Websites are a staple in society these days. They have become an essential resource for many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, social interaction, and more. The Web is used not only for receiving information, but also for providing information and interacting with society. Therefore, it is essential that the Web or web designs be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. Indeed, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes Web accessibility as a basic human right.
While accessibility focuses on people with disabilities, it also benefits older users, mobile phone users, and other individuals, as well as organizations. Older users with age-related accessibility needs are an increasingly important customer base for most organizations, as the percentage of older users is increasing significantly. Organizations with accessible websites benefit from search engine optimization (SEO), reduced legal risk, demonstration of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and increased customer loyalty. The best way to achieve you needs for your business is by looking into Professional Web Design. That will take all the guess work out of building your Internet Presence as well as saving your valuable time.
Organizations can realize substantial return on investment (ROI) that offset any costs of implementing Web accessibility. In order to be willing to make the initial investment, many organizations need to understand the social, technical, and financial benefits of Web accessibility, and the expected returns. The justification to commit resources to a project is often called a "business case". Business cases usually document an analysis of a project's value in meeting the organization's objectives, the cost-benefit analysis, and the expected outcomes.
Social Factors addresses the role of Web accessibility in providing equal opportunity for people with disabilities; the overlap with digital divide issues; and benefits to people without disabilities, including older people, people with low literacy and people not fluent in the language, people with low bandwidth connections to the Internet, people using older technologies, and new and infrequent web users.
Technical Factors
addresses interoperability, quality, reducing site development and maintenance
time, reducing server load, enabling content on different configurations, and
being prepared for advanced web technologies.
Financial Factors
addresses the financial benefits of increased website use, for example, from
engine optimization (SEO); direct cost savings; considerations for initial
costs and on-going costs; and ways to decrease costs.
An
organization's efforts to make its website accessible often have a financial
impact, and can result in positive return on investment and cost efficiencies.
Financial costs and benefits in developing accessible websites apply
differently to specific organizations and situations. For example, costs
related to Web accessibility are often lower when building a new site than when
fixing an existing site, and sometimes complex sites are less costly to fix
than simple sites because they use templates and content management systems
(CMS).
Legal and Policy Factors
addresses requirements for Web accessibility from governments and other
organizations in the form of laws, policies, regulations, standards,
guidelines, directives, communications, orders, or other types of documents.
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