Accessible content shouldn’t be an afterthought. Yet, 90% of all websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities who rely on assistive technology to navigate the internet. Worse yet, 94% of the 33 top-grossing e-commerce sites fail to follow accessibility guidelines. That’s a whole lot of websites excluding a whole lot of potential customers. Forget the fact that businesses that don’t take accessibility more seriously lose sales (although that’s a valid concern). Failing to make your digital content more inclusive can unintentionally give the impression that you don’t care about a large segment of the community. That’s never a good look for a brand. If you want to do better, you’ve come to the right place. Lia Stoll, the creative genius behind Disability Writer, provides some tips and tools that anyone can follow to make their content more inclusive. With her guidance, this blog tackles the tough questions your brand has about accessibility, including:
What is digital content accessibility?Digital content accessibility refers to the practice of designing and developing your digital assets using techniques that allow those with disabilities to navigate, interact with, and understand your content more effectively. All users – regardless of their abilities or impairments – should get the same user experience when visiting your website or social media platforms. Accessibility is crucial because it promotes inclusion and equal access to information. Some disabilities affect how people interact with your digital content, including:
By following digital content accessibility best practices, you make your websites, applications, and other digital resources usable for a broader audience. Types of digital contentDigital content refers to any creative material, information, or media that exists in a digital or electronic format that’s accessed, distributed, or shared through digital platforms and devices. Unlike analog content that’s physical and tangible, digital content is stored in binary code, allowing for easier transmission. Some popular formats for digital content include:
Why does accessibility matter?One in every six people in the world lives with a disability. Digital accessibility matters if you want to ensure they can interact with your digital content and services. Promoting inclusivity breaks down barriers that might overwise prevent people with disabilities from fully engaging with your brand. Another pressing reason to prioritize accessibility is you may be required by law. Legal requirements in some regions mandate digital accessibility for public and private organizations. Failure to comply with these laws can result in financial penalties and other legal consequences. From the standpoint of SEO, search engines penalize inaccessible websites. So, if ranking well in search is important for your content marketing strategy, it’s one more reason to create inclusive content and designs. Lia suggests organizations spend some time thinking about their “why” for accessible content. “Once they find their why – instead of it just being something they have to do – they’ll be more open to it.” What are some common barriers to accessibility?One of the biggest barriers to accessibility is the simple lack that it exists, said Lia. It’s not that most organizations don’t want to be inclusive. They simply don’t know how, she said. “It’s a learning journey for everyone.” She encountered this recently with a friend who was creating a website for her new business. She’d hired someone to help her with it. “I asked her about accessibility and making sure the person she hired was making the site accessible,” said Lia. “She asked me what it meant to be accessible.” Some other barriers to inclusive digital content include:
These are just a few of the barriers some users encounter when trying to access a website or other digital content. Addressing these obstacles improves inclusivity and usability for everyone. What are screen readers and how do they work?A screen reader is an assistive technology that people with blindness or other visual impairments use to interact with digital media on electronic devices. These devices convert on-screen text and other visual elements into synthesized speech or braille output, allowing users to navigate and understand the information. Here’s how they work:
The sole purpose of screen readers is to improve digital accessibility. However, they need your help to function as intended. Following some of the best practices for creating digital content that works well with screen readers ensures you’re doing your part to make your content more inclusive. How do you make text content accessible?One of the biggest issues with inaccessible text is failing to use proper layout formatting, said Lia. All websites provide tools for formatting titles, headers, and body text on websites. Simply bolding text or using a larger font doesn’t make it a header. Make sure the text layout is in order. Screen readers follow the cues for headers and body text. If you mislabel text on the page, it can cause the screen reader to jump around from one section to another in the wrong order. “If you don’t know about it, it’s easy to overlook it,” said Lia. Other things you can do to make text more accessible:
Conduct testing with various assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice recognition software, and keyboard-only navigation tools to ensure compatibility and usability. How do you ensure multimedia accessibility?Most websites and social media platforms today include multimedia components. Graphics, images, and videos help content marketers explain complex topics and make content more interesting. Making sure multimedia doesn’t confuse assistive devices is paramount to making your content more inclusive. Consider using these techniques to help improve multimedia accessibility.
When in doubt, follow web accessibility guidelines to ensure all your multimedia content meets recognized accessibility standards. How do you improve navigational accessibility?Clear and concise headings and text formatting are two ways to improve navigational accessibility. However, there are some other often overlooked strategies you can use to further improve inclusivity. Proper placement of hashtags is one of the most important things you can do to make your content – especially on social media platforms – more accessible. “If you must use hashtags, put them at the end of a sentence,” said Lia. “If you put them in the beginning or middle of a sentence it confuses screen readers. They’ll read it out, but it often breaks the flow, making it harder for the person using the screen reader to understand what they’re hearing.” Another tip for hashtags is to use camel-casing, she said. Capitalize the first letter of each new word in a hashtag so screen readers can distinguish it. Otherwise, they’ll read it as one jumbled word, which may not make sense to the person using the assistive device. The worst thing you can do is string a bunch of hashtags together in the same sentence. “Until screen readers get better, it prevents equal access,” said Lia. Emojis are another source of frustration for visually impaired people. “They’re difficult for screen readers,” said Lia. “They don’t see a smiley face and say, ‘smiley face’ to the person using the device. A screen reader will read out the alt text assigned to the emoji instead. If you use a bunch of them together, a screen reader jumbles all the alt text together.” Lia said she likes using emojis herself but sticks to placing only one of them at the end of a sentence to be mindful of accessibility. How do you educate your content team on accessibility?Educating your content team on the importance of accessibility is crucial for fostering a culture of inclusivity. Every person working on content – social media posts, website content – must understand how to integrate accessibility into the content creation process. You can start the process by raising awareness about the significance of accessibility. Hold team meetings and workshops to explain its importance and who it benefits. Share real examples of how inclusion impacts the people your organization serves so your team can see the tangible results of their efforts. Most importantly, provide accessibility training. Knowing the importance of inclusion isn’t enough. You must give your team the tools and knowledge needed to achieve the task. Don’t be afraid to call on the experts to help, said Lia. She did that very thing when redesigning her Disability Writer website. Lia turned to the expertise of Clive Loseby at Access By Design. His company audits and creates accessible websites for organizations. More than his expertise, Lia said she values the fact that Loseby walks the talk. “The cool thing about them is they have disabled people who audit the websites and help you fix them,” she said. “It’s a way for him to truly change the world, one website at a time.” Partnering with accessibility expertsStrategies for embracing inclusivity at your organization extend beyond improving accessibility to your digital content. Consider creating content that demonstrates your brand’s commitment to equal access for all. That’s where someone like Lia comes in. She creates articles, blogs, e-books, and other guides that empower and promote disability and inclusion. “There are many businesses that have a blog, but they never touch on disability and inclusion or their commitment to accessibility,” Lia said. The Write Reflection is pleased to announce our partnership with Lia to foster and encourage more brands to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has agreed to lend her expertise to our clients who are interested in improving access to their digital assets. Lia also can craft inclusive-focused content for your website and other digital platforms. Ready to commit to making your digital assets more inclusive? Reach out to us today to schedule your free consultation with Lia to get started. AuthorShari Berg has known she wanted to be a writer since she was old enough to hold a pencil in her hand. She believes everyone has a story to tell, and it’s her job to discover it. Shari owns The Write Reflection, a Pittsburgh-based copywriting and content writing company that empowers small business owners to wield the power of words.
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There’s an ugly side to local search engine optimization through Google My Business (GMB). A major flaw in how GMB accounts work can compromise a brand’s reputation. Most organizations aren’t aware of the issue until it affects them. By then, it’s a complicated mess to resolve (if you’re lucky enough to settle the matter at all). So, what’s this 5-alarm fire raging over on the Google My Business platform? Well, did you know that anyone can create a GMB account for your business, even if they don’t work there or have any affiliation with it? Worse yet, that same person can then run the account, posting anything they’d like about your brand. Scary, innit? If this is news to you, then brace yourselves for the ugly truth. In this blog, we delve into this potential nightmare and offer tips on what to do if your organization becomes an unwitting victim. What is Google My Business?Google My Business is a free tool provided by search engine giant Google. It allows businesses to manage their online presence through Google, which includes how prospective customers find them through another popular Google service called Google Maps. By creating and verifying a business listing, you can update your information—address, hours of operation, phone number, website—and post other information like updates and photos. Customers can review your products or services and you can respond to those reviews. Google My Business guarantees your brand gets found during a Google search when industry-relevant keywords are used for your products or services. The GMB listing appears in the top right of the search engine page, helping your organization become front and center for searchers. Why do organizations need a Google My Business account?Brick-and-mortar businesses and other organizations that want to boost their local visibility on search engines rely on Google My Business to get found online. At least, that’s the trick if someone is using Google to search for a product or service your company provides. Rival search engines like Bing and Yahoo don’t bring up GMB accounts (imagine that!). Some of the benefits of creating and managing a GMB account for your brand include:
Who can create a Google My Business account for your brand?Before you can get the full benefits of a GMB account, you must either create one or take control of one already created by another person. Herein lies the rub. You might go through the steps to create an account, only to find out someone has already established one for your business. This recently happened with two of The Write Reflection’s clients. Navigating through this unfortunate situation felt like being trapped in the 9th circle of hell from Dante’s Inferno. If you’re lucky, it was one of Google’s bots that created the listing. Sometimes they do that because they think they’re being helpful little AIs. They come across your website or social media while crawling the web and discovering your information. A quick scan shows you don’t already have a GMB listing, so they create one for you. That’s the best-case scenario because it’s easier to claim the listing and control it. You’ll know if this is the case if you see a “Claim This Business” option on the GMB account. However, sometimes a direct competitor or disgruntled former employee or customer can create a GMB listing in your business’s name. When that happens, buckle up because you’re in for a bumpy ride. Navigating the 9th circle of GMB hellWhat can you do if you discover someone created a GMB listing for your business and Google denies you access to it? Contacting Google Help directly is highly recommended. You must speak to a real person at Google. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself banging your head off your desk in frustration. Here are two scenarios The Write Reflection’s clients recently encountered with GMB and how we resolved the issue. Scenario #1: Someone has created a listing in your name.Let’s take the worst-case scenario. A former employee who involuntarily left your company decides the best way to get some sweet revenge is to create a GMB listing and populate it with disinformation. To make matters worse, they convince a few of their friends to get onto the listing and create horrible reviews of your products or services. When Joe Schmo starts typing in an industry-relevant keyword for your brand, the GMB listing is the first thing they see. It doesn’t exactly leave a glowing impression of your business, so they keep scrolling until they find a competitor instead. This was the case for one of our clients who depends on local SEO to find new customers for his business. The GMB listing came up, but it was filled with incorrect information. So, searchers moved on to one of the three other businesses in the area that provide the same services. Our client was hemorrhaging new leads and needed to stop the bleeding. The solution We first tried to request access and verify our client as the authorized representative for the account. Google had us jump through several hoops in the name of verification, and finally granted us access. However, the victory was short-lived, because within a few minutes of authorizing our control, Google suspended the GMB listing without further explanation. As a final resort, we contacted Google Help directly. A detailed explanation of the situation, plus providing information that proved our client was the legitimate owner of the business, finally did the trick. Google reversed its suspension and handed over full control. Problem solved. Scenario #2: Someone has hijacked control of your account.Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s something even worse than having an unaffiliated person create a GMB listing in your business’s name. It’s possible to hijack a GMB account simply by asking Google for permission, and then hoping the authorized person doesn’t intervene in time to cancel the request. All someone must do is go to an existing GMB listing and request Google add them as an authorized manager. There’s a handy feature to make this super easy, which only encourages nefarious actors to engage in this kind of behavior. Once you request access, Google sends an email to the GMB account manager on record. Here’s where it can go downhill quickly. You only have 3 days to respond to that email to refute the request for access. If you don’t see the email in time, Google assumes your non-response is an A-OK sign and hands over the keys to the kingdom. The solution We had a local business come to us for assistance in this situation. The first thing we did was request access. However, the hijacker made sure they denied our request, so Google wouldn’t let us in. Because the information posted to the account was potentially damaging to our client’s reputation, we reached out to Google directly and explained the situation. Once again, we jumped through hoops to verify our client was the legitimate owner of the business. Google removed the other individual from the account and authorized our access. What are some other hidden issues with Google My Business?Unauthorized access to your account is just one issue you can experience with Google My Business. Failing to keep your GMB listing updated can prevent customers from finding your brick-and-mortar location or reaching out to you. If you have a phone number, address, or website change, it’s critical to update that information on your GMB listing immediately. Consumers get frustrated quickly when they can’t find you to do business with you. They’ll simply move on to a competitor who cares enough to keep their online information accurate. Another potential landmine is negative reviews and low ratings. Sometimes competitors and former employees get onto GMB listings and cause problems by leaving negative feedback. Failure to monitor and respond to this issue can harm your brand’s reputation. AuthorShari Berg has known she wanted to be a writer since she was old enough to hold a pencil in her hand. She believes everyone has a story to tell, and it’s her job to discover it. Shari owns The Write Reflection, a Pittsburgh-based copywriting and content writing company that empowers small business owners to wield the power of words. |
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