Digital accessibility is a growing need and can be understood as a true breaking down of obstacles and barriers on the internet.
Thinking about making all digital materials more inclusive can help increase sales for this audience and also boost brands.
What is digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility can be seen as the process of making digital products (from websites to various content) accessible to everyone.
This is an essential process for a country where around 23,9% of the population has some type of disability, of which 6,7% have severe disabilities. According to the 2010 census — the country has not yet conducted a new census — at that time there were already 45 million people who fit this profile and who may face numerous limitations in understanding, navigating and interacting in the digital environment.
According to 2019 data from the Locomotiva Institute, 39,5 million people have some form of vision impairment and 10,7 million have varying degrees of hearing impairment.
If we think about how a blind person can access a website or the content of a blog, or even a deaf person can access audiovisual material from a digital marketing campaign, we will understand some of the challenges they face.
Ignoring this audience is not only a question of a lack of awareness of inclusion, but also represents the loss of a considerable share of the consumer market. When digital products are not accessible, they fail to communicate with a very representative share of the market.
To get an idea of what a portion of this slice represents, we have data also presented by the Locomotiva Institute: despite facing several limitations, including in the job market, the hearing impaired public, for example, moves R$576 billion a year in their own income, including pensions and other sources of income.
Laws are beginning to try to protect this audience in the digital environment
Dated July 2015, the Brazilian Inclusion Law is a set of rules that aims to ensure and promote equal conditions for this group. Also known as the Statute of Persons with Disabilities, this law provides in its article 63 the following excerpt: “Accessibility is mandatory on websites maintained by companies with headquarters or commercial representation in the country or by regulatory bodies. government, for use by people with disabilities”
Outside the country, in 2012, World Accessibility Awareness Day was created, celebrated on the third Thursday of May, after a publication on the blog of developer Joe Devon, who raised awareness of the issue of accessibility in the digital environment.
In addition, a “Web Accessibility Handbook” has also been created, which provides a simple and organized list of recommendations and guidelines to be used by developers of web applications and solutions to eliminate access barriers.
For several reasons, it is more than necessary to democratize this digital access, and all of this can start from a change in mindset, which will allow for better inclusion tools in digital marketing materials.
We need to think about the general public, whether they are people with permanent, situational or temporary disabilities.
Do you know what assistive technologies are?
In practice, assistive technologies are used by people with disabilities to help them perform certain tasks. They range from the simplest to the most complex, including those immersed in the digital universe.
Blind people, for example, use reading software that “narrates” the content of the page to make it easier to understand. Deaf people, who use Libras as their first language, generally have difficulty understanding Portuguese.
Therefore, it is very important that the content is also available in sign language, through avatars based on artificial intelligence or human interpreters. People with severe motor limitations, such as quadriplegics, navigate using their mouth, eyes or voice commands.
Now, let's put ourselves in these people's shoes: imagine how difficult it is for them to face the reality that only 5% of Brazilian web pages are accessible and adapted to their disabilities? It must be horrible, right? Shopping online, studying, flirting and reading blog posts are practically impossible tasks for most of these people with disabilities.
This happens mainly because most website creators do not consider this large portion of the population as person in your projects.
How to produce more inclusive materials and campaigns?
The construction of a more inclusive mindset in the digital environment can begin to consider the disabled public when building websites, with the use of accessibility plugins, bringing, for example, the possibility of voice searches, conversion to audio for those with visual impairments, etc.
One of the inclusive measures that can be adopted by developers is to enable navigation using keyboards, instead of just using mice. By creating these keyboard shortcuts and providing access to assistive technologies, it will help people with disabilities or motor difficulties.
On the other hand, when building the website itself, designers can also create pages with larger fonts (fonts above 12), with sans serif fonts (such as Roboto or Verdana), with greater line spacing (for example, 1,5 cm), with the use of colors and animations with sound and visual effects.
Ideally, information should not be transmitted solely through colors on websites, because many visually impaired people who are viewing the website, for example, may be color blind and will interpret those colors differently.
These measures will help many people with visual impairments, including those with low vision.
Accessibility plugins
Some interesting accessibility plugins for websites come in both paid and free versions:
Hand talk
The objective of the Brazilian app is to break down communication barriers with technology, to do so, tIt provides resources to improve communication with people with hearing impairments. Among the resources, it includes a sign language translator. It has already won a UN award as the best accessibility award in Latin America.
WP Accessibility Helper
Provides options to make the website easier to read, such as enlarging fonts, changing contrast, inverting colors (great for color blind people), etc.
Audima
It is a Brazilian plugin that reads the contents of a website.
More resources that can be used for accessibility
Some advanced accessibility features will require the work of a specialized professional and may be available at festivals, TV programs, museums, books, magazines, websites, social networks, etc. They are:
- Close caption: closed captioning, which is not automatic and brings sound and visual effects into words. This feature is generally found in TV shows, film festivals and social media videos;
- Pounds window: sign language interpreter is seen in several live streams, websites and even in-person events;
- Audio description: transmits visual and audio information. Promotes accessibility for people with visual impairments in films, programs, audiovisual advertising pieces or live events. Scriptwriter, voice-over and consultant required;
- Image description: It appears with the hashtags #pracegover or #pratodosverem to provide visual information about the image. It is not a caption, it is complementary, normally, it is on social networks, but it can be used on websites as well. For disabled people to have access to this information, there are applications that help with this reading;
- Alternative texts: It has a similar use to the image description, but it is only available in the website's source code, it is not visible to users, but it is visible to accessibility resources (plugins or apps). It is a text that describes the image.
How to improve content accessibility?
In addition to graphic and visual issues, it is also possible to improve the construction of content, such as blog texts or marketing emails.
One of the warnings is about the use of too many metaphors in the text, which can hinder the reading of the content, when the accessibility plugins “translate” the material.
Another aspect that hinders the understanding of this concept is the use of neutral language, with the use of x or @. These icons also hinder reading, the ideal is to replace this letter or icon with the letter “e”. For example: instead of using words like “todxs” or “tod@s”, use “todes”.
Furthermore, using very long paragraphs also makes it difficult to read the plugins and makes the text tiresome, which makes the translation more accessible. The ideal is to make constant paragraph breaks to make the text more fluid.
In addition, simpler words are also more suitable for accessibility apps. In texts that require the use of more technical terms, the glossary resource can be used.
Another point is the use of hyperlinks that do not have more information for better understanding, with commands such as “Learn more” or “Click here”.
The suggestion is to provide more information about what the user will find in these links, for example, “Learn more about accessibility features” or “Click to understand how to make your content more accessible”.
Check out other tips
-
Write in direct order
Writing in direct order helps interpretation of Libras avatars and, mainly, understanding on the part of people who have dyslexia, for example.
-
Describe the informational images
Description is essential for navigation by blind people. Whether it be maps, photos, tables, illustrations, gifs or other content that you provide, the reading software mentioned above can help these people understand.
-
Be careful when creating video content
When making audiovisual content available, remember to: insert subtitles, Libras and audio description (essential for blind people to have access to the content discussed in the material).
-
Podcast care
If you make podcasts available, remember to make the transcription for the deaf (for those who understand Portuguese) and Libras from transcription (for those who only communicate through signs). Also be careful with the volume of the sound of the vignettes, as they can cause problems for autistic people.
Have you seen how simple actions can make it much easier for people with disabilities to understand your content? How about starting right now? The change for inclusion can start with you!
How does accessibility leverage brands and rankings?
When a website has digital accessibility mechanisms, it can also improve its ranking on Google, through search engines.
Furthermore, these accessibility features can leverage and benefit brands because they will reach a very large audience, which represents a large market share. In Brazil, there will be at least 45 million people.
When a website has accessibility mechanisms, it will be understood by Google as a more structured and relevant website, because it will improve the user experience.
By using these accessibility mechanisms, it is also possible to improve a brand's image in front of this audience. An example of a successful case was a TV commercial that Burger King made with a blind consumer and even used audio description openly.
The action generated a huge boom in the media and involved thousands of people commenting and sharing on social media, in addition to several articles that, in fact, improved the brand's positioning.
In other words, it is worth focusing on this audience, because as the UN itself defined, “disability is a social phenomenon”. Therefore, it deserves a lot of attention from digital marketing.