Watch the video demo of AccessXL, or scroll down to read the script.
Build a Ramp to Your Website with AccessXL
We’re all looking for ways to improve the bottom line: revenue, customer acquisition, traffic, engagement, but we’re focusing on the wrong things.
Marketing is essentially content, but when we produce copy and content, our primary goal is efficiency. We’re trying to produce content at scale. We’re aiming for speed of production, creating once and distributing everywhere, efficiency of workflow.
When it comes to optimization, we optimize for search and conversion. But what about accessibility? You’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table by not optimizing for accessibility.
The problem is, if something doesn’t touch us personally, we aren’t aware of the need.
Awareness is the key.
Did you know there are a billion people worldwide who have a disability and many can’t access your content if you don’t optimize it for accessibility?
90% of websites are inaccessible to people who use assistive technologies on the Web. And many people, people you know and work with, have hidden disabilities like dyslexia, ADHD, and color blindness, that make web content hard to consume.
Accessibility is required by law.
The ADA defines inaccessible websites as discrimination. The goal is for all websites to be accessible to all people.
Over the last 10 years, there has been a 320% increase in accessibility cases. And in 2022, more than 12,000 ADA-related digital access lawsuits were filed in the US, costing businesses an estimated $6.625 billion.
All industries and all sizes of businesses have been impacted: food chains, grocery stores, e-commerce, media, universities, governments, professional services, and destinations are all feeling the impact of lawsuits for accessibility.
Overwhelm isn’t an excuse.
It can feel overwhelming to think about the cost in time, resources, and money to change your workflows about training your team. You have to wonder, Is it worth it?
The short answer is yes, it is worth it, and it’s the right thing to do.
Fortunately, there is a quick, easy, and powerful solution that can get you started on web accessibility, and that’s AccessXL.
This really is your most powerful solution because it adds an additional layer of accessibility for all users.
It’s also easy and quick to install on your website. We can actually get it on your website in as little as an hour.
The widget builds a ramp to your website. AccessXL is an overlay software that lets your visitors customize the screen for their particular needs. It’s compliant with WCAG 2.1 requirements, and it can improve your website’s ADA compliance.
Let’s take a quick look at the widget.
As you see, the blue button is on the right-hand side of our website. I could have placed it in a few other locations, but I like this location because works well on phones and on desktops.
All a user has to do is click the button, and they can adjust anything they want in here.
They can turn on collections of features based on the disability they struggle with: epilepsy, visually impaired, cognitive disability, ADHD-friendly, blindness. They can also choose individual features based on their specific needs.
So, for instance, if they need the cursor to be a different color, they can do that. If they need text-to-speech, they can highlight that. They can do a reading mask to help guide their attention.
We can turn each of these off as well.
Visitors can magnify text, change the font, and change colors as you’ll see down here. It all depends on what the disability is, what your issues are.
But this empowers your visitors to get the experience they need for your website.
It’s good for your users and good for business.
People with disabilities have a spending power of $6 trillion. If you’re one of the 10% with an accessible website, you win this valuable market.
As a bonus, accessibility gives you a competitive edge. It can improve your SEO, giving you more traffic and engagement and potentially more conversions.
And of course, compliance can reduce your risk of ADA related digital access lawsuits.
It’s time to take action.
So how do you get started making your website more accessible?
Step one, you’ll need an AccessXL license for each of your websites. You can contact us to help you make the purchase and/or put it on your website.
Then you’re ready for step two and three, which are really about building out an accessibility program for your organization. Begin by optimizing your existing content and get the training and consulting your team needs to be able to produce accessible content into the future.