Web Site Accessibility for Business Dummies: Squiz Names the Six Reasons You Should Care

Squiz, developer of leading enterprise open source CMS, MySource Matrix, today announced the availability of its new report on Web Accessibilty, which suggests that businesses of all sizes are missing simple opportunities to create new leads and generate new sales as a result of neglecting standard web accessibility practices.

The paper outlines six key business cases for implementing web accessibility measures, and how they will help to improve a company’s bottom line. In addition, it provides a wealth of information about best practice guidelines from the W3C and how firms can build accessibility into their web production processes at low cost and with a minimum of fuss.

Squiz’s six ‘business cases’ for implementing accessible web sites are:

…to generate more site traffic through improved SEO
…to create better user experiences, leading to more conversions
…to attract and retain a wider audience, including those with disabilities
…to reduce ongoing maintenance costs through the use of more flexible technologies
…to reduce site development times by creating greater site flexibility
…to reduce general legal exposures

The 20 page report is available for download free via Squiz’s web site at: http://www.squiz.co.uk/resources/accessibility_whitepaper

The implementation guidelines, which have been compiled by Squiz’s top development team, provide readers with a step-by-step overview of how to best build an accessible web site, including detailed breakdowns on key technology considerations, such as best practices for implementing accessible HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash and Video. In addition, the paper examines each of the W3C’s ‘Priority 1’ Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) and suggests how they can be satisfied in line with current web technologies.

“Through our work with leading public organizations like The Royal College of Nursing and Oxford University, we’ve come to learn a thing or two about web accessibility,” said Steve Morgan, Managing director at Squiz UK. “And aside from showing firms how it should be done, we can also demonstrate that the benefits of good accessibility are further reaching than most people assume.”

“Whilst extending your services to an important audience - the disabled – is critical, we can show you that an accessible site will enhance your SEO, make your site more usable, reduce your ongoing costs and widen your future development choices. Now in my book that’s pretty much a ‘wish list’ for the ideal web site – and this new, free white paper tells you how to do it.”

About Squiz

Squiz helps some of the UK’s leading organisations to gain more control of their web sites and intranets. For example, Oxford University, The Royal College of Nursing and Future Publishing all use Squiz’s MySource Matrix Content Management System. In doing so they’re saving money, improving the services they’re delivering to users, and gaining more control of their web development. We develop MySource Matrix as an open source product and then provide support services around it to help our clients get more value from their web spend. We’re kind of like the Red Hat of the CMS world. Our approach is successful because of the strength of our CMS and our experience in diverse fields. We’re also cost-effective because being open source, MySource Matrix costs nothing to acquire or use.