Web Site Accessibility Blog

Search Engine Strategies New York is wrapping up – I’m on my way to the last session of the day. Speaking at the last session of the last day is always an interesting prospect, but it is also the most fun, as everyone loosens up.

Earlier in the week I was on a Site Architecture panel and was able to speak to architecture from an Accessibility standpoint. Audiences seem to be more and more receptive to this message. I’ve been intertwining accessibility into my search engine marketing sessions for almost three years now, and the mood seems to be changing.

Audiences are surprised to hear that basic accessibility is also basic search engine optimization. That creating an accessible site can be done while optimizing a site. The perception is that accessibility is a long, arduous and expensive process, however, anyone who looks at the W3C checklist will see differently. Those checkpoints are not just good accessibility but good marketing techniques as well. What is even more surprising is that the majority of site owners that I have talked to at this conference do not know what their site looks like in a cell phone or mobile device.

Of course, bringing the mobile device into play creates another set of priorities for a site owner. Accessibility is important, but mobile device accessibility brings the point home more effectively. That’s the good and bad of the issue. The mobile device issue is the one that pushes the site owner or manager over the edge. I’m glad people are taking the issue more seriously – part of me just wishes it was for accessibility alone that they would see the potential.