The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) seeks to ensure individuals with disabilities or special needs receive equal rights and opportunities just like everyone else. The ADA applies to the digital world as much as it does to the physical world. Essentially, your practice website should be designed to be accessible by people with vision, hearing, and other physical impairments. Here are 5 benefits of having an ADA compliant website:
1. Reach a larger audience: According to statistics, about 15% of the global population is disabled. In the US alone, there are approximately 40 million individuals with some form of disability. Many of these individuals may not be able to access your website if it is not ADA compliant.
2. Better search engine optimization (SEO): Websites that facilitate assistive technologies such as screen readers for the visually impaired, machine-readable text for images, and captioning for the hearing-impaired are generally ranked higher by search engines.
3. Boosts online reputation: Potential patients with disabilities who visit your website are likely to be impressed with its easy accessibility as compared to websites that are not ADA compliant and they may recommend your services to friends and family or provide favorable online reviews that help boost your online reputation.
4. Higher conversion rate: Creating a website that is easy to navigate and operate can help all individuals, including patients with disability, easily find what they are looking for on your website and this can lead to reduced bounce rates and increased conversions as more patients seek out your medical services.
5. Avoiding potential legal issues: When the Americans with Disabilities Act was first passed as a federal law in 1990, not many companies or medical practices were on the internet and hence the ADA did not specifically mention medical websites. However, this is not the case today. It is in your best interests to ensure your practice website is ADA compliant to avoid potentially costly legal issues.
With an increasing number of patients seeking medical care online, it is easy to understand why an ADA compliant medical website should be considered more of a necessity than a luxury. By not ensuring your website is easily accessible to patients with disabilities you could be missing out on a significant opportunity to grow your practice.
Your Practice Online is now offering our clients affordable ADA-compliant website solutions, including educational videos with closed captions and text size options that make it easier for all users to read and comprehend information.
Contact us today at info info@yourpracticeonline.net or by calling (877) 388-8569 to upgrade your existing website or build a new website that is compliant with the ADA.
Sources:
2. https://www.neptuneweb.com/blog/is-your-website-ada-compliant
