Five Reasons Why Accessibility Matters to Government Contractors

By Aaron Taylor

On June 25, 2001, legislation went into effect mandating broad compliance with new federal accessibility standards. These standards, laid out in the Section 508 amendment to the 1973 Workforce Rehabilitation Act, had a huge impact on the way government contractors deliver IT services to federal agencies. Most state governments quickly followed suit with similar requirements.

While there is no law that requires a government contractor — or any business, for that matter — to apply accessibility standards to their own website, there are a lot of good reasons for doing so. Here are my top five:

1. When you walk the talk, your firm may have more credibility with government buyers. By complying with federal regulations on your own website, you demonstrate that you are more than a competent doer, you are a believer.
2. Accessibility helps more than blind people. If your website meets accessibility standards, it can be read and understood on a wide range of platforms, including old web browsers and any cell phone or PDA that has Internet access.
3. You are forced you to think about presenting your message in a clear and orderly way. Clarity means improved understanding.
4. Accessible sites are easily crawled and indexed by search engines, which means they are great for SEO.
5. You increase your potential audience — more than 10 percent of Americans have a disability that affects their ability to experience the web to its fullest. That’s a significant underserved population.

Keep in mind that accessibility doesn’t begin and end at your website. Any electronic document (such as PDFs and Word files) or public-facing computerized platforms can be made more accessible if you just make the effort. When you make an ongoing commitment to accessibility you not only improve your marketing, you become better at providing service to your government clients.