Website accessibility is vital, and every business owner should pay attention to it, both in the digital and physical world. Companies should ensure that their sites are accessible for every user, even if they have a physical disability, as the Internet is open and fair to all.
An accessibility overlay is cost-effective
The CDC has laid down that 25% of the people in the USA live with some sort of disability. This is not only notable not only from an ethical point of view but also from the perspective of web traffic. Most sites of companies cannot overlook this large segment of potential visitors to their websites.
In order to cater to ethical standards, several nations in the world have passed legislation to mandate all their sites meet specific requirements or face heavy fines. The issue lies with small companies here. They do not have the expertise or the knowledge to ensure their site is in order. Larger firms have a dedicated in-house team of web developers to cater to site issues, and they can afford to read every line of the compliance requirements and do the needful manually.
An accessibility overlay is an effective solution for small businesses that cannot incur development expenses for arresting issues on their site. The overlay is affordable for them and works perfectly to cater to their custom needs.
The function of the accessibility overlay
The accessibility overlay is an automated software program that makes changes to the site to repair accessibility issues and enhance its ability to government compliance. It is known as an “overlay” because it sits on the top of the site’s base code without changing the underlying source code. It is popular because it has reduced risks and does not break the base code of the site.
There are many areas where the overlay helps your business; however, the benefits you enjoy also depend upon which overlay you have invested in. All of them are not created in the same way. The following are some of the features you can get in an accessibility overlay-
1. The tool is comfortable with a screen reader- Blind and visually impaired users online deploy screen readers to read text comfortably on the computer screen. They may also use a speech synthesizer or Braille display. The overlay can also add text elements over a photo or video file.
2. Fonts that can be customized- Users can change any text’s type, alignment, or size. This is vital for users with visual impairments and who cannot write conventionally small text on the website.
3. Colors can be customized- Users with color blindness are common. An overlay helps them to choose different contrasts of color that can be adjusted as per their choice.
4. Pause animations-People with epilepsy can get a seizure when exposed to animation and flash ads. An accessibility overlay tool has an option that can disable the flash motions and prevent an episode from occurring,
Therefore, these are some of the key features that an overlay has when it comes to site accessibility for everyone, including users with physical disabilities.
