You may have heard of the ADA Requirements for website developers, but what are they and why do they matter? The ADA requirements are intended to ensure websites are accessible to those with disabilities, but they have far more value than just that. Here are some other reasons you should make your site ADA compliant:
1 – Best Practices
ADA requirements for website design encourage you to think about best practices and will make your website better overall.
2 – More Reach
Being ADA Compliant increases your potential reach. There are almost 50 million people in the US with disabilities and designing for them helps them access your services.
3 – Better SEO
Many parts of ADA compliance are good SEO practices and following them could make your website more accessible in the search engines.
4 – Improve Your Reputation
Being disability-aware will improve your brand’s reputation. If you have a sleek, easy to use website that will generate goodwill with a lot of customers, not just those who need to care about ADA specifically.
5 – It’s a Legal Requirement
Failure to comply with ADA requirements could put you at risk of getting sued. While this tends to happen with bigger websites, technically, all new/recently updated pages are required to be compliant with the ADA standards. Can you afford to take that risk?
6 – Look Like a Leader
Even though ADA compliance is a legal requirement, many companies are still failing to update their pages. If you update yours, you will look like a future-focused brand and a true market leader.
7 – Save Money
Designing a website that is accessible from the ground up is good long-term thinking and could save you a lot of money since it means that you won’t need to worry about redesigning it later on down the road.
8 – Improve Usability
Many ADA best-practices are focused on usability, and if you follow them that means your website will be easier for all of your customers to use.
9 – Build Loyalty
You can build a loyal following of users who are passionate about accessibility. Many people with disabilities are active in their community and share positive experiences with others with shared interests.
10 – Show You Care
Following the ADA compliance standards shows that you care about your customers and want to help them and include them.
The ADA requirements for website development are clearly laid out and building a website that follows them is something that should be important for every business owner. If you already have a website, then be sure to have it audited to ensure that it meets the latest standards. If you are getting a website built today, or want an old one update, use ADA as a framework for a design that is appealing, flexible, easy to use, and that will rank well in the search engines. A little planning will go a long way for your brand.
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