How to Create an Accessibility Plan for Your Business: Step-by-Step Guide
As accessibility legislation continues to evolve, businesses are under increasing pressure to ensure that their websites and digital platforms are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Compliance isn’t optional anymore. But how do you create an accessibility plan that ensures your business stays ahead of the curve and meets legal requirements?
This step-by-step guide will help you build a sustainable, long-term accessibility plan that benefits both your business and your users.
Why Your Business Needs an Accessibility Plan
Before diving into the steps, it’s important to understand why an accessibility plan is critical for your business. An accessibility plan doesn’t just ensure that you’re compliant with laws like the European Accessibility Act or the ADA; it also positions your business as an inclusive brand that values all its customers. Not only can you avoid costly lawsuits and fines, but you’ll also improve your website’s user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO).
Moreover, accessible websites and digital platforms often outperform their competitors by reaching a broader audience, including the approximately 1 billion people worldwide who live with some form of disability. Accessibility is not just a regulatory box to tick; it’s a smart business strategy.
Step-by-Step Guide to Building an Accessibility Plan
- Assess Your Current Accessibility Status
The first step is to assess where your business currently stands in terms of digital accessibility. This can be done through a comprehensive audit of your website and digital assets. Tools like Wave, Google Lighthouse, and Axe can help you identify any immediate accessibility issues. However, these tools only catch about 30% of accessibility issues, so partnering with a professional accessibility consultant like Emarkable can provide a more thorough evaluation.
- Define Your Accessibility Goals
Based on your audit results, define specific, measurable accessibility goals for your business. You may want to achieve WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance as a starting point, which is the recommended standard for most businesses. Determine what success looks like for your team—whether that’s achieving compliance, improving UX, or both.
- Create a Priority List
Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, categorize them into high-priority and low-priority items. For example, if your website lacks alt text for images or has poor keyboard navigation, those are high-priority issues that should be addressed immediately. On the other hand, more minor issues like optimizing the color contrast in less important areas of your site may be categorized as lower-priority tasks.
- Implement Solutions
Start by tackling the high-priority issues identified in your audit. If you don’t have the in-house expertise to implement the necessary changes, consider outsourcing this to accessibility specialists or agencies like Emarkable. Key areas to focus on might include:
- Adding alt text to all images.
- Ensuring forms are properly labeled and accessible to screen readers.
- Improving color contrast for readability.
- Implementing keyboard navigation for all interactive elements.
- Train Your Team
Accessibility isn’t just a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing effort that requires every member of your team to be onboard. Hold training sessions for developers, designers, and content creators to ensure they understand the principles of accessibility. Make sure everyone knows how to create accessible content and maintain compliance moving forward.
- Regularly Update and Test
Accessibility is a continuous process. Regularly test your website to ensure it remains accessible as you add new content, update features, or redesign pages. At least once a year, conduct a full accessibility audit to ensure continued compliance with the latest standards.
Automated tools can help here, but manual testing and user feedback should also be part of your process. Involving real users with disabilities in your testing process can help uncover issues that automated tools might miss.
- Stay Informed on Legal Requirements
Accessibility legislation is constantly evolving, so it’s important to stay informed about changes to regulations like the European Accessibility Act or ADA. Keeping your team updated on these changes ensures that you remain compliant and avoid costly fines or lawsuits.
Next Steps:
Creating an accessibility plan is a smart investment for your business. At Emarkable, we specialise in helping businesses create comprehensive accessibility strategies that ensure compliance and improve user experience.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you implement an accessibility plan that works for your business.
Emarkable – Your Partner in Digital Excellence.
