508 Compliance Services: Creating Experiences That are Accessible to All

The World Health Organization reports that over 1 billion people, which corresponds to 15% of the world’s total population are expected to experience some or other form of disability. So, have you wondered how people with dyslexia or vision loss access PDFs or surf through websites either to make a purchase, order food and so on? This is what 508 accessibility compliance takes care of!

Once sixty-plus, an individual might be differently abled, leading to slowed responses. This is because the brain and nervous system undergo natural changes as people age where senses are more likely to lose sharpness, and visual acuity and peripheral vision begin to decline. Apart from this, hearing loss is also possible. Therefore, an aged person’s interaction experience with a bank, utility, or store—whether online or offline will be quite different from before.

Think of how easy it would be for you to use a computer, but without a screen, mouse, or audio. Such is the kind of challenge people with special needs face in accessing PDFs, websites, and computer-based applications.

Understanding Disability & Accessibility

Disability, in simple terms, is a mental or physical condition that limits an individual’s senses, movements, or activities. This might be due to prolonged illness, by birth, or through accidents. People with special needs are not only braille readers, wheelchair users, or sign language practitioners. They can also have invisible disabilities such as dyslexia, or learning/cognitive disability. On the other hand, accessibility refers to the design of products, services, devices, or environments for people who experience disabilities.

Section 508 Accessibility at Glance

This accessibility compliance aims to prohibit any kind of discrimination against people with disabilities. It requires federal agencies and their partners to make their electronic and information technology accessible to everyone alike. Even if you do not work with a federal agency, ensuring that your PDFs and websites are 508 compliant is a good practice. Your goal must be to provide equal access to documents, websites, and other computer-based applications. After all, a larger audience is always a good thing and might help stakeholders to earn extra brownie points.

Benefits of Digital Accessibility

Currently, several documents, websites, and digital platforms are inaccessible, which makes them difficult or impossible for people with disabilities—including visual, physical, auditory, speech, cognitive, or neurological. As people with disabilities make up the world’s largest minority, remediating existing documents and websites as well as designing new ones from an accessibility-first standpoint benefits all stakeholders. It is because accessible designs typically deliver a better user experience.

Adhering to section 508 compliance offers numerous benefits to businesses as listed here:

• Obligatory Compliance

Maintaining an inaccessible website doesn’t simply cut you off from the potential visitor base, but can lead to other serious consequences. And one of the most financially-devastating implications is the risk of getting sued.

The likes of Nike, Domino, Beyonce, Winn Dixie, and other such brands had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their websites fixed after being sued. This doesn’t include the cost of payouts, legal representation, or loss of revenue from upset members of the public. And for any company, such costs and the bad press aren’t worth it.

• Brand Building

Branding is vital for business success. It is the good branding that brings us back to the same companies repeatedly, doesn’t matter if they are the cheapest options or not. Businesses that go the extra mile to reach enhanced accessibility standards show their audience that they care about people and not just profits. 

Besides, a commitment to the audience vouches a lot about the brand and the values you hold as a company. This also helps in strengthening the relationship with customers.

• More Customers

You’ll be missing huge opportunities if you do not tap into the 1-billion-strong market of people with disabilities that have $1.2 trillion in annual disposable income (Source: Forrester). Having documents and websites that can be accessed as well as experienced by all increases a business’s potential target audience.

With keyboard-accessible pages, alt text, transcriptions, captions, and other such alterations, your websites and documents become open to those audiences. If someone can’t access your document to get the information, or surf through the website, they can’t make a purchase. So, from a business standpoint, being 508 compliant means more potential profit.

• Improved SEO

Businesses want their documents and websites to be search engine optimized as it helps in driving traffic. So, you’ll be glad to know that making your website 508 compliant can also boost your SEO, which is a double win.

This is because compliance and SEO practices overlap while remediating websites and documents. It supports SEO-friendly components such as transcripts of videos and audio, alt text for images, proper heading tags, as well as consistent and predictable structures. The more descriptive and accurate an alt text is, the better it will work for search engines and screen readers.

Additionally, transcripts provide search engines with information to scroll. This implies that they have more keywords to work with. The more precise headings are, the better it is for disabled people and search engines.

So, why wouldn’t you put in the extra effort when you know that accessibility is not only good for your bottom line, but also helps drive traffic?

Bottom Line

Compliance isn’t a simple process, but with the help of professional website and document remediation services, businesses can reach enhanced accessibility standards. The experts take care of the entire pipeline—from adding appropriate alt-text to images, and meeting color-contrast requirements, to ensuring correct reading order. Therefore, you need to begin by finding the right service provider and you’ll realize that the investment is worth it.

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