Inclusivity is a trending topic in 2023, but not limited to inclusivity amongst people. Instead, everything about your brand must be inclusive, from your employees to products, websites, and more. This is where a website accessibility audit ensures that your website is inclusive for everyone.
If you want to attract more visitors to your website, we recommend you conduct an audit. There are tools for it, and you can do it yourself or hire the best web development agency in Toronto; it is up to you. Our development experts have developed a comprehensive guide to run such an audit with the right tools.
Website Accessibility Audits Explained
First, you must understand what a web accessibility audit is to run one properly. These audits are evaluations of the digital products and services your business offers. The primary aim of such an audit is to ensure that these products are accessible to users with disabilities and require accommodation.
An audit will allow you to highlight where you might face accessibility roadblocks. Then, you can decide what you have to do to improve the accessibility of your website.
Importance Of Running A Website Accessibility Audit
As a business, you must be mindful of the different audiences that can access your products and services. According to WHO, one out of six people have a serious disability and use the internet to access the digital world. So, you want to cater to this audience and provide an inclusive experience for everyone.
Here are the top reasons website accessibility audit is important for your business:
Serve Everyone
As we have stated before, a lot of people throughout the world have a disability. When you audit your website and digital products, you can improve this accessibility to cater to more people. Any brand that wants more people to do business with them can opt for online audits on their website.
You can also check the statistics in your region about people with disabilities. Then, you can decide whether doing this audit is important for your website and if you will get the returns you require.
Better SEO
Keep in mind that an accessibility audit is not only important for reaching people with disabilities but also for improving your SEO. That is because, after an accessibility audit, search engine crawlers more easily understand and read the content you have posted on your site. If you want to rank well on search engines, an accessibility audit can help with SEO efforts.
Some elements accessible websites have include the following:
- Title tags
- Headings
- Alt tags
- Meta descriptions
- And more
All of these things help the search engines understand how relevant the content is and its purpose. You can also use keyword-rich content for your accessibility audits, such as video captions, transcripts, and more, to improve your SEO efforts.
Compliance With Legal Regulations
The digital world is complex, and you have to follow many privacy and other laws. For example, Europe has GDPR laws with comprehensive privacy laws for marketing and other things you must remember. If you don’t follow these laws, you will be at risk of a lawsuit.
Any business that wants to enhance the user experience of its customers and lower these risks can utilize website accessibility audits for this purpose. If you have such laws in your country, go through them in detail and comply with them best.
Type Of Audits You Can Run
Website accessibility audits are an umbrella term for various audits you can run. Mainly, there are two types of accessibility audits you can run for your website, which include the following:
Automated Audits
As the name suggests, these types of web accessibility audits are automated. You use a tool or service to plug in your organization’s information. Then, it automatically scans your website for potential risks.
Remember that some of these automated audit are not too comprehensive. We recommend conducting a manual audit after this so you know you have completed a full audit. A hybrid audit with both types is the best option for any brand conducting a thorough web accessibility audit.
Manual Audits
If you want to reap the best benefits of website accessibility, we recommend conducting a manual audit for your business. You can use this audit to conduct accessibility assessment for the following:
- Screen readers
- Keyboards
- And other devices
Such audits usually require a specialist as you might not have the expertise to conduct such an audit. We recommend you hire the best website development company in Toronto for these efforts. Our experts will conduct a comprehensive audit of your site to ensure it is more accessible and compliant.
A Step-By-Step Guide To Choosing The Right Web Accessibility Audit Tool In 2023
When you want to conduct a website accessibility audit, you must follow a few steps that will allow you to conduct the right audit. Here are the top things you must look for in such a tool:
The Right Features
Firstly, the right features will allow you to conduct a comprehensive audit that will enhance your audit experience. Let’s review some of the top features that any good audit tool must have:
- Ability to handle a large website with many subdomains (this will help you as your business grows)
- Identifying issues and ensuring they comply with relevant laws
- Providing detailed recommendations for issues
- Ability to perform the audit on all types of content, such as media files, PDFs, HTML, etc
Before you select a tool, you must check whether it has these capabilities. It will make your work easier and guarantee that the audit is flawless and delivers the required results. Let’s explore each of these in detail.
Large Website With Various Subdomains
The tool must handle how big your organization and its website are. It is not enough to pick a tool and flow with it. Instead, you have to ensure it can handle your website’s volume and size and all its subdomains.
Compliance With Relevant Laws
You have to ensure that the resolution of your tool complies with the set laws in your region. After all, this is what your audit has to make sure on the website. Take a look at the compliance laws and determine whether theta re compatible.
In the long run, such a tool will ensure that your organization maintains compliance and improves with time. There are many tools available in the market that will suit your needs.
Comprehensive Recommendations
A tool can identify issues, but it is useless unless it provides you with recommendations on what to do about them. On the other hand, it will not be useful for you if it doesn’t provide accurate information about the audit. Whenever you choose an audit tool or service, make sure it provides recommendations.
Then, you can follow these recommendations and fix the issues. So you can decide whether these recommendations are worthwhile.
Performing Audits On Various Content Types
Finally, you must have a tool that can audit various types of content for your business. Digital products and websites come in various formats that you can audit. Your tool must handle all media types available on your website.
The Alternative To A Website Accessibility Audit Tool: Hire The Best Web Development Agency
If you can’t find a tool that fulfills all your business needs, we recommend hiring a specialist. These specialists will perform a comprehensive accessibility audit on your website to identify issues. Then, the specialist will provide extensive recommendations on what you need to do.
These specialists will handle everything for you and do everything from start to finish. You can sit back, relax, and focus on handling your business as a specialist handles this aspect of your website. The Dreams Agency offers website development services that will transform how you conduct your business.
You can book an initial consultation with our experts for more information regarding our web development and other services. They will let you know everything applicable to your business and provide you with what you need. We will also scale our services with your business in the long run.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to conduct a website accessibility audit, you can find the relevant tools for it. However, if you don’t have such a tool, you can opt for dedicated professionals at The Dreams Agency. We have successfully handled website development and audits for many of our clients.
Our client list keeps growing, as our services are premium and can easily handle all your business. For more information, please contact us today and learn how we can transform your business in no time.