In 2020, a couple of months before the pandemic became major news, we published an article on the importance of following sound medical website development practices. The importance of providing a good user experience for medical websites is even more important today, especially since a growing number of healthcare providers are offering online services.
What You Need to Know About Medical Website Accessibility
If you’ve been asked to work on website accessibility, you may be wondering why it’s so important. Web accessibility isn’t a passing fad—it’s a critical way of looking at the way we write, design, and build websites. If your company is behind, you could lose customers, face bad publicity, or possibly find yourself in violation of the law. Depending on where you are in your accessibility journey, tools like the AI-powered accessWidget from accessiBe can help you review your website’s current status.
But if you’re still wondering what all the talk is about, here are the top 10 reasons why accessibility makes good financial, legal, and business sense.
- Increase Reach
Accessible websites aren’t just good for people with disabilities—they’re good for everyone. That not only includes non-disabled people, but also users who are older and who have visual, movement, or cognitive impairments.
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- Compliance with Laws and Regulations
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that websites are designed to be accessible for people with disabilities. Similar laws exist in many other countries. Organizations that don’t comply with accessibility standards could face consumer lawsuits or other legal actions.
- Improve Your SEO Performance
The same standards that define website accessibility—including the use of title tags, metadata, and alt-image text—also form the basis of sound on-page SEO tactics, which means you’re also making your site more attractive to Google and other search engines.
- Increased Engagement
Customers (and potential customers) favor web experiences that are fast, clear, and easy. By creating better websites, you can help attract and retain more customers than competitors who don’t prioritize accessible experiences.
- Enhance User Experience
When websites are built using WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards, they feature clear and consistent content, designs, structures, and navigation elements, which create more effective experiences for all users.
- Improved Brand Image
By prioritizing accessible experiences, you become known as a company that puts all customers first.
- Cost Savings
Accessible websites built on sound accessible principles can cost less to maintain and face less downtime than sites that don’t. In the U.S. you can also qualify for tax credits for your accessibility expenses.
- Mitigate Legal Liability
A bad user experience because of inaccessible content can be costly not only to your brand image, but for your business as well. Reinforcing compliance of your website is a surefire way of mitigating the risk of web accessibility lawsuits.
- Improve Accessibility for Everyone
Improving accessibility to everyone is the perfect opportunity to connect with your users and meet their needs while also providing company messaging that is cohesive for them.
- Future-Proof Your Website
We live our lives on the go, and if your website isn’t accessible, it may not be easily usable on phones or other mobile devices. With responsive design, organizations can provide a unique and impactful experience for all users across different formats, platforms, and devices.
Helping those with disabilities isn’t just a legal or financial concern—it’s a moral one, too. We have an ethical duty to make our world more inclusive for people with disabilities, and web accessibility is just one way to start.
Looking to learn more? View the Introduction to Web Accessibility by the W3C’s Web Accessibility and spearhead action by making your website accessible to all users starting today.