Sponsored by accessiBe
There are 39 million people in the world who are blind and experience countless digital barriers when browsing the internet. It’s unfortunate that eCommerce websites often don’t have alt-text, or short descriptions, embedded in the images, blogs aren’t necessarily compatible with assistive technology like screen readers, and users who are blind are unable to read, navigate or do business online. Even news sites often host multimedia or video without audio descriptions, buttons, and icons that only use color to signify information or action, and sign-up forms will time out before a user who is blind has a chance to enter his or her details. accessiBe’s mission is to make the internet an accessible space – offering solutions that help eliminate digital barriers for all people with disabilities.
Overview of accessiBe
With a vision of making the internet a more inclusive and accessible space, accessiBe’s solutions and professional services bridge the web accessibility gap for the 15% of the global population that lives with a disability. Using Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision technologies, the full suite of solutions created by accessiBe enables businesses of all sizes, and from industries of any type, to take part in global inclusion efforts and help them achieve compliance according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other worldwide legislation.
accessiBe’s solutions
The accessiBe suite of solutions is developed with direct input from the disability communities and includes an array of tools and professional services that are trusted by over 180,000 customers worldwide. The technology behind each tool allows any website to be accessible in a business-friendly and cost-effective way. The current, yet evolving suite includes:
- accessWidget: An AI-powered web accessibility tool that simplifies and streamlines the process of making a website accessible, inclusive, and compliant with global standards without affecting the original source code.
- accessFlow: An all-in-one web accessibility development platform built for native testing, monitoring, and remediation at the source code of websites and web applications. accessFlow allows developers to achieve and maintain native accessibility activities and outcomes.
- accessServices: Professional services that help businesses of all sizes ensure that their files and multimedia assets are accessible to people with disabilities. accessServices provides captions and audio descriptions for media and remediates documents such as PDF, PowerPoint, and Excel. Services also include website usability testing by people with disabilities and expert audits that uncover digital accessibility gaps on a site.
- accessScan: A free auditing tool that scans any website to discover compliance levels, as well as errors to be corrected. The tool provides a holistic overview of a website’s accessibility status in a matter of seconds.
Understanding accessWidget
Currently, accessWidget is installed on hundreds of thousands of websites making it an industry-leading tool for businesses in need of a web accessibility solution. So, how does it work?
accessWidget consists of two applications that work together to make websites inclusive and accessible. The first application is the accessibility interface which affects a website’s UI and design-related adjustments. The second application is the AI-powered process that affects comprehensive digital accessibility including compatibility of screen readers and keyboard navigation optimization. After initial installation, accessWidget takes up to 48 hours to make a website accessible and compliant in adherence to WCAG standards.
The role accessWidget plays in lifting digital barriers for users who are blind
accessiBe created accessWidget to prioritize the scanning, analysis, and interpretation of elements on a website to offer an optimal user experience for people who are blind and use screen readers to dictate content on a page. By embedding alt-text in images, accessWidget provides complete context to screen readers that read aloud to the user. This elevated level of context helps users who are blind browse websites in a more effective, yet comprehensive way.
accessWidget also eliminates a plethora of other digital barriers through the use of ARIA attributes; ARIA attributes are applied to behavior-related adjustments to optimize website elements in the most thorough manner possible; header structure, icon recognition, drop-down-menus, and forms are accounted for in this remediation process, using these ARIA attributes, so that users who are blind can navigate websites more easily.
Web accessibility means including users who are blind online
Eliminating digital barriers that hinder the user experience for people who are blind can be achieved with the right solution. The more businesses that join the inclusion revolution and open their websites to the blind community, the more people who are blind will be able to contribute their ideas and business to the greater global community.
