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When people talk of accessibility for
websites, they tend to restrict their thinking to the blind or
partially sighted person visiting their website. But in reality
accessibility covers a whole range of disabilities -
hard-of-hearing, deaf, low-vision, mobility-impaired, learning
disabled such as dyslexia. For example,
1. A common problem among the elderly is low-vision or
hard-of-hearing, which might not classify them as disabled, but
it does give rise to problems that affect them. If the text of a
particular site is too small, it will be hard for them too read
the information.
Hence, proper
web development must be done by
your
web development company in
India for accessibility for disabled people of all kinds. What
follows is an explanation of various types of disabilities.
Physical Disabilities
For those who are not physically disabled, try using a website
without your mouse. You will find it difficult to access unless
you were lucky with the website i.e. it has keyboard features.
Some of the people who are physically handicapped might find it
difficult to use a mouse. Unless these users are kept in mind
while web development by your
web
development India company and creating website
navigation and input methods, these particular surfers will find
websites completely inaccessible.
Hearing Disabilities
People with hearing disabilities will have absolutely no way of
gathering information that is given out through sound clips.
They will be completely lost unless a second option is provided
to them, such as alternative text content. A option that
explains the same information not using sound, but text
description or images will give these people some accessibility.
Visual Disabilities
In a similar way to hearing disabled users not having any way of
understanding sound clips, users with visual disabilities have
no way of understanding information that is communicated with
images. These users are of a wide range, from color blind to
fully blind. This is a group of users that have problems
understanding sites that are not logically built when "viewed"
using a non-visual browser such as a screen reader. A screen
reader is web browser that reads websites out aloud so as to
make them accessible to visually disabled users. A visually
perfect site will often become faulty when listened through a
screen reader.
Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities
Some websites are complicated, which can be difficult for even
the most efficient among us. These kinds of sites usually have
an overly complicated design, navigation that works differently
on different pages and distractive repetitive animation. All
such sites pose even greater hurdles for people with Cognitive
and Neurological Disabilities and will be completely
inaccessible for them.
Legal Requirement
For some websites, like government sites, it is legally binding
to be easily accessible. However, others can be affected because
of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
As we have discussed and found out that the Internet can be a
difficult task for disabled people. By following the guidelines
of the 1995 act a site can be made that serves it's purpose and
is accessible to all it's users, including the disabled. But
accessible web design has benefits other users/groups too, such
as...
Cell phone users.
Users who love in a noisy environment.
Surfers with low bandwidth connections.
Users who are driving.
People with low literacy levels.
Improving accessibility in turn improves:
Website maintenance.
Search for information.
Machine indexing of content.
Page transmission.
Apart from these benefits, there are several other reasons why
one should opt for accessibility. Current figures show that the
population of disabled is 10% to 20%. Hence,
web
development India for increased accessibility will
bring your business more customers. Also, the average age of the
population in many countries is increasing, which brings with it
a number of accessibility issues including vision and hearing
changes and changes in dexterity and memory. If your market
includes a huge number of elderly users then you can increase
that to a much larger percentage of users who will reap the
benefits of accessible web design.
It is common thinking that if you use accessibility tools, the
site will turn out dull, boring and text filled, which is
completely wrong. We have already mentioned the numerous
benefits of accessibility, and now we will give you some tips
that will make it possible to provide a fully accessible sight.
1. Navigation should be given the utmost importance; otherwise
movement on the website could become troublesome. Images should
have a descriptive meaning via the alt tag and title tag.
Describe the image to give the information like what it is of,
does it link to another page etc. For complex images you can
either add a caption to the image or provide a long description.
This could be a separate text HTML page that explains the image
in detail.
2. Long descriptions can fully explain images like photographs,
giving a complete description of what the image is, who the
people in it are etc. It would be like explaining to someone
what the image looks like. Long descriptions should be used
especially when you can't explain using the alt and or title
tags.
3. Certain things like company logos don't need long
descriptions as the information needed to explain them can be
handed with the alt and title tags. These things are easy to do
and are inexpensive but go a long way in making the site more
accessible.
Many people think that adding accessibility to the website will
make the process more expensive. In fact, adding accessibility
later after the site is complete will increase the cost and can
take longer time. At basic level accessibility can get expensive
when you start looking at advanced level of accessibility which
has advanced options like closed captioning for video etc. It is
a better choice to get it built in at the manufacturing stage
than to add it later, when it also costs more. The fact is that
people would rather spend their money on fancy graphics,
JavaScript, and flash than on accessibility.
If you create a site for client without accessibility features,
you will be responsible for making them lose clients. For
example, if your site has 1% of blind visitors per month then
you may think why bother, but if your site becomes popular and
the hits increase then 1% are a substantial number of people.
So, if you are running a business website without easy
accessibility, it results in a loss of potential customers.
Not all visitors surf for personal leisure; some of them could
be doing research, finding information or comparing prices for
someone else. If your site is not easily accessible, then a
disabled person might find it difficult to do so. You may even
lose an able-bodied customer if the disabled person can’t find
the information for him.
Building a Credible Website
A recent study shows that people are not comfortable with
placing an order online. If there are surfers who need your
product/service, but go away without placing the order then you
are losing money everyday because of the fear of people to buy
over the Internet.
Some people might not but online due to other reasons, but the
majority of those last minute cancellations are due to fears
brought about by the horror stories people hear and read about
of all the Internet scams and rip offs that has happened in
recent past.
To avoid this you must do everything you can to prove to people
that your website is a secure place to do business. If you
achieve this, your sales will go up considerably.
Following are some ways of
web
development to improve the credibility of a
website:
1. Contact information must be placed on your website. This
information should include your name, physical address,
telephone number and email address on your home page, your
contact page and your order page and if possible, your
photograph. Displaying your picture will play an important part
in increasing sales as the customers confidence in your website
will go up. If visitors know you are easily accessible, they
will feel better about doing business with you.
2. Placing a picture of the product will significantly increase
sales. Also, when you are displaying a picture of any branded
product/service, don’t forget to add the details. Clearly state
your policy on returns, including any time limits you impose on
accepting returns. Highlight the guarantee you offer on your
products/services to avoid any later complication.
3. Highlight testimonies of satisfied customers through out your
website to get third party credibility, particularly on the
order page.
4. Let your visitors know how your products and services will be
delivered, and how long delivery will take. If possible provide
shipping tracking information when products are in transit for
delivery.
5. Stress on personalizing your website, so customers will feel
like they know you and will be more comfortable doing business
with you.
The best way to add credibility is to think like the visitor.
What will make you feel comfortable and do business with an
online website? Think hard and you may come up with some
innovative ideas which will improve credibility and therefore
sales.
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