Is your Web presence accessible to your whole audience?

You eagerly wait for the hits to start piling up as you start your Facebook and Twitter ad campaign. Though the initial numbers look good, eventually they taper off.

You start to freak out. You were sure it would work. But soon, you’re forced to close the doors on your new business, “Grandma’s Crochet Supply.” What went wrong?

It might not have been your product or anything wrong with your store. It might just have been something as simple as your audience’s inability to find you. How did this happen?

It turns out, a big audience for crochet materials happens to be the blind and disabled. (This is not true, but please bear with us for the sake of this example. Thanks.) They love to buy materials and discuss advancements in the field with a million others just like them. However, your website isn’t optimized to allow these viewers to use it. If they can’t visit it, they can’t spend money.

Blind users

Users who are blind or partially sighted will often use a screen reader when browsing the Internet. These programs will read all the text on the website to the user so they can get around even without seeing it.