ARESYNC | Digital Accessibility: What Marketers Need to Know?

 

 

Article Digital Customer Experience (CX) Management and Leadership in Digital Marketing

We know what you're thinking. As a Digital Marketer, you must keep up with changing digital trends, new technologies, platforms and customer expectations. But have you ever been asked to add another best practice?

If so, stop for a moment. Before you close this article and watch the cat-and-mouse video, consider the following Most of today's marketing techniques are tailored to what you (as a marketer) are already doing to attract customers and make sales. Other aspects should be considered, but supporting healthy consumers is more important. Digital accessibility may soon stop being a slogan and become a state of mind.

In Part 1 of this series, we summarize key practices that can be implemented to make digital content more accessible. Start at the beginning. Part 2: User experience and websites or Part 3: Email, social content and SEO.

What is accessible marketing?

 A marketer's job is simple (but not easy!). It involves promoting an organization's products or services, getting people interested and convincing them to buy. To achieve this goal, marketers can use almost limitless strategies and tactics.

Communication is an important aspect of digital marketing regardless of the tactics used. Regardless of the platform, channel or medium, all marketers must somehow communicate their message to potential customers.

Accessibility marketing focuses on two areas.

The first is ensuring that as many people as possible understand the message. You may have noticed the word "understand" in the previous sentence. It is because there are many ways to communicate a message, some of which are technically accessible to people with disabilities. Still, they may need more time to fully understand the message due to limitations or lack of experience.

For example, movies without subtitles are suitable for people with normal hearing (unless situational barriers exist, such as watching a movie in a public place or without headphones). People with hearing loss can understand some of the content of a movie, but their understanding may be limited. A person with hearing loss may not be able to read a movie without captions like someone who can hear the content.

Second, digital resources must be accessible to people with disabilities. Even if a user can understand all of the content on a website, if they cannot perform basic operations on it, the website cannot be considered accessible. If the main purpose of a website is to encourage customers to buy products, it must be accessible to everyone, regardless of their skills or the tools they use to interact with the website.

In other words, accessible marketing = the same experience for everyone.

If the main goal of your website is to get customers to buy your products, the website should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their skills or the tools they use to interact with the website.

What digital content should marketers focus on?

 And what digital content should marketers not focus on? The answers are as follows.

All marketed content should be accessible, including videos, blog posts, infographics, tweets and other creative works.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has ruled that all content accessible to the general public and consumers falls under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Inaccessible websites are the source of many digital accessibility lawsuits (and that number does not appear to be decreasing).

 Digital Accessibility Recommendations

 The key question is whether the ADA sets general requirements for digital accessibility. The answer is "to some extent", but with some caveats: we already know the hard part!

How can we become global experts in digital marketing?

 International web standards

First, discuss the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This international organization sets the standards or guidelines for the web to provide a consistent experience for all users, regardless of their platform or device. The W3C established the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) as part of its development and educational responsibilities to provide a consistent experience for everyone, regardless of their abilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is part of W3C's development and education responsibilities to provide a consistent experience for everyone, regardless of ability.

In 1999, the W3C created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a tool for digital content creators (the latest version is WCAG 2.1, released by the W3C in 2018).

These guidelines contain standards for digital content accessibility, some of which are vague. Unlike building standards for people with disabilities, most digital accessibility guidelines do not specify a binary outcome (e.g., accessible or inaccessible).

 For example, Success Criterion 2.4.3 (Relevance) states that "users will be able to navigate content using the keyboard, knowing that the order of navigation is appropriate to the meaning of the content."

While this is a logical criterion, it may be that a set of rules is meaningful to users. In this case, it is important to consider accessibility and user experience. As long as the content meets the requirements of WCAG 2.1, usability testing has been done, and the user experience is acceptable to most users, it is possible to create an accessible website.

Tips on accessible marketing

This section contains a series of articles on creating accessible content. Read part two on websites and user experience. If you can align your organization's processes and procedures with these best practices, you'll be one step closer to creating an enjoyable experience for everyone, regardless of their abilities.

This podcast by Mark Miller and Cory Perlander of TGPi shows the importance of digital accessibility for people with disabilities who use technology daily.