Most web sites involve accessibility testing at some point in the web development stage. But the best journey from a customer point of view doesn't necessarily match the best journey from a commercial perspective. For example, in the offline world, supermarkets place essentials such as milk and bread at the back, forcing customers to walk past everything else, in the hope it will get them to buy more.

The accessibility debate has moved on from being simply about making a site easy for consumers to navigate, to making it more persuasive from a commercial perspective. There is also the issue of advertising, which is constantly evolving with new flashy formats being developed all the time. However, is accessibility incompatible with good commerce? We outline below some of the arguments that says, the two can be mutually beneficial:

Accessibility is still a competitive advantage

The majority of sites have accessibility issues to one degree or another. This can be poor navigation, poorly laid out sites or poor functionality such as searches that don't return what you want. The first rule of web development is Don't put any barriers to entry to your products in front of prospective customers. If your site is more usable than your competitors, you are more likely to attract, retain and transact with visitors

Disability is an issue

There are over seven million people in the UK who are disabled to some degree. Beyond this there are many more millions who are not used to using computers or specific features such as drop-down menus. These are very valid audiences and prospective customers. Not only will ensuring a site works for them by using variable text size; multiple ways of navigating a site; and ensuring your site works in alternative browsers such as audio browsers; benefit them, you also ensure maximum exposure to the targets audience possible and make your site very friendly to search engines.

We all want intuitive sites

An expert user will not object to a simple intuitive site, without the latest technology and use of graphics. Look at the highest transactional sites, Google, Ebay, Amazon and Yahoo. The design looks stuck in the 90's but it works, because they are intuitive and easy to use. They have spent fortunes on the accessibility vs. income debate. Use them as your R & D and take the best of what they are doing.

Accessibility can add value

Good website accessibility is not a barrier, to engaging in good commerce. You can provide the positive experience that the visitor expects and needs but present the information in a way that benefits you. For example, when we created the LSO website, we ensured the search feature worked comprehensively but was always geared around pushing the product first in a useful way. So whatever the visitor searched for, whether composer, conductor, specific music, we always presented related performances first, followed by CDs then articles.

Meet their needs, take their cash

Good web site accessibility means providing what the user wants, so without making it intrusive, use the information you have on them to present information that is more likely to make them transact with you. If you invest in good underlying technology, you can create meaningful relationships between your products, services, affiliates etc. You can then relate this to the information you have on your visitors, based upon how they have transacted with you in the past, what they have searched on and past pages they have visited. By linking past actions and your related products you can present specific products, goods and information to people that is more likely to meet their specific needs.



Tags: functionality, barriers to entry, point of view, maximum exposure, poor navigation, offline world, prospective customers, journey, audiences, drop down menus, competitive advantage, disability, supermarkets, development stage, using computers