Things to Consider When Buying Accessibility Software for Your Web Design

Posted on Jul 19 2022 - 3:45pm by Editor

You’ve decided to purchase and install a high-quality accessibility solution into your website. This is a decision you’ll never regret if you do it properly. For example, here are several factors that you need to consider when purchasing one of these software platforms. Here’s what you need to know if you’re interested in improving your accessibility.

Ease of Use

Your accessibility software should be straightforward enough for you and your design team to quickly understand and integrate into your operation. For example, it should include simple controls and even a help section that explains how you can integrate all of these options into your website.

Make sure that even untrained individuals can quickly access and use this software to ensure that it operates smoothly for your company’s needs. Just as importantly, make sure that there are training options available, either from the company or online from various vendors.

Diversity of Control

Your software should not only be adaptable for your users but your designers as well. For example, it should be diverse enough to integrate multiple control options, such as setting up vision-based and cognitive-based accessibility options that help your software run smoothly.

A platform that provides all of these options may require more funding than a specialized one, i.e., one that is focused just on vision-based impairments. The latter type may have more control options within that single group but less diversity. We recommend going broad first and investing in other options later.

Budget Appropriateness

When researching different accessibility platforms, like accessiBe and others, it is important to make sure that they meet your overall budget needs. You may have a smaller amount of cash to spend on these upgrades than you want and need to fit into a tight restriction to keep your company operating.

Thankfully, many of these software platforms have budget-friendly options, such as affordable memberships or subscriptions, or one-time payments, rather than recurring accessibility tests. In this way, you can get some accessibility assistance without allocating an abundance of financial resources. 

Website Adaptability

Great software seamlessly adapts to multiple websites to keep your site free of digital barriers. For example, it not only executes accessibility options for Windows or Mac computers, but for options like Linux and cell-phone-based browsers. This factor is important because many people prefer portable tech.

These browsers may include options like Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge, among many others. Research what kind of browsers your users prefer and try to focus on them. However, you should also make sure that you integrate as many browser upgrades as possible.

Legal Appropriateness

High-quality accessibility software is designed to meet legally defined safety concepts to ensure that your site is accessible and inclusive. Talk to the vendor about how they follow these guidelines, including the options used to ensure that your site works well for people with various accessibility inquiries.

Thankfully, most programs also have testing capabilities that you can use to make sure you follow these guidelines. Check with each vendor to see what other options they utilize to actualize these legal factors, such as automatic testing algorithms and more.

User Reviews

When researching your website content accessibility software options, it is important to check out various consumer reviews. Reading through accessiBe reviews and other software options can help you gauge what kind of quality they bring to the market and what features they may provide you.

Note the many five-star and one-star reviews you’re likely to see when reading reviews: users often go to extremes when reviewing with little middle ground. However, the two- and three-star reviews are often the most honest, so read through them to learn more about a product.

Doing Your Research

The best step that you can take here is to sit down and research the different platforms for your website. Each has different benefits and options that make them worth considering. For example, some may suit specific web styles better than others. So talk to as many vendors as possible to get great results. So get out there and start talking to different vendors to learn more about what options may be best for your overall needs as a company.