Every year, a compendium of statistical surveys regarding the state of web development is carried out. The results are compiled into an eye-opening summary that includes technology, demographics, trends, and even behavioral analysis of users around the web.
One of the most interesting statistics, which unfortunately is mostly either ignored or merely analyzed by the industry, is the “State of Disability” report, which is an overview of the most common user profiles with some form of disability. The results of last year’s survey? Over 19% of the thousands of users that participated in it reported they had varying levels of disability.
Taking into account the fact that this is a limited measurement and that, according to the WHO, over 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability or impairment, we need to drive accessibility on the web as much as we do for our unimpaired users and provide a safe, functional, and equal space regardless of the user.
We’re moving forward, but not nearly fast enough
There are, thankfully, several initiatives that have been created to make the web equal and with standards for every user. The W3C organization (along with top partners around the world) founded the Web Accessibility Initiative, a comprehensive and thorough guide on how web development should be tackled from the get-go. This guide takes best practices and standards into account in order to provide an accessible experience for every user.
The initiative includes the standardization of web development guidelines. These reward SEO AND also are already part of the best practices for web development in current times. Thus, creating an accessible website inherently must become normalized, with the added benefit of expanding your user base to include this very often marginalized demographic.
Making it right
Web accessibility is covered from a dev standpoint if these recommendations are taken into account. So, we must now do our part and make this right. One of the many ways we could implement these best practices into our projects and clients is by performing accessibility benchmarks in the early stages of information gathering and technical requirement documentation of new projects. By including this step, we can lock in the request for a fully accessible project from the very beginning, making the web a safer, equal space, one project at a time.
Are you looking to make your site more inclusive? Making Science has got you covered! We can perform site audits and provide recommendations about where and how to get started.
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