Websites and mobile apps are not just tools—they are gateways to education, commerce, and social interaction. However, for many users, particularly those with disabilities, these gateways can often feel more like barriers. This is where User Experience (UX) Accessibility comes into play. It’s not just about adhering to legal standards; it’s about creating inclusive experiences that enable everyone to engage fully with your digital content. In this post, we’ll explore why investing in UX accessibility audits is essential and how it can easily benefit your business.

What is UX Accessibility?

UX Accessibility known as a11y, entails designing digital interfaces, like websites and mobile apps, ensuring usability for everyone, including those with visual, hearing, or motor impairments, and users of assistive technologies.

Why is Inclusivity Important?

1. Expanding Your Audience: Approximately 15% of the world’s population experiences some form of disability. By neglecting accessibility, businesses potentially alienate a significant portion of their market. Making your digital products accessible expands your reach and taps into an underserved customer base.

2. Legal Compliance: Many regions have legal requirements for digital inclusivity, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the USA or the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in Canada. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines and legal challenges.

3. Enhanced User Experience: Accessibility features often improve the overall user experience for all users, not just those with disabilities. Features like clear navigation and voice control can enhance usability for everyone.

4. Corporate Responsibility and Brand Image: Prioritizing accessibility demonstrates social responsibility and can strengthen your brand’s reputation. It shows that your company values all customers equally, which can enhance customer loyalty.

Website Statistics

The impact of ignoring accessibility is not just a niche concern—it has broad implications. For instance, the Click-Away Pound Survey revealed this data:

• 70% of users with disabilities will leave a website that is difficult to use
• 86% of users with access needs would spend more if there were fewer barriers
• 83% of participants with access needs limit their shopping to sites that they know are accessible

In 2024, WebAIM, an organisation that examines web accessibility, found that:

• 96% of the 1 million most visited home pages did not meet accessibility standards, averaging at 56 errors per page
• Users with disabilities would expect to encounter errors on 1 in every 21 home page elements.

Accessibility in Mobile Apps

Almost half of all people with a mobile phone use accessibility features. More than you expected, right? Accesibility on Mobile apps is as much as important as on websites, if not more. While for websites there exist various automated tools for base level accessibility testing, on mobile apps that is a different case.

There are two main pillars that determine whether your app is successfully accessible:

1. Does your app meet the WCAG guidelines?
2. Can people with disabilities actually use your app?

A good accessible app is regularly tested against both of these principles.

How can you improve your Website or Mobile app?

To start off, for Websites there are great and free online tools that can help you with this by running a automated audit. Such as:

• Semrush - Tells you the issues and how to fix them
• Screamingfrog
• Google Lighthouse - Tells you insights on page speed, accessibility, SEO and best practices

But it’s important to note that these tools can often provide false positives, that’s why it’s always important to read the actual accessibility guidelines at WCAG

A very common issue is keyboard navigation - which automated tools won’t catch. To test this, you can go to your website and try navigating through it using only your keyboard by pressing Tab, Enter and Arrow keys. See how it feels, if you struggle to navigate to where you want easily then most likely you have a problem.

Mobile Apps require more attention as tools such as above can’t automatically crawl your app and find these issues, so you have to do it yourself.

You can find more about it in our blog

Using these tools and manual testing can greatly improve your current accessibility, but this can take time and doesn’t ensure perfect results, that’s why there exist businesses which offer UX accessibility audits as a service, such as Us at Enablify

What Does a UX Accessibility Audit Involve?

A UX accessibility audit is a comprehensive review of your digital products to identify and fix any barriers that might prevent people with disabilities from using your services effectively. Here’s what it involves:

• Evaluation Against Accessibility Standards: Audits are conducted against recognized guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
• User Testing: Engaging real users with disabilities to interact with your product and provide feedback.
• Technical Assessment: Using specialized tools to examine the code behind your digital products to ensure they can be easily interpreted by assistive technologies.

How Can a UX Accessibility Audit Benefit Your Business?

Investing in a UX accessibility audit can lead to significant benefits:

• Risk Mitigation: Reducing the legal risks associated with non-compliance.
• Increased Sales and Customer Loyalty: By accommodating a broader audience, you can see an increase in customer satisfaction and retention.
• Innovative Solutions: The insights from accessibility audits can inspire innovative product enhancements that benefit all users.

To truly understand and implement effective accessibility, professional expertise is often required. This is where services like ours come in. We specialize in providing detailed UX accessibility audits for both websites and mobile apps to ensure that your digital products are not only compliant but also offer a superior user experience for everyone.

In conclusion, ensuring your digital products are accessible is not just a legal duty—it’s a strategic advantage. It reflects a commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion. Start by assessing your current accessibility level and make the necessary adjustments. The digital world should be open to everyone. Let’s make that a reality.

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For those looking to enhance their digital products’ accessibility, feel free to contact us for a detailed audit that guarantees you not only meet but exceed accessibility standards.