Sixty-one million American adults live with a disability. That’s 26 percent of the U.S. population. Most websites, mobile apps, and digital assets having accessibility issues—so this large group of people is often struggling to access the content they need, and most likely, that includes what they need to interact with your association. These difficulties could hinder engagement, enrollment and donations.
As I stated in my “Making Digital Content Accessible & Inclusive” session during this year’s ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition in Cleveland, whether your association is approaching digital accessibility for ethical reasons, market share, as a way to reduce operational costs, to address the cost of inaction or to be conformant with laws and regulations, the best thing to do is just start. We all need to aspire for the intersectionality of inclusivity, accessibility and usability to ensure digital properties and assets are accessible to all users.
When done well and at the right time, digital accessibility benefits everyone. This is called the curb cut effect. The ramps that are built into sidewalks—also called curb cuts—not only benefit the wheelchair user, they also help stroller-pushers, skateboarders and people pulling luggage.
Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE’s Center for Association Leadership.