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A11y Accessibility - What is A11y?
January 14 , 2018
What is A11y? A11y is another way of writing the word ‘accessibility’. It’s an abbreviated version for the Internet and social media world to make it easier to write. ‘A’ is the first letter; there are 11 letters in-between, and ‘y’ at the end. A11Y is what is known as a numeronym, somewhat similar to an acronym. Essentially, numbers are used in place of letters to achieve the desired result. You may be familiar with other numeronyms, such as “K-9” for “Canine” or “W3C” for “World Wide Web Consortium”.
One of the motivations for a numeronym is the limited space available on social media platforms for posting content. For example, on Twitter - where the character limit was 140
- by replacing the hashtag #accessibility with #a11y, the author now has another 9 characters available to them. Easily enough for another one or two important words on the subject of accessibility.
Accessibility (a11y) is a measure of a computer system`s accessibility to all people, including those with disabilities or impairments. It concerns both software and hardware and how they are configured in order to enable a disabled or impaired person to use that computer system successfully.
Accessibility is also known as assistive technology.
Accessibility refers to how software or hardware combinations are designed to make a system accessible to persons with disabilities, such as:
Visual impairment
Hearing loss
Limited dexterity
And more
A11y compliance are global, and as a business, it is important to know if you are A11y compliant, specially with the new regulations like Section 508 or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the USA, or the European Union Law EU 301549
You want to expand your revenue stream and do some good for the world in process? Increase the audience of your site! You must always be aware that not working on the web accessibility of your site means deprives your organization from millions of potential visitors, that counts for 15% and 20% of the population because suffering from visual, hearing or motor handicap. By improving the accessibility of your website, Equalweb will allow you to reach a wider audience and increase traffic.
Put the exit dream aside. Every startup aspires to accumulate a large number of enterprise customers - the kind whose logo, when posted on the site, would display a kind of "industry standard” and identify them as a reliable market-leading company. About half of startup companies fail at this task - how can they succeed in their own right and sell their services directly to enterprise-level organizations?
THE MOST PROMISING ACCESSIBILITY SOLUTION - The value of a digital solution hinges on its ability to provide effortless accessibility functions to end consumers without compromising user experiences. Along the same lines, a website that fails to help differently-abled patrons attain equal experiences is bound to tarnish an organization’s hard-earned reputation. A lack of special web features prevents disabled people from navigating the vast online information realm and isolates them from the general society. Hence, a company’s digital architecture must be as hospitable and inclusive as its brick-and-mortar facilities.
