WCAG

07 March 2023

Is your website accessible?

WCAG is about digital accessibility, but what does it mean? We at Webmind usually say that it's about digital inclusion - everyone has different physical conditions. Many parts of society today are adapted for the disabled, everything from buses, festivals, museums that have guiding aids, sidewalks, there are legal requirements for buildings - the list can be made long. But what about digital accessibility adaptation?

When it comes to digital services, it is especially important because the target groups are all the bigger. It is not only disabled people who benefit from a website being accessible. Even the elderly, people with cognitive problems, or with some form of mild vision and hearing impairment benefit greatly from this. Mainly because more people can take part in what you want to sell or communicate on your website. Removing high digital curbs makes life easier for all parties, including your business - but unfortunately it doesn't happen automatically.

Accessible web pages provide synergy effects - a win win!

The more accessible your website is, the greater the conditions you create to reach out with your message, services or products - simply because the content is accessible.

A simple example: If you, as an e-retailer, have a visually impaired customer who cannot see a purchase button due to poor contrast or too small letters, a purchase will probably not take place. This customer will very likely surf on to a safer and more accessible website and complete their purchase there instead. It's as simple as that!

Do you know who (besides website visitors) absolutely loves accessible web pages? It's Google. An accessible website provides synergy effects:

Like faster loading time
Better structure
For example, you usually increase your conditions in order to:
- get a better SEO score for searches - the website usually ranks higher on Google.
- reach a bigger target group, with a more accessible website more users can discover the services and/or products you offer to make a purchase.
- get a more positive image of the company behind the website as a whole - it shows that you care.

In addition - if you run a website within the public domain (company or administration), it is a legal requirement today that the website must be accessible (to level WCAG 2.1 level AA). The law was introduced in September 2019 and is called the Web Directive (Webbdirektivet). But keep your eyes open, because in June 2025, a new law called Tillgänglighetsdirektivet will be implemented, which will be applied to certain products and services.

Private entrepreneurs are not covered (yet), but by adapting accessibility you ensure your business-critical processes on the web.

But hey, all websites are accessible today right?

No, unfortunately it's not like that. Partly it depends on having old websites or using old tools, e.g. CMS. A lot has happened in just a few years and services over the web are today increasingly business critical. Newer and more modern CMS's today have much better support for accessibility adaptation, e.g. Umbraco's later versions.

In addition, the design and structure that you set up can be completely wrong even though the website has a nice modern feel to it. As an editor, it's easy to overlook the fact that text and images also should be accessible, and then accessibility becomes worse, even though you have put effort into creating an adapted website.

In other words, there are many pitfalls and there is no quick fix for it. It is an ongoing work that must be evaluated from time to time and those who work with content must have good knowledge of how to manage content on websites.

But how do I know if my website has good accessibility?

That's the easy part - contact us at Webmind and we'll help you further.

We analyze your website and give tips on routines you need to have as an editor. We have the tools for you to get started and we support through the entire process. We also help develop improvements to your website or move it to a modern, user-friendly platform such as Umbraco.

Most of the time, quite small efforts are enough to lift a website, but sometimes you have to rethink the basics. And you don't have to have an Umbraco web for us to do an analysis - it works with any system. Although we love Umbraco :)

Let's talk!