Web Content Accessibility Guidelines has become an integral part for creating an overarching and user-friendly online experience. In the digital scenario, where everyone is getting privilege to set a higher standard of living, then why should people with disabilities be left behind. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) creates a crucial framework for people with disabilities and all users, for making websites accessible. WCAG compliance is critical for companies like LABHANYA TECHNOLOGIES to create successful digital marketing strategies that serve a broad audience and meet accessibility standards.
Down in the blog, discover all about WCAG and the significance of these guidelines. Enrich your knowledge by knowing how these guidelines can be used effectively and benefit businesses and users.
What do you know about WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) developed The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to make sure that web content becomes accessible to all the people suffering with any kind of disabilities. Now, what do these guidelines provide? A highly developed technical standard that helps web developers to create increased content and outreach to more people with various disabilities.
WCAG is built on four core principles. This is often referred to as POUR:
- Perceivable: Information and user interface elements should be presented in a way that users can understand.
- Operable : Users can interact with the interface and navigate through the website without any hindrance.
- Understandable: Able to understand and navigate a variety of media. easily
- Robust: Content must be compatible with assistive technologies. and adapt to future tools.
Why is WCAG compliance important?
Avoid legal risks
Ignoring Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standards can have serious legal consequences. Many countries have laws that make websites accessible to people with disabilities, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States, Accessibility for People with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Canada and the Equality Act in the UK. Failure to comply with these terms and conditions may result in prosecution, fines and damage to the business’s reputation.
Professional interests
In addition to complying with the law, making your website accessible according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines also has huge benefits for your business. Accessible websites reach a wider audience with disabilities, directly resulting in enhanced traffic, better user engagement, and increased customer satisfaction. It’s a well-known fact that a well-optimized website improves the overall user experience. Accessible websites also get rewarded by search engines with increased rankings.
To understand WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES levels : WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1
There are three levels of WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES compliance:
- Level A (Basic): This level covers the most important elements of accessibility. Websites must adhere to these standards, such as adding alt text to images. Basic keyboard navigation and specifying the name of the audio content.
- Level AA (Moderate): Recommended level for most websites. This standard improves the experience for a broad range of users by focusing on things like contrast, customizable formats, and more.
- Level AAA (Advanced): The highest level of access. Designed to meet the needs of users with severe disabilities. Although some websites do not need to reach this level. But some websites choose to do so in order to provide the most comprehensive experience possible.
WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES’s key principles and how to apply them?
Give message option
One of WCAG’s fundamental principles is to ensure that all non-text media is accessible through text options. This means adding alt text to images, icons, and multimedia elements. This is so that users using screen readers can still understand the content. It’s important that the alt text be concise but descriptive, which conveys important information about the image.
Provide resizable text and adjust contrast.
Some users need to increase the font size or adjust the contrast in order to comfortably read website content. Using a scalable font size allows users to adjust the size of text without losing readability. Low- contrast designs should be avoided as it may create reading difficulty for visually impaired users. Instead a high-contrast color scheme should be given preferences.
The Content
Content is the king of marketing, but it must be clear and accessible to everyone, especially for people with intellectual disabilities. Unnecessary longer sentences and difficult vocabulary must be avoided. For a clear understanding of the content, it can be grouped under headings, subheadings, and bullet points.Talking about the website navigation, must be probable and consistent.
Make multimedia accessible
All users should have access to multimedia content such as video and audio. Name the video to help hearing-impaired users and includes transcripts of audio files. For visually impaired users consider adding audio descriptions that explain key visual elements of your video. This ensures that everyone can fully engage with your multimedia content.
How will using WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES benefit your business?
To improve user experience
Adhering to the WCAG will not only benefit people with disabilities. But it also improves the overall user experience. By making your website clearly visible and accessible with assistive technology, you will provide a better experience for all users. This increases the time users spend on your site and improves participation rates. This ultimately drives conversions.
Increase SEO rankings
WCAG compliance closely aligns with SEO best practices. Features such as Descriptive alt text, Clear structure and mobile optimization, doesn’t just make your site accessible but also helps search engines better understand and rank your content. Accessible sites are more visible in search results. Helps drive organic traffic and increase visibility.
Outreaching a wider audience
Focusing on the statistics, approximately 22% of the total world’s population is suffering with one or the other form of disability. A WCAG compliant website, plays a major role in reaching a larger number of audience. That can ultimately help in turning your business into a more profitable one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Businesses can enhance their user engagement and have a better SEO ranking if they follow all the guidelines of WCAG. A fully optimized website will leave no stones unturned for them. At LABHANYA TECHNOLOGIES, we specialize in helping businesses create user-friendly, high-performing websites that meet WCAG standards. We help you create a comprehensive online presence that benefits your business and your users.
Contact us on +91 8368521254 (India) and for international verification please dial +1 719 999 0082.
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