In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was developed to ensure that individuals who have disabilities get the same opportunities as everyone else. In recent years, ADA compliance applies to websites and even apps. If you’re wondering whether or not to make your website ADA compliant, here are five ways your website will benefit.

1. Your target audience will increase.

ADA compliance means that your website is accessible to millions of people who otherwise couldn’t access it. In the United States alone, there are almost 50 million people with disabilities. That means that 19% of the whole country will not be able to access your site if it’s not ADA compliant. It’s possible that many of these people may be interested in what you are offering, but if they can’t navigate your website, they may move on to your competitors.

For example, if there is a video on your website that talks about the benefits of your products and services, without captions, those who are hard of hearing may not be able to get the information from the video. Another simple thing you can do is provide alternate text to all of your images.

2. Your SEO will be better.

As search engines improve and evolve, they are able to pay attention to human intention. One of the main ways you can make your site accessible is to be friendly to screen readers. These readers actually crawl your site in similar ways to search engines. So as you work to make your website better for screen readers, you will also be making your website better for search engines. This means that your SEO efforts will go farther.

3. Your reputation will be better.

Because your site will now be accessible to people with disabilities, it’s likely that you will get more customers. Those customers will also feel like you are going out of your way to meet their needs. You don’t know how long it took them to find a site like yours that was also ADA compliant. They will probably go and tell everyone they know, which can only do good things for your reputation. Everyone will appreciate the fact that you took the time to make your website more accessible.

4. The user experience in general will improve.

Even for people who are not disabled, the user experience is bound to be better for everyone once your site is ADA compliant. Laying out your text in a clearer way helps screen readers, but it also helps other customers who find your website. A website with an easier user experience means more leads and more conversions.

5. You’ll avoid any penalties.

When the ADA wrote this text in 1990, this technology was not being widely used. Now, though, everyone has a website. Every page that is updated on your website is required to be grade A compliant. The highest level of compliance you can have is grade AAA. Big businesses are beginning to get in trouble by not having ADA-compliant websites.

If you are not sure where to start with making your website compliant, the ADA website has many helpful tips. If you need help, you may also want to enlist our web design services. Contact us today to get help with your website.

WT Digital Agency is an Atlanta marketing agency specializing in brand development, content marketing, social media marketing, website design, SEO, and more. To learn more about what we do, click here.