational damage.
- Increased reach: 69% of disabled people with access needs say they will “click away” from a site with barriers. In other words, adhering to web accessibility guidelines helps prevent the loss of potential customers.
- Improved brand reputation: Companies that adopt an inclusive mindset foster greater trust in clients. By demonstrating that you care about the diversity and needs of your audience, you can attract customers that value social responsibility and foster long-term growth.
In summary, accessible design benefits both users and organizations by providing equal access to information, enhancing SEO efforts, ensuring compliance, increasing reach, and improving brand reputation.
Web Accessibility Laws and Regulations
To ensure accessibility compliance for websites, companies must be aware of the laws and regulations that govern digital accessibility, such as the WCAG, ADA, and EN 301 549.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
WCAG is a set of international standards designed to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. Its goal is to provide a shared framework that helps individuals, organizations, and governments create and maintain inclusive digital experiences.
WCAG 2.2 has 13 guidelines, which are organized under 4 principles commonly known as the POUR principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
WCAG 2 at a Glance provides a summary of the guidelines, which includes: providing text alternatives for non-text content, creating content that can be presented in different ways, making it easier to use inputs other than keyboards, making text readable and understandable, and maximizing compatibility with tools, among others.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
ADA is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday activities. As part of its mission to ensure equal opportunity, it promotes website accessibility standards that make digital spaces more inclusive.
While the ADA does not implement its own technical standards for web accessibility, it does require that people with disabilities have equal access to online services. That said, companies can use the WCAG standards mentioned above as a benchmark to demonstrate ADA compliance.
EN 301 549
EN 301 549 is the European standard that defines accessibility requirements for information and communication technologies (ICT), ensuring they can be used by people with disabilities.
This standard applies to public-sector bodies within the EU and also to non-EU companies that offer digital products or services to EU users, ensuring accessibility compliance across the European market.
At Scopic, compliance is a key part of our web application development services. Not only do we consider local laws and regulations, but we’re experts in international standards to ensure web accessibility compliance across borders.
5 Key Web Accessibility Best Practices for Businesses
Wondering how to improve web accessibility?
We’ve outlined 5 best practices your company should implement:
Keyboard Accessibility
Companies must ensure that all content is accessible through a keyboard or keyboard interface, enabling individuals with no vision or those who rely on alternative input methods, such as speech input software or on-screen keyboards, to navigate and interact effectively.
Core WCAG principles for keyboard accessibility include:
- Visible focus indicators: Visible focus indicators—such as author-designed outlines or two-color highlights—help users navigate more easily by showing which component is currently active.
- Logical tab order: Creating a logical tab order for links, form controls, and objects ensures that keyboard users can navigate web content in a predictable and meaningful sequence.
- Skip links: Skip links help users quickly move past blocks of content they do not want to navigate through.
WCAG provides examples of web accessibility design that prioritizes keyboard accessibility, such as a drawing program that lets users create, size, position, and rotate objects using the keyboard, or an application that supports “cut,” “paste,” and form controls as alternatives to drag-and-drop interactions.
Text Readability
Individuals experience text in different ways—visually, auditorily, tactilely, or through a combination of these. Therefore, web content should adapt to different user needs.
To make text truly readable and meaningful for everyone, it’s essential to structure content so assistive technologies can accurately interpret and present it in multiple formats.
There are various ways to accomplish this, such as ensuring assistive technology can determine the language of the page, guaranteeing users can identify and learn what unusual words mean, and making sure individuals can get a simplified version of complex information.
Compatibility
Digital accessibility also means supporting compatibility with current and future user agents, especially assistive technologies.
This can be achieved by ensuring that authors avoid actions that could break or bypass assistive technologies and by presenting information using standard methods that these technologies can easily recognize and interact with.
Since technology is constantly evolving, content should follow conventions and be compatible with accessibility APIs. For example, using semantic HTML, appropriate ARIA roles, and proper HTML tags for headings and form labels helps screen readers and other assistive technologies accurately interpret a page’s structure, keeping content accessible as technology changes.
Color Contrast
When websites don’t have color contrast between the web copy and the background, it makes it difficult for individuals with vision impairments to read the information.
The goal is for people with moderately low vision or impaired contrast perception to read the information without the use of contrast-enhancing assistive technology. To achieve this, companies should aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
Content Navigation
Users should be able to find the content they need and easily understand where they are within a website. For example, screen readers convert content into synthetic speech, so information must be structured in a logical, linear order.
Key strategies that support navigation include providing each web page with a meaningful title, ensuring users can access content in multiple ways, and using descriptive headings and labels.
The above 5 standards only scratch the surface of digital accessibility. While web accessibility for developers can be complex, adhering to regulations is key to staying compliant and providing an enjoyable web experience for all users.
At Scopic, we have a tried-and-true development process that ensures our solutions are up-to-date with the latest standards. Contact us for accessible, compliant web solutions.
The Importance of Web Accessibility Audits
A web accessibility audit is an evaluation of how accessible your website or application is to individuals with disabilities. Since there are many elements that contribute to an inclusive web experience, these audits help companies optimize their digital products and stay compliant with evolving regulations.
Beyond compliance, accessibility audits also enhance the user experience, improve SEO performance, and demonstrate a company’s commitment to inclusivity and digital equality—and there are tools available to simplify this process.
Top Web Accessibility Tools for Companies
Web accessibility tools help identify issues, measure compliance, and provide recommendations for improvement. The World Wide Web Consortium has a Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List that identifies 99 tools, including:
These tools not only save time by automating accessibility checks but also provide actionable insights that help teams prioritize fixes and maintain compliance.
However, companies should work with an experienced software development company to ensure long-term compliance, accessibility, and growth.
Scopic’s Approach to Digital Accessibility
A key aspect of our software development services is ensuring every solution is accessible to individuals with disabilities. There are various ways we accomplish this:
- Design: We design with accessibility in mind, implementing standards like color contrast and keyboard accessibility from the start.
- Accessibility audits: We evaluate your software and identify potential barriers that could affect accessibility and compliance with WCAG and ADA standards.
- Remediation services: We fix code-level issues to make your digital content accessible and legally compliant.
- Assistive technology compatibility: We ensure individuals who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers and voice commands, can fully access your website.
- Legal compliance and reporting: We ensure your software meets legal requirements and provide proper documentation and reports.
Key Takeaways About Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility is more than compliance; it’s the foundation of inclusive design and user-centered technology. Companies and developers interested in creating inclusive web experiences should consider the following:
- Digital accessibility is all about creating digital products that can be accessed by everyone, including those with disabilities.
- The benefits of web accessibility include enhanced SEO and compliance, increased reach, and improved brand reputation.
- Accessibility laws and regulations such as WCAG, ADA, and EN 301 549 help organizations meet global accessibility and legal requirements.
- Web accessibility audits and tools help companies optimize their digital products and stay compliant with evolving regulations.
Final Thoughts
Digital accessibility ensures that all individuals have equal access to online information and services.
At Scopic, we help companies comply with global accessibility laws while making their digital products usable for everyone.
With 20 years of experience in the software landscape, we’ve worked with companies across industries to create custom solutions—all of which have complied with web accessibility standards.
If you’re interested in developing a tailored software solution from scratch or enhancing an existing platform, we can help you improve accessibility and create an enjoyable digital experience for all users.
Contact us today to learn more about our solutions.
FAQs About Digital Accessibility
What are the 4 principles of digital accessibility?
The four principles of digital accessibility are commonly known as the POUR principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
What are the key web accessibility best practices?
Web accessibility best practices include ensuring keyboard accessibility, maintaining text readability, supporting compatibility with assistive tools, providing sufficient color contrast, and facilitating clear content navigation.
How do I test my website for accessibility?
You can test accessibility using automated tools like Lighthouse, axe, or WAVE to catch common issues, then perform manual checks with a keyboard and a screen reader to ensure full usability for all users.
What laws and regulations govern accessibility?
Key accessibility laws and regulations include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and EN 301 549.
What is WCAG?
WCAG is a set of international standards designed to make web content accessible to people with disabilities by providing a shared framework that helps individuals, organizations, and governments create and maintain inclusive digital experiences.
About Digital Accessibility Guide
This guide was authored by Baily Ramsey, and reviewed by Dato Diasamidze, Full Stack Developer at Scopic.
Scopic provides quality and informative content, powered by our deep-rooted expertise in software development. Our team of content writers and experts have great knowledge in the latest software technologies, allowing them to break down even the most complex topics in the field. They also know how to tackle topics from a wide range of industries, capture their essence, and deliver valuable content across all digital platforms.
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