May 18th is celebrated as Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a worldwide event to promote awareness about Web Accessibility.

Recognizing the shared responsibility to ensure that all people can freely access and interact on the web, this international movement brings together developers from around the world with the goal of raising awareness about the importance of digital accessibility.

The aim is to learn, think about, and discuss accessibility in digital technologies such as websites, mobile devices, software, etc., as well as to broaden understanding about the different types of users that exist, including all people with disabilities.

This includes focusing on content, navigation, and interaction, which are fundamental issues to ensure that all people, regardless of their abilities, can access online information and services.

For this reason, the participation of technology and computer science professionals, key players in creating a more inclusive and accessible world, is encouraged.

In this article, we will talk about the importance of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, web accessibility, and how we can work together to improve it.

Importance of Global Accessibility Awareness Day

From both a civil rights and business perspective, older people and those with disabilities are currently being underserved by today’s digital services and products.

According to the 2023 WebAIM Million study, 96.3% of homepages included in this report would have thrown errors in relation to WCAG compliance levels.

The most common errors detected on homepages include:

• Low contrast text: 83.6%.
• Lack of alternative text for images: 58.2%.
• Empty links: 50.1%.
• Lack of form input labels: 45.9%.
• Empty buttons: 27.5%.
• Lack of document language: 18.6%.

This reality must change. If we convince ourselves that all people deserve an optimal, high-level digital experience, both users and owners of digital platforms can expect satisfactory results when experiencing and implementing accessible digital services, content, and products.

We call this possibility web accessibility, which we can briefly define as the ability of a website to be used by all people, including those who are older or live with some form of disability.

Let’s remember that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that all people have the right to access information and communication technologies, including web access.

If we add to this statement the different local regulations such as the European Accessibility Act, along with international accessibility guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – WCAG, we could say that all the mechanisms are in place to make web accessibility a reality.

In this way, web accessibility has been gaining much importance in information technologies, always with the aim of allowing free access to online information and services regardless of the user’s abilities.

Achieve web accessibility with inSuit

Ensuring web accessibility on your pages and mobile applications is very simple with inSuit.

On the one hand, we have developed the inSuit Tools® accessibility platform, a solution that enhances web accessibility and usability in a simple way for the website owner.

inSuit Tools® transforms a website in real-time based on WCAG and WAI-ARIA, customized by our experts in accessibility and usability, providing users with a series of free technical aids for navigation that meet their needs.

With this implementation, the free interaction between users and various technological devices will be smooth regardless of the condition. Among the technical aids for navigation, we offer the following:

• Keyboard navigation.
• Voice command navigation.
• Sound-based navigation.
• Simple button navigation.
• Switch navigation.
• Navigation for people with low vision.
• Optimization for screen readers and other external aids.
• Simple navigation through large texts.

Furthermore, inSuit Tools® includes a remediation service that makes real-time changes to the web, thereby resolving most of the errors found in the accessibility review without the website owner having to alter the original code. This allows the website to achieve a better rating and greater regulatory compliance.

On the other hand, we have developed our inSuit 360® services, which, with the combination of technology, processes, people, and legal expertise, provide an optimal, fast, simple, and secure solution to comply with national and international web accessibility standards.

In addition, we offer a process that, once passed, allows obtaining our AA Level Accessibility Certification, a quality guarantee if you want your website to be accredited in digital accessibility.

Do you want to know how inSuit Tools® works?

Now you know! The best way to commemorate Global Accessibility Awareness Day is by ensuring that your applications and portals have the required digital accessibility.

We must remember that Directive (EU) 2016/2102, based on the WCAG 2.1 guidelines, establishes the obligation of accessibility for the websites and mobile applications of government entities.

To assist in this task, we have also developed the inSuit Compliance® platform, which allows for continuous and straightforward compliance with all tasks and legal obligations, ensuring accessibility and usability to all websites and mobile applications in the public sector.
With digital accessibility, we all win, so contact us if you want more information about our services and contribute to making the web accessible for everyone.