How accessible are your digital assets to those who need them?
For digital assets to be truly accessible, the owners must not entertain ableism. Whether for work purposes or public viewing, there are various methods out there that you can use to make it easier for anyone with whom you want to share your assets. Some of the most effective ones are enumerated below. Read on!
- Understand Universal Design
Also known as inclusive design, a universal design refers to one that’s accessible, as well as easy to understand and use that anyone can take advantage of regardless of age, gender, preferences, ability, or disability.
The goal is to design such environments to meet the needs of people from different walks of life. By answering the call of necessity, new products, spaces, and services come into fruition for the benefit and enjoyment of all.
One way to utilize universal design is by developing electronics and applications that make them easier to use, set up, modify, and upgrade.
- Use File Accessibility Services
Outsourcing digital management services is also another beneficial way to make your digital assets accessible to everyone if you need assistance. Accessibility is a law, but it’s also your responsibility as a business. These companies offer various services to help you manage crucial digital information.
By using their services, companies can simplify document storage, hasten PDF accessibility, and work on completing financial reports online in a timely manner. Organizations in the government and education sectors can render services for people with disabilities.
Hospitality services will also be able to provide better services to the disabled through customizable itineraries fit for them. Digital brochures and other marketing tools will also be readily available for businesses that rely on visuals, such as real estate.
File accessibility services make these all possible by enriching content with textual content, graphics, forms, and other interactive elements that are easier to view, use, and navigate.
- Add Alt Text To Media
Alt text is a vital element that makes accessibility easier for those with disabilities. It’s an element you should take advantage of when designing a business website. Digital assets, such as images or graphics and videos with accurate and comprehensive alternative text, offer an option that’ll be read by screen readers that those who are visually impaired use. Having it in the vast sea of HTML coding is undoubtedly better.
You can require that all media elements on your website, including audio, must have an alternative text. It also helps users with devices that can’t load graphics properly because of slow Internet connections.
Alt text also helps improve the visibility of the digital assets when you provide descriptions or context. Search engine crawlers can index the elements correctly. It also works with digital documents, such as PDF files, and will rank higher in the search engine results. Even the images on your content alone can attract organic traffic from various search engines when there are better search rankings.
- Optimize Website For Mobile Viewing
First, you must understand the specific difference between mobile-friendly and optimized to learn different optimization strategies.
A mobile-friendly website can be displayed on smaller screens, but that alone doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be the same when displayed on touchscreen tablets. Mobile-friendly websites also have email addresses and text-based phone numbers that users can activate to make direct email messages or calls through their mobile devices. It’s also possible with image rotators and slideshows.
Mobile optimization goes a step further because it ensures that your website functions work correctly on different mobile devices. When a website is optimized, it reformats itself. It displays itself better in various screen sizes and makes itself easier to navigate as its content becomes more viewable and interactive if it needs to be. Mobile devices can also make navigation buttons appear larger, as well as the images fit the screen size the best way possible.
To optimize your website, you can do the following:
- Minimize the number of HTTP requests
- Create mobile-first code
- Make use of content-delivery network (CDN)
- Implement the compression of GZip
- Choose the best hosting plan
- Optimize Social Media Content
Most organizations will tend to their brand websites first, but the rewards can be great if you follow it with your social media content. But, far from how you can optimize websites, social media optimization takes a different route because it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll have to follow guidelines set by external companies since there are limited functionalities.
For those who also engage their customers by following them on social media, here are ways you can make your platform accessible to everyone:
- Make use of hashtags that are accessible by capitalizing the first letters of each word. It allows screen readers to read each word individually, making it easier for visually-challenged users.
- Use subtitles or captions on your videos in appropriate areas or where it’s possible. It allows users to view the videos without sound.
- Avoid overusing emojis, especially because screen readers will read them.
- Check for new updates on accessibility features to keep your content updated.
In Conclusion
Accessibility allows inclusivity from which your business can also benefit. When you keep your digital content accessible to everyone, the more you can gain traffic for your website. And, not only are you complying with the law, but those with disabilities can get information and enjoy the content to keep their lives enriched.
