How To Optimize The Accessibility Of Your Startup’s Website

You’ve done it: you’ve built an appealing website and it’s generating hits on a global scale. But your number of site visitors always has plenty of room for growth, and you may be missing out on a huge target area for potential visitors. In today’s world, 54% of all adults living with a disability use the Internet on a regular basis, but not all websites are designed to accommodate their needs.

What this means is that your startup’s website may be obsolete and basically ineffective if it does not appeal to all audiences. The World Health Organization suggests that nearly 15% of the world’s population have some type of disability, making accessibility a crucial characteristic of any successful and widely used website. By making essential tweaks to guarantee optimal website accessibility, startups can ensure that their website is user-friendly, no matter the age or ability of the site visitor. This way, startups can be aware of diversity and improve their relationship with clients by taking all types of needs into consideration.

Updating Multimedia

The definition of accessibility means having the ability to obtain, use, or understand something easily. On a website, the multimedia features can oftentimes lead to frustration for people with disabilities, like a visitor who is colorblind. People with visual and hearing impairments, autism, or cognitive disabilities and disorders may not be able to reach the information they seek if confronted by multimedia that is incomprehensible or confusing.

This is why it is vital for startups to update the multimedia in a way that appeals to people with disabilities. Including sign language interpretations, transcription or subtitles, and transcriptions of sound effects is one way to make video media more accessible. The multimedia features should incorporate clear links on a page design that is clearly labeled. Web designers should also consider avoiding any audio and video that is particularly abrasive or off-putting for users.

Changing Your Written Content

Besides revamping the site’s multimedia, a website that is optimally accessible will also reflect the needs of disabled users in the written content. Including informative written content that is timely and readable is crucial to a website’s relevance and to improving the startup’s visibility. But this content will not be worthwhile if it confuses users and complicates the site’s overall layout and design.

When writing content for the website, avoid any wordplay, slang, idiomatic phrases, and impractical synonyms that may divert attention from the most basic uses of language. When writing for audiences with disabilities or from international backgrounds, the content should always be as clear and straightforward as possible. Use headings and subheadings for precision, and keep sentences and paragraphs short. Bulleted lists, summaries, and explanatory definitions can also be of use.

Modifying your startup’s website to embrace visitors who have a disability will ultimately make the site easier to navigate for every potential client. By focusing on how a user may interact with the site and how they will respond to its multimedia or written content, website designers can aim for a more efficient and successful model with users from all backgrounds in mind.

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