Web accessibility benefits individuals, businesses, and society, and simply means a website – and everything on it – is available and accessibly to anyone regardless of how they use the internet. For example, some people may need to use a screen reader. Others may not be able to use a mouse and rely on an adaptive technology. Yet others may need transcripts or subtitles for audio content.
If a website is accessible, then everyone can access information in a meaningful way. The Web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, and more. It is essential the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities. Access to information and communications technologies, including the Web, is defined as a basic human right in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). And with over 15% of the world’s population possessing some sort of disability, your website needs to be accessible for everyone, regardless of ability.
Of course, people with disabilities may not always be able to access a website as easily as someone without a disability. For example, it will probably take a person who is blind longer to find content on your website using a screen reader than it would for a sighted person to find the same content. Web accessibility doesn’t mean that everyone can use your website just as easily or quickly. However, the process must be comparable.