How To Create An Accessible Mobile Environment?
The tech usage numbers continue to grow at an exponential rate. As of February 2021, 85% of US adults are mobile phone users. Additionally, 1-in-5 US adults are living with some sort of disability. This spike in tech usage has unfortunately created an accessibility gap for millions of Americans. The growing potential of the mobile eco-system is helpful for all sizes of businesses, regardless of industry. Just like everybody else, the disabled population has access to mobile internet, this offers an amazing opportunity to leverage mobile marketing tools and drastically expand your market reach. After witnessing the recent digital adoption of how business is conducted, post-COVID, businesses can’t afford to ignore mobile ADA compliance.Why you should pay attention to disabled mobile users?People use mobiles primarily for ease of access. It makes sense to accommodate their accessibility needs and benefit from the sheer power and reach of mobile marketing. Online shopping and mobile usage have increased significantly. Users expect a seamless experience, in that event, why would a smart marketer limit the total number of prospects due to an inaccessible design? Increasing the market share through mobile accessibility is the next big thing. Developing mobile websites that are ADA compliant is helpful in many ways:
• Widen your reach
Disabled people face certain kinds of challenges in using a mobile phone. Form filling, screen reading and varied other activities pose a whole new level of challenge for those who are visually impaired or dealing with a neurological disability. When they are not able to access the content on a mobile website with ease, your chances to generate and convert leads are greatly reduced.To overcome non-accessible barriers, businesses must recognize the significance of mobile accessibility and widen their reach to a larger segment of the target audience.
• Legal compliance
The ADA laws protect the civil rights of disabled people and mandates that websites, apps and any online content even on mobile phones or tablets should be accessible to everyone. Failure to do that can result in costly legal repercussions.Protecting your business against lawsuits is important, so it is best to take timely, proactive actions and cover the accommodation requirements for the disabled.
• Build accountability
In the age of fierce competition, brands like Amazon, Apple and Google are focusing on integrated accessibility solutions to improve their accountability rankings. The act of being a responsible entity enhances brand awareness among the targeted audience. To put it simply, conforming to the website accessibility ADA standards act as a reputation building tool. Your business gets a competitive edge by identifying and shortening the gap between mobile accessibility standards.
• Boost profitability
Nothing can stop a responsible, popular and legally compliant brand from reaping huge profits. Keeping the challenges of disabled people in mind will enhance the number of customers with higher satisfaction levels. Happy audiences lead to increased sale revenues and fruitful strategies to boost profit volumes.
Barriers in mobile accessibility
Inaccessibility claims can affect the growth objectives of a business. The best-practice approach toward a safe and efficient business organization can be attained by understanding the barriers to accessing the content on smartphones.
- It becomes a challenge when a disabled person is forced to try and input text to access the content.Sometimes scrolling becomes troublesome too. Scrolling on unfamiliar sites should only be restricted to one direction to avoid such confusion.
- Your choices of background images can also create accessibility challenges. Sometimes the text on the forefront becomes hard to read due to high contrast colors or images in the background.
- HD images can make your website look polished and professional, but they can eat up all the bandwidth and make the slow-loading website a little bit frustrating for mobile users.
- The features that work fine on the desktop versions often act weirdly on different mobile browsers. Thus, identifying the pitfalls becomes important across mobile environments.
How to attain mobile accessibility compliance?
Last year, 73% of ecommerce sales were made on mobile devices. The latest reports on the growth of ecommerce reveal that mobile accessibility should be a top priority for businesses. With the quirks of 5G technology, mobile is the center of all business operations. Integration of accessible features helps in reaping the above mentioned benefits.The process starts by implementing a series of tests using an ADA Website Compliance Checker. There are many software options available that can be used to make a website accessible on a mobile device. Using these testing tools, one can evaluate whether or not the digital presence is mobile optimized. Regardless of the operating systems used on a mobile device, the latest and most sophisticated suite of evaluation tools are useful to test the assistive features of a mobile website.However, it is unfortunately not that simple. There are a lot more barriers to mobile accessibility than just assistive technology. The screens are smaller than desktops, which leads to endless challenges for the disabled population. For an accessible experience, testing the features through a set of software is not sufficient. A detailed examination and a thorough analysis are required to ensure a wider segment of the target audience can access your mobile environment. The only way such expertise is attained is by conducting an ADA compliance manual audit. Running the code through a software program will only give you around a 30% accuracy rate – not nearly enough to protect your business against expensive lawsuits. Besides, when your competitors are leaving no stone unturned to grab the attention of the potential customers in a mobile environment, how could you afford to run a website code with just 30% accessibility features? Therefore, manual audits have become necessary for business success and for avoiding legal repercussions. Accessibility specialists can conduct precise testing of the entire site, deep at the code level, and provide detailed reports with solutions on how to specifically overcome the failure points.
How can we help?
The general guidance provided for web based technology is also applicable to mobile websites. Needless to say, the mobile environment is getting bigger and better. When most of your potential customers are searching for your products online, isn’t it important to understand the applicability of WCAG 2.1? Following the technical requirements of WCAG feels a bit overwhelming, but not when you are partnered with digital accessibility specialists. Thousands of brands have shown faith in our team of experts and our accessibility consultations and manual audits. We combine the results of software testing and manual audits to integrate the accessibility solutions according to the latest principles, guidelines and success criteria of WCAG 2.1. Test your website using our free accessibility testing tools or contact our experts for creating an ADA compliant mobile environment.
The tech usage numbers continue to grow at an exponential rate. As of February 2021, 85% of US adults are mobile phone users. Additionally, 1-in-5 US adults are living with some sort of disability. This spike in tech usage has unfortunately created an accessibility gap for millions of Americans. The growing potential of the mobile eco-system is helpful for all sizes of businesses, regardless of industry. Just like everybody else, the disabled population has access to mobile internet, this offers an amazing opportunity to leverage mobile marketing tools and drastically expand your market reach. After witnessing the recent digital adoption of how business is conducted, post-COVID, businesses can’t afford to ignore mobile ADA compliance.Why you should pay attention to disabled mobile users?People use mobiles primarily for ease of access. It makes sense to accommodate their accessibility needs and benefit from the sheer power and reach of mobile marketing. Online shopping and mobile usage have increased significantly. Users expect a seamless experience, in that event, why would a smart marketer limit the total number of prospects due to an inaccessible design? Increasing the market share through mobile accessibility is the next big thing. Developing mobile websites that are ADA compliant is helpful in many ways:
• Widen your reach
Disabled people face certain kinds of challenges in using a mobile phone. Form filling, screen reading and varied other activities pose a whole new level of challenge for those who are visually impaired or dealing with a neurological disability. When they are not able to access the content on a mobile website with ease, your chances to generate and convert leads are greatly reduced.To overcome non-accessible barriers, businesses must recognize the significance of mobile accessibility and widen their reach to a larger segment of the target audience.
• Legal compliance
The ADA laws protect the civil rights of disabled people and mandates that websites, apps and any online content even on mobile phones or tablets should be accessible to everyone. Failure to do that can result in costly legal repercussions.Protecting your business against lawsuits is important, so it is best to take timely, proactive actions and cover the accommodation requirements for the disabled.
• Build accountability
In the age of fierce competition, brands like Amazon, Apple and Google are focusing on integrated accessibility solutions to improve their accountability rankings. The act of being a responsible entity enhances brand awareness among the targeted audience. To put it simply, conforming to the website accessibility ADA standards act as a reputation building tool. Your business gets a competitive edge by identifying and shortening the gap between mobile accessibility standards.
• Boost profitability
Nothing can stop a responsible, popular and legally compliant brand from reaping huge profits. Keeping the challenges of disabled people in mind will enhance the number of customers with higher satisfaction levels. Happy audiences lead to increased sale revenues and fruitful strategies to boost profit volumes.
Barriers in mobile accessibility
Inaccessibility claims can affect the growth objectives of a business. The best-practice approach toward a safe and efficient business organization can be attained by understanding the barriers to accessing the content on smartphones.
- It becomes a challenge when a disabled person is forced to try and input text to access the content.Sometimes scrolling becomes troublesome too. Scrolling on unfamiliar sites should only be restricted to one direction to avoid such confusion.
- Your choices of background images can also create accessibility challenges. Sometimes the text on the forefront becomes hard to read due to high contrast colors or images in the background.
- HD images can make your website look polished and professional, but they can eat up all the bandwidth and make the slow-loading website a little bit frustrating for mobile users.
- The features that work fine on the desktop versions often act weirdly on different mobile browsers. Thus, identifying the pitfalls becomes important across mobile environments.
How to attain mobile accessibility compliance?
Last year, 73% of ecommerce sales were made on mobile devices. The latest reports on the growth of ecommerce reveal that mobile accessibility should be a top priority for businesses. With the quirks of 5G technology, mobile is the center of all business operations. Integration of accessible features helps in reaping the above mentioned benefits.The process starts by implementing a series of tests using an ADA Website Compliance Checker. There are many software options available that can be used to make a website accessible on a mobile device. Using these testing tools, one can evaluate whether or not the digital presence is mobile optimized. Regardless of the operating systems used on a mobile device, the latest and most sophisticated suite of evaluation tools are useful to test the assistive features of a mobile website.However, it is unfortunately not that simple. There are a lot more barriers to mobile accessibility than just assistive technology. The screens are smaller than desktops, which leads to endless challenges for the disabled population. For an accessible experience, testing the features through a set of software is not sufficient. A detailed examination and a thorough analysis are required to ensure a wider segment of the target audience can access your mobile environment. The only way such expertise is attained is by conducting an ADA compliance manual audit. Running the code through a software program will only give you around a 30% accuracy rate – not nearly enough to protect your business against expensive lawsuits. Besides, when your competitors are leaving no stone unturned to grab the attention of the potential customers in a mobile environment, how could you afford to run a website code with just 30% accessibility features? Therefore, manual audits have become necessary for business success and for avoiding legal repercussions. Accessibility specialists can conduct precise testing of the entire site, deep at the code level, and provide detailed reports with solutions on how to specifically overcome the failure points.
How can we help?
The general guidance provided for web based technology is also applicable to mobile websites. Needless to say, the mobile environment is getting bigger and better. When most of your potential customers are searching for your products online, isn’t it important to understand the applicability of WCAG 2.1? Following the technical requirements of WCAG feels a bit overwhelming, but not when you are partnered with digital accessibility specialists. Thousands of brands have shown faith in our team of experts and our accessibility consultations and manual audits. We combine the results of software testing and manual audits to integrate the accessibility solutions according to the latest principles, guidelines and success criteria of WCAG 2.1. Test your website using our free accessibility testing tools or contact our experts for creating an ADA compliant mobile environment.
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