Small business owners often face financial hardships when it comes to fixing web accessibility issues. However, the topic should not be ignored, both in the digital and physical world. The web should be accessible to everyone, including users with disabilities. As per CDC reports, there are about 25% of the population in the USA live with a disability. This is an important point to consider ethically and from the point of inbound web traffic. Small businesses just cannot afford to lose a vast proportion of this web traffic of potential customers.
The solution lies in a trusted accessibility overlay
Small business owners face the challenges of incurring costs to arrest gaps in web accessibility. Nations across the world have incorporated laws that pertain to web accessibility, and if a site fails to comply with these laws, the business is liable to lawsuits and heavy fines. The problem with SMBs is that they do not have the knowledge or the resources to ensure web accessibility is in perfect order. Their larger counterparts have web development teams that are hired for the company, and they can afford to read their web content line by line for manual adherence.
A trusted accessibility overlay is the ideal solution for a business that cannot afford web development costs. The overlay is the only comprehensive and custom solution to successfully help the business arrest accessibility problems without tension.
What are accessibility overlays?
Accessibility overlays are automated applications that make changes to the business site for enhancing its accessibility. It is called an “overlay” because it stays on top of the base code of the website and does not make any change to the source code. An overlay is safe for your business, and it will never break the existing codes of the site.
Not all overlays have uniform features, so you need to compare the overlay providers in the market before you invest and install them for your needs. However, some of the common features you find in overlays are as follows-
- Compatibility with screen readers- They are software programs targeted at users with visual impairments so that they can read the content displayed on the screen with a braille display or speech synthesizer. The overlay adds the element of text over the photo or the video file.
- Customized fonts- Users can change the size, alignment, and type of the content’s text. This feature is ideal for the visually impaired.
- Colors can be customized- There are several users who have color blindness, and an accessibility overlay helps them choose different color and contrast profiles that can be easily adjusted as per their preferences.
- Pause animations- Users who are prone to epileptic seizures, can pause flash animations to prevent the triggers of such attacks.
Generally, a good accessibility overlay will have the above features, and some have even more to cater to the lesser-known requirements of the user with a disability online with ease. Installing an overlay ensures that web accessibility is taken care of round-the-clock, and you can keep litigation easily at bay!