Developing an accessible website should be your business’s top priority. Accessibility refers to the ease with which a disabled person can access your website, and can use it — just like any other person without these limitations. The term, accessibility is an essential part of the design that you can’t afford to ignore. Here are the web accessibility solutions and how the company accessiBe stands out from the crowd — by making websites accessible — on autopilot.
In most parts of the world (e.g., USA), you are legally bound to have an accessible website according to ADA and Section 508 of the Rehab Act. But, accessibility is much more than a legal concern.
Part of a complete UX website design.
Accessibility is an essential part of UX and website design. W3C has resources, strategies, and checklists to make web accessibility available to everyone — but especially those with disabilities.
Businesses are now understanding the importance of web accessibility, and they have started focusing, using a deeper-dive recognition of what issues surround correcting and maintaining optimal accessibility.
accessiBe
accessiBe has simplified and automated the path to an accessibility website. Using artificial intelligence to scan and analyze your website, this company can perform the needed changes on your site and have your site fully “accessible” in under 48 hours.
accessiBe, then, fixes the accessibility issues automatically saving you time and resources.
The developments from the accessiBe web solutions were recently awarded #1 Product of the Week at ProductHunt. However, accessiBe isn’t the only accessibility solution available on the market. There are two other types of solutions including accessibility services and accessibility plugins.
Let’s dig deep and see what’s the best way to make your website accessible.
1. Accessibility Services
Web accessibility services are comprehensive and project-based services that give a detailed action plan that’s developed and implemented for the accessibility features. The company, User1st, for example, is one of the leading accessibility service providers that creates a detailed plan for your website and will show you what needs to be fixed on your site to make your website fit the accessibility criteria.
With User1st, you get a detailed plan with suggestions and recommendations on what to do. You then take the recommendations and can implement the changes yourself, or use their managed remediation services for fixing the errors.
The problem with any accessibility services is that the process to be performed on your site has to be done manually. You’ll have to fix the accessibility issues manually in-house or get help from the service provider. In each of these cases, the accessibility will be accomplished, manually, at the code and design level.
The process usually turns out to be very time-consuming, especially for large websites. The accessibility service is expensive. The price ranges between $5000 to $50K per year and there can be maintenance and update charges.
If you add new pages to your site and provide content regularly, you’ll also want regular maintenance performed. All of this is a continuous process and becomes quite expensive as you maintain the ongoing procedures.
2. Accessibility Plugins
Accessibility plugins and widgets (e.g. WP Accessibility) are a low-cost alternative to accessibility services. You’ll have to install the plugin which will fix most of the basic accessibility issues with its initial scan. Generally, you get what you pay for, and since these plugins are free you basically get what you pay for. That’s not to say they don’t work, they do — you just cannot expect a lot from the quality.
More importantly, though, the current free accessibility plugins don’t make your website ADA and WCAG compliant — and you’ll want to be compliant. You want your website to be fully accessible, and after the expense and work to upgrade your plan, if your plugins and widgets aren’t helping to guarantee your ADA and WCAG compliance — it can be rather disappointing.
The accessiBe Difference
Finally, a simple yet effective alternative to accessibility services and plugins uses artificial intelligence to scan your website and fix and clear up all accessibility issues. Your website is then on complete autopilot from then on. You can breathe a sigh of relief.
accessiBe takes several hours to scan your website — not days, not months — but within hours you will find your website accessibility issues completed and updated. accessiBe continues to scan your site every 24 hours to fix and update errors that may result, due to any website changes.
All of the scanning, updates, and fixes are applied automatically to your site. Best of all, accessiBe ensures your site is within WCAG compliance guidelines, as well as the ADA and Section 508 requirements.
You want your site to have a competent, worldwide compliance solution that ensures your website complies with global legislation — and accessiBe will do all that for you with ease. The best part: It is one of the most cost-effective yet reliable software solutions on the market.
Costs
The cost for the advanced web accessibility technology is $490 a year with no setup costs, zero additional costs, and no hidden maintenance costs. accessiBe powers over 55K websites and is mainly appreciated for its ease-of-use and automation.
Funding
accessiBe raised $12 million in funding and is moving in a forward trajectory to have all website accessibility on full autopilot.
Conclusion
It is painfully sad that in order for individuals with disabilities to get the help they need — countries, globally, have to enact legislation to force businesses to comply. Thankfully, accessiBe has developed superior software, complete with AI, working to make sure that all people can have a way to learn and work across the internet.
Of course, you can go with plugins and widgets that may do more harm than good, or that might just aggravate you and your customers as they try to use your site. And some of these plugins won’t make you compliant.
What accessibility solution will you choose for your website? Accessibility services can cost some serious bucks and come with hefty maintenance costs. You want your site to be for everyone — but especially those who want and need your site most — those with disabilities.
accessiBe will provide you with a ready-to-use accessibility solution that you can try and explore for free. Add a simple JS code on your website and forget about accessibility and litigation — forever.
Image Credit: Judita Tamošiūnaitė; Pexels