OPTASY: Drupal Web Development Agency Toronto
(416) 243-2431Drupal SupportRequest A QuoteQuote

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Services
    • Digital Strategy
    • Design
    • Web Development
      • Drupal
      • WordPress
      • Magento
      • Laravel
      • Shopify
      • Sharepoint
      • Contentful
      • Gatsby
      • Next.js
      • Node.js
      • React
      • AngularJS
    • Mobile & App
      • IOS
      • Android
      • Augmented Reality
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Virtual Reality
    • Maintenance & Support
      • Drupal Maintenance
      • Wordpress Maintenance
    • Staff Augmentation
  • Portfolio
    • Web
    • Mobile
    • Ar
  • About
    • Who we are
    • Values
    • Events
    • Awards
    • News
    • Careers
    • Partners
      • Acquia
      • Google
      • Pantheon
      • Shopify
      • Wordpress
  • Blog
    • Drupal
    • Drupal 8
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • PHP
    • Microsoft
    • Web Design
    • Design
    • Tips
    • News
  • Contact
(416) 243-2431 Drupal Support Request A QuoteQuote

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic - OPTASY would like to offer DRUPAL website support for any Healthcare, Government, Education and Non-Profit Organization(s) with critical crisis communication websites or organizations directly providing relief. Stay Safe and Stay Well.

Why Is Accessibility Important? 7 Ways that Having an Accessible Company Website Benefits You
Tips
Web Design

Why Is Accessibility Important? 7 Ways that Having an Accessible Company Website Benefits You

by Adriana Cacoveanu on Apr 10 2020

You already agree on this: web accessibility benefits users with permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities. But why is accessibility important for you?

For your business...

How does having an accessible website benefit you directly?

And that's precisely what you'll find out in this post:

7 clear benefits that you can “reap” from making your website ADA-compliant.

1. Why Is Accessibility Important For Your Business? 7 Ways It Benefits You Directly

 

1.1. You Improve the Visitor Experience for... Everyone

Why is accessibility important? Because it improves the user experience for... all users

Source: disabled-world.com      

“Who benefits from web accessibility?”

All users.

As you adopt all the good practices to improve your web pages' accessibility and you:

 

  • use a clear and simple language
  • make sure that you have enough color contrast on your site
  • add video captions

     

… you make your website easier to use for all users.

 

Tip 1: a video caption benefits both users with hearing loss and... any user who watches your video content in a loud environment.

Tip 2: an adequate color contrast benefits not only users with low contrast sensitivity but pretty much anyone. It makes your content more visible and easier to understand for all users.

 

How does this translate into a clear benefit for you?

Better user experience for all your website's visitors means:

 

  • a higher impact on your SEO rankings
  • more traffic on your website
  • better user engagement
  • a higher conversion rate
  • …

     

Should I carry on?

 

1.2. You Grow/Future-Proof Your Customer Base

Why is accessibility important? It helps you grow your customer base

Source: canada.ca     

North America is aging.

By making your website accessible, you ensure that it accommodates the needs of both:

 

  • users born with a disability
  • users acquiring certain levels of disabilities as they age; seniors who still want to able to access the web

     

In other words: you'll be simultaneously growing and future-proofing your customer base. 

 

1.3. You Minimize the Risk of Facing Legal Action 

“Why is accessibility important?”

Because it's a legal requirement. 

Ignore it and you face the risk an accessibility lawsuit...

Is minimizing the risk of being prosecuted a strong enough benefit for you?

 

1.4. You Develop a Mindset for Innovation 

“Why is accessibility important in web design?”

Because it challenges you to solve all types of unanticipated problems and thus... to get creative.

The constraint of adapting your design so that it incorporates a whole set of accessibility features challenges you to... come up with innovative solutions.

 And to preserve that mindset for innovation in the long term.

 

1.5. You Boost Your SEO Efforts

Just think about it: some of the best practices for improving a website's accessibility are to:

 

  • add ALT-text to images
  • write clear and concise copy
  • go for a clutter-free page layout 
  • design with consistency in mind
  • ...

     

But these are all good SEO practices, as well.

“So, why is accessibility good for business?”

Because, by making your website more accessible, you're also making it more... SEO-friendly.

 

1.6. You Improve Your Brand Reputation 

Why is accessibility important? It helps you grow your brand reputation

Source: Acquia.com

“Why is accessibility important for your business?” 

Because it helps you grow your brand reputation.

By making sure that all your website visitors are granted equal rights and easy access to your web content, you build a positive reputation around your brand.

1.7. You Improve Your Page Loading Time

Studies have proven it:

By improving a page's level of accessibility, you improve its speed score, as well.

The main idea rests the same:

As you implement features considered to be designed “exclusively” for users with disabilities, you're making your website a better place for all users.

And “faster” does mean “better”. So this is definitely a key benefit to keep in mind.

 

2. What Are the Most Important Aspects of Web Accessibility?

Now that you have multiple answers to your “Why” question  — “Why is accessibility important?” — let me try to answer your “What” question, as well:

What makes a website accessible?

But first, here's a list of goals to set for your company website's content and design to be accessible:

 

  • To be perceivable: are your design elements and text visible and easily identifiable by all users?
  • To be robust: is your content robust enough to be easily parsed through and interpreted by various assistive technologies?
  • To be operable: make sure that all users are able to carry out the actions that your website's UI requires them to perform
  • To be understandable: is the information delivered on your website clear enough? How about the UI and the actions that it requires users to perform?

     

2.1. Color Contrast 

An accessibility feature that benefits all your website visitors:

 

  • those that have a sight condition (elderly visitors here included)
  • those accessing your website from their mobile devices
  • those accessing it in a poorly lit environment
  • anyone accessing your website

Why is accessibility important? It makes your content more accessible to everyone

Source: w3c.github.io

Implementing a good color contrast between the background and the foreground makes your design elements more visible and the text more readable. 

And everybody wins.

 

2.2. Text to Speech

Why would you bother to implement this technology on your company website?

In other words:

Who benefit(s) from this accessibility feature?

  • users with learning disabilities
  • users with literacy difficulties or learning a new language
  • users with low vision (seniors here included)
  • all users who just love to... multitask (e.g. imagine yourself driving your car and listening to an e-book)

     

It makes your website content accessible to more people.

 

2.3. Clear and Constant Feedback

Remember to provide feedback —  clear instructions and error/success messages  —  for every action that users need to complete or have already completed.

Who'll benefit from it?

 

  • users with cognitive and learning disabilities
  • users with lower computer skills
  • anyone accessing your company website 

     

Providing clear instructions and constant feedback helps all users complete their tasks (e.g. fill in forms) on your website quick and easy.

It makes your website conveniently predictable to everyone accessing it.

2.4. Video Captions 

Why is accessibility important? Because it turns your website into a “welcoming” place for everyone.

In the case of captions (or “subtitles” if you wish), it makes your video content accessible to:

 

  • people with hearing loss
  • people accessing your website from a loud or quiet environment

Just imagine yourself having to go through a video, in a crowded place, when don't have your headphones with you.

It's another one of those win-win accessible situations.

 

2.5. Clear, Clutter-Free Layout and Design

And here, the main benefits are obvious.

A simple design:

 

  • loads faster 
  • bubbles up to the user experience
  •  impacts your site's SEO rankings

     

Keep your website clutter-free by removing:

 

  • all the unnecessary design elements that make it a bit too clunky and more difficult to navigate
  • all the non-relevant and non-useful content
  • all the unnecessary code still lingering in there

     

Perform an audit of the menus, text sections, and links on your site and... start decluttering it.

This way, you'll improve the experience of all the users, making your website:

 

  • faster
  • easier to scan through 
  • more usable

2.6. Voice Recognition 

Imagine yourself driving (again) and having to search for a particular piece of information on a website.

If that website has a voice recognition system incorporated, it should go smoothly.

If not... you might consider switching to one of its direct competitors.

See my point here?

Implementing voice recognition on your website doesn't benefit just users with various physical disabilities.

It benefits anyone who simply prefers uttering search phrases instead of entering them in the search bar.

 

2.7. Keyboard Navigation

Make sure that users can easily navigate your website using their keyboards only. 

Word of caution: are there any animated navigation buttons that unfold drop-down menus? If so, are they perfectly usable for visitors who depend on screen readers to navigate your site?

 

2.8. Use of ALT-Tags

Go for useful, genuinely helpful descriptions over... the too generic, perfectly SEO-optimized ones.

Accessibility is about making all users feel confident and comfortable.

Therefore, impersonal image descriptions, centered around focus keywords, are anything but helpful to them.

 

2.9. Accessible Buttons and Controls 

Making your clicking or tapping areas:

 

  • larger
  • featuring enough color contrast
  • featuring clear and actionable title text (“sign up”, “download”, “log out”)

     

.. will make your website more usable for:

 

  • visitors with a certain disability
  • those with a limited digital dexterity
  • those accessing it from their mobile devices

     

The END!

Does this answer your questions and dilemmas on “Why is accessibility important for my business”?

Now, we're quite curious to know:

What accessibility feature has had the biggest impact on the user experience that your website provides?

Image by athree23 from Pixabay  

Share the article

Development

We do Web development

Go to our Web development page!

Visit page!

Do you want a website

or app developed?

 

Get a Free Quote

and let's make it work!

Get a Quote

Recommended Stories

DrupalTips
How to Migrate Your Drupal Website to Another Host in 5 Steps

How to Migrate Your Drupal Website to Another Host in 5 Steps

  Website owners may need to migrate their web host at some point during their business journey due to the emergence of more lucrative hosting options, such as VPS, shared, or dedicated hosting. This is why many website managers choose to perform host migration. This article offers guidance on managing hosting server migration, one of the most widely-used DevOps services. It does so by breaking down five crucial steps that can lead to a successful migration. What are the factors to consider when moving a Drupal website to a new hosting server? Deciding to change web hosts can be a challenging decision. However, there are several indications that your website may need hosting updates, which can be identified if you know where to look. Although it may be difficult to admit, taking this step will improve your website's performance. Here's a guide on how to identify these indicators on your Drupal website. There is a recurring problem with downtime. Website downtime can harm your reputation as a service provider. The quality of your hosting equipment and security features can impact your site's availability and protection against cyber-attacks. Your host is hard to reach. Efficient communication between a website owner and their web host is crucial. In the event of a server crash or error, prompt contact with the host is necessary for troubleshooting and restoring the site's functionality. Having an unreliable host can negatively impact website functionality and customer retention. Therefore, having a dependable customer service team available is essential for providing optimal user experiences and promoting business success. Your current hosting fees are high. Running a website can require a significant investment in web hosting. It's a recurring expense that you should choose carefully. The most expensive option may not be necessary. Consider the features and server space that your host provides and compare them to your site's needs. Don't overspend on hosting that doesn't fit your requirements. You can always upgrade to a more expensive plan later. The level of security provided may not meet your requirements. Investing in a secure web host can be advantageous for your website as it prioritizes security measures. Investing in a secure hosting server can prevent data loss, compromised user data, and damage to your credibility with your audience. Consider specific features and plugins, such as Secure Sockets Layer certificates, malware scanning, and server firewalls, when selecting a web host. Instructions for migrating to a different hosting provider The process of migrating a Drupal site to a new host involves contacting the current host, backing up the database, connecting to a new server, and uploading files. It is common for issues to arise during this process, such as corrupted backups. To avoid potential issues, consider hiring a professional agency like Optasy to complete the migration process for you. This may help save resources and ensure a smooth transition. Before migrating to a new web hosting server, it's important to follow essential steps. Let's examine some of them. 1. Turn Drupal caching off. To prevent possible disruptions, the initial action is to access the Drupal admin dashboard and follow these steps. To disable caching, navigate to Configuration, Performance, and Caching, then select "No Caching." To disable "Aggregate CSS files" and "Aggregate JavaScript files" in "bandwidth optimization" and ensure all caches are cleared, click "Clear all caches." 2. It is recommended to create a backup of your Drupal files. To connect to your remote server, enter the connection details and select "QuickConnect" to establish a connection with the server hosting your website. To back up your Drupal files, simply download the content from your main site's folder onto your local device. 3. Export your Drupal database. Access the phpMyAdmin tool located in the Database section of your server's control panel. To export your Drupal site database, select "Check all" and then choose the "Export method" and "SQL" options. 4. Transfer the Drupal database to the new hosting provider. To create a new MySQL database on the target server, click on "Import" located at the top of the database. Afterward, select "Choose File" and click "Go." This will successfully restore your site on the new hosting from the backup. 5. Turn on Drupal caching. Go to Configuration - Performance - Enable Drupal caching. And that's it! Your host migration process is completed. Conclusion Building and managing a Drupal website involves various complexities, with hosting being a particularly challenging aspect. A wide range of hosting options are available, which can make it a daunting task to determine the most suitable one for your website requirements. Optasy's team of Drupal experts can provide assistance and guidance on server migration and hosting server management.   Photo credit: Unsplash.... Read more
Raluca Olariu / Mar 23'2023
DrupalTips
How SEO Helps Your Website Grow

How SEO Helps Your Website Grow

  Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool for helping your website grow and reach its full potential. SEO involves optimizing your website to make it easier for search engines like Google to find and rank it in their search results. By using SEO techniques such as keyword research, content optimization, link building, and more, you can increase the visibility of your website and attract more visitors. With the right SEO strategy in place, you can drive more traffic to your site and generate more leads and sales. In this article, we'll discuss how SEO can help your website grow and become successful. What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it is the process of optimizing a website to make it easier for search engines like Google to find and rank it in their search results. SEO involves a variety of techniques, such as keyword research, content optimization, link building, and more. By using these techniques, you can increase your website’s visibility and attract more visitors. SEO helps your website become more visible in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which can lead to more traffic, leads, and sales. Benefits of SEO for Website Growth Let's have a look at some of the top benefits of SEO for website growth: Increased visibility: SEO helps your website become more visible in the search query, which can lead to more traffic and leads. Improved user experience: SEO also helps enhance the user experience of your website by making it easier to navigate and providing relevant content. Increased brand awareness: SEO can help boost brand awareness by making your website more visible in the SERPs, which can lead to more people recognizing your brand. Higher conversion rates: SEO can also help increase your website's conversion rate by making it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for and take the desired action. More organic traffic: SEO can help you drive more organic traffic to your website, which is free and highly targeted. Keyword Research for SEO Keyword research is an important part of SEO, and it involves finding the right keywords to target for your website. Keyword research helps you identify the words and phrases that people are searching for when looking for products or services related to your business. By targeting these keywords, you can increase your website’s visibility in the SERPs and attract more organic traffic. When doing keyword research, you can use specialized software to make the job easier. Content Optimization for SEO Content optimization involves optimizing your website’s content to make it more relevant to search engines. Content optimization includes optimizing titles, meta descriptions, headings, images, and other elements of your website’s content. Many companies rely on a solid blog approach to boost their content optimization strategy and highlight their SEO efforts. Link-Building Strategies for SEO Link-building is another top SEO strategy, and it involves creating backlinks to your website from other websites. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website, and they can help improve your website’s visibility in the SERPs. There are a variety of link-building strategies you can use to build backlinks for your website. These include guest blogging, directory submissions, social media marketing, and more. Conclusion SEO is an important part of website growth, and it can help you increase your website’s visibility in the SERPs, attract more organic traffic, and boost your conversion rates.  In the competitive digital world, brands that harness the power of SEO are on top of the game.  If you, too, want to integrate SEO into your web development project and are looking for professional advice, don't hesitate to contact Optasy. Optasy is a web development company that provides complete web development and maintenance services that support business growth.  Photo credit: Unsplash.  ... Read more
Raluca Olariu / Feb 14'2023
Tips
Website Security Best Practices

Website Security Best Practices

  Website security is an important consideration for any business or organization with an online presence. With the ever-increasing threats posed by cybercriminals, it is essential to ensure that your website is secure and protected from malicious attacks. Implementing best practices in website security can help protect your website from hackers, malware, and other malicious activities and security issues. This article will discuss some of the best practices for website security and how you can stay away from cybercriminals and improve your security posture.    "Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, and it boils down to this: in cybersecurity, the more systems we secure, the more secure we all are." - Jeh Johnson Overview of Cybersecurity in 2023 The cybersecurity landscape heads towards a privacy-first approach to information security in 2023. Also, aligning regulations globally will allow businesses to gain more security and data protection.  There are growing voices that give their positive vote to passwordless authentication, which will presumably eliminate the risk of password breaches and amplify organizational security.  However, the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices will likely increase security risks for organizations and expose more security vulnerabilities.  So how can websites cope and become more agile and accessible in this uncertain cyber landscape?   Best Website Security Practices in 2023 At the moment, the best website security practices involve a combination of proactive measures and reactive responses. Proactive measures include implementing strong authentication methods, encrypting data, and regularly patching software. Reactive responses include monitoring suspicious activity and responding quickly to identified security threats or security breaches. Strong Authentication Multi-factor authentication is one of the most important best practices for website security. It involves using two or more factors to verify a user’s identity, such as strong login credentials, and a biometric factor like a fingerprint or facial recognition. This ensures that only authorized users can access the website and its data, protecting it from unauthorized access. Additionally, strong authentication can help protect against phishing attacks, which are attempts to gain access to sensitive information by posing as a legitimate website. Encryption Encrypting data is another significant best practice for website security. Encryption scrambles data so that it can only be read by the intended recipient, making it more difficult for hackers to access sensitive information. It also helps protect against man-in-the-middle attacks, which occur when a hacker intercepts data as it is being transmitted between two parties. Software Patching Software updates are another important best practice for website security. Regularly patching software helps protect against vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. It also ensures that the latest security features are in place, making it more difficult for attackers to access sensitive information. Monitoring and Response Reactive responses like monitoring suspicious activities or responding quickly to identified threats are two valuable tools for website security. Monitoring for suspicious activity can help identify potential threats before they become a problem. Responding quickly to identified threats can help minimize the damage caused by malicious code. Conclusion Keeping websites secure in 2023 involves a combination of proactive measures and reactive responses. These best practices are just some measures you can take to protect your digital assets. If you want to go more in-depth and opt for complex ways to secure your website, don't hesitate to contact Optasy.    Photo credit: Pixabay.... Read more
Raluca Olariu / Jan 25'2023

Browse cities

×

Toronto

WordPress Development Services in Toronto
iOS App Development Services in Toronto
Drupal Development Services in Toronto
Magento Development Services in Toronto
Laravel Development Services in Toronto

Montreal

WordPress Development Services in Montreal
iOS App Development Services in Montreal
Laravel Development Services in Montreal
Drupal Development Services in Montreal
Magento Development Services in Montreal

Vancouver

Magento Development Services in Vancouver
iOS App Development Services in Vancouver
Drupal Development Services in Vancouver
WordPress Development Services in Vancouver
Laravel Development Services in Vancouver

New York

WordPress Development Services in New York
Laravel Development Services in New York
iOS App Development Services in New York
Drupal Development Services in New York
Magento Development Services in New York

Need a new Project?

Dare us to shape and boost your idea(s)!

Start a Project

(416) 243-2431

Contact

(416) 243-2431

contact@optasy.com

Toronto Downtown

First Canadian Place,
100 King St. W. Suite 5700, Toronto

Toronto West

2275 Upper Middle
Rd. E, Suite 101
Toronto

New York

1177 Avenue of the
Americas, 5th Floor,
New York

Newsletter

Get the latest OPTASY news, tips and how-to’s on the go, right in your inbox!
OPTASY
clutch
Pantheon Premier Partner
  • Drupal 8
  • Services
  • Contact Us
  • Partners

  • Drupal
  • Google
  • Magento
  • Shopify
  • Wordpress
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Drupal
  • Cities
  • Support

© 2023 All Rights Reserved. Built with Drupal