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Expect a year of change in the world of websites, as cutting-edge AI technology takes center stage.

2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for website design and development, with many trends set to make a big impact on the industry. In this article, we’ll take a look at seven key trends to watch out for in the coming year.

1. AI design becomes mainstream

AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E-2 took the internet by storm towards the end of 2022 and it doesn’t look like the hype is going to die down in 2023. Already we’re seeing users using AI tools to inspire design and content ideas and save time. Expect to see more AI-generated website designs and more tough conversations on who owns what when it comes to AI-generated art.

If you’ve watched any sci-fi movie ever then you might recognize large steps in AI technology as the start of the end. In truth, it’s unlikely we’re going to see a time-traveling Arnie any time soon. Instead, there’s potential for AI to inspire us to break conformity when it comes to web design.

Over the years web design has fallen into a repetitive routine, they might all be different, but they essentially all look the same. We’ve decided on what a good website looks like and we all aspire to it instead of innovating. There’s a chance that AI-generated designs could be the push we need to start.

2. AI-generated content will be everywhere

On the content side of things, users of AI technology such as ChatGPT are already realizing its potential to change the game. Much like the in-demand skill of “Good at Googling”, it seems 2023 will be the year in which the art of prompt writing for AI tools becomes a valid skill for the resume.

Content marketing has long been a core pillar of an organization’s digital marketing strategy. But releasing a variety of content is often a challenge. Tools like ChatGPT make it a walk in the park. Expect savvy entrepreneurs to integrate AI tools into their websites to automate SEO-boosted blog articles, social media posts, and emails during 2023. In fact, we expect over a million web pages will contain AI-generated content before the end of 2023.

There are other steps to take too. Website chatbots are likely to install advanced AI to provide a more authentic and personalized experience for users. It is hard to say whether it’ll be indistinguishable from a human before the end of the year. But considering these AI tools are still in their infancy, it wouldn’t be surprising.

3. Cookies are dying

It’s been 10 years since Safari and Firefox browsers began taking internet privacy seriously and disabled the use of third-party cookies. Now, Google is finally catching up. In fact, it’s been “catching up” for a while.

Google announced it would be dropping third-party cookies on the Chrome browser back in January 2020. Now, it looks like they’re finally going to make good on that promise by the end of 2024. Expect 2023 to be the year that many organizations start thinking about alternative “cookie-free” technologies.

When cookies are finally no more, it’s going to mean big changes for many organizations. They’ll need to rewrite their software to follow the new rules. So yes, cookies are dying, but despite the efforts of companies like us creating cookie-free analytics solutions, the cookie banner is likely here to stay.

Despite this, website professionals should be aware that the way they collect and process data is going to change significantly. This is a great opportunity to rethink how to approach user data and make sure that data privacy is at the forefront of your website strategy.

4. Apple is looking at changing reality

Apple is expected to release Reality OS or xrOS, its new VR or AR project this year. There’s a lot of speculation about what it will exactly be – likely a VR headset/AR glasses combo that they hope will be the next big thing in consumer technology. While the tech is likely to be out of most people’s budget on release day, it could have a huge impact on web design and development.

The real question is, how do you build a website that works in augmented reality? How do users navigate? How do you optimize it? All these questions are speculative right now but 2023 is likely to be the year we start getting answers. If the tech is as big as rumors suggest, it’ll make website professionals rethink everything they know about website design. It’ll have a huge positive impact on digital accessibility and so a fully accessible web may be a lot closer than we think.

5. The next generation of voice control

The next level of sophisticated voice recognition technology, such as OpenAI’s Whisper, means we’ll likely see more voice-controlled devices and web navigation tools. This will be game-changing for web accessibility and will allow users to navigate a website using voice commands, rather than a mouse and keyboard.

6. Google will enable new web transitions

Earlier in 2022 we looked at Google’s new web transitions that allow the simple implementation of fancy animated transitions across a website. It’s the first step towards making websites look and feel more like native apps. Right now they are being tested but it is likely they’ll be released later in 2023.

7. WCAG 2.2 will finally release

After numerous delays, the next version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is set to release in 2023. If you want to know more about what’s coming up in WCAG 2.2, you can watch our on-demand webinar or watch our YouTube series on WCAG 2.2.

It’s unlikely WCAG 2.2 will be upheld as a legal requirement any time soon. But it’s important to be aware of the changes that are coming. Particularly as organizations such as the Department of Justice have been working hard to hold organizations with inaccessible websites legally accountable.

8. Everyone is going dark mode

When it comes to design, more and more users are switching to dark mode on their devices, and it’s no surprise that this trend is set to continue in 2023. Expect to see more websites offering toggles for users to switch between light and dark modes to reduce eye strain and improve website readability.

9. A legal focus on privacy

Privacy laws are on the rise in the US inspired by GDPR regulations in Europe, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Privacy laws on the way that will be enforced in 2023 specifically include:

• The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“Virginia Act”) – effective January 1, 2023

• The Colorado Privacy Act (“Colorado Act”) – effective July 1, 2023

• The Connecticut Act Concerning Personal Data Privacy and Online Monitoring (“Connecticut Act”) – effective July 1, 2023

• The Utah Privacy Act (“Utah Act”) – effective December 1, 2023

Collectively, these are known as the “2023 State Privacy Laws”, and will require organizations to update existing privacy notices, extend additional rights to consumers and update contracts with vendors.

You can read more about the 2023 State Privacy Laws, what they include and what steps to take to prepare here.

10. Introducing Progressive Web Apps

We’ve heard a lot of buzz recently about Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). This looks to be the next step to bridge the gap between websites and native apps. For example, PWAs work offline and can access the user’s camera or photo album at their permission. It seems PWAs are a direct response to the increasing amount of users that browse the web on mobile compared with desktop.

It’s unlikely it’ll become the norm for all organizations. Instead, it’ll be a niche case for social media websites and other sites with a high volume of visitors. Here’s a great video about PWAs and how to build them yourself in case you’re interested.

In conclusion, 2023 is set to be a year of big changes and exciting developments in the world of website design and development. With so many new trends and technologies on the horizon, it’s an exciting time to be a part of the industry. Stay ahead of the curve by keeping an eye on these trends, and by being mindful of the legal and ethical implications of these new technologies.

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The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is coming in 2025. Will we finally see improvements in private sector web accessibility?

For some years, the EU public sector has enjoyed the benefits of the EU Web Accessibility Directive – legislation that mandates publicly-funded websites in the EU to be accessible to WCAG 2.1 standards. It was implemented back in September 2020.

What’s been lacking is similar legislation aimed at EU privately-owned businesses. Until now, the private sector has avoided legislation with any teeth in terms of web accessibility. And unfortunately, it shows. We’ve already talked extensively about the disparity between web accessibility in the public and private sectors.

In short, the private sector has, on the whole, far less accessible websites than the public sector. In some sectors, shockingly so.

Two examples of the worst-performing sectors overall in the Silktide Index (our global league table for web accessibility) are grocery stores and fashion retail. This hasn’t exactly been ideal for people stuck at home for extended periods of time during a pandemic.

What is the EAA?

In summary, the European Accessibility Act aims to “harmonize accessibility requirements for certain products and services”. It aims to benefit businesses, the elderly, and people with disabilities. It also aims to clarify existing accessibility obligations in EU law.

From 28 June 2025, the following products and services will be covered by the Directive:

Products

• computers and operating systems
• payment terminals, ATMs, self-service ticket machines, and information terminals
• smartphones and other equipment for accessing telecommunications services
• TV equipment including digital television services
• e-readers

Services

• telephony services
• services to access audiovisual media services
• certain elements of air, bus, rail, and water transport services, such as websites, mobile services, electronic tickets, and information;
• consumer banking
• e-books
• e-commerce
• answering emergency calls to the “112” European emergency number

In terms of the web, the most relevant items here are e-commerce (although this is rather a broad term – more on that later) and specific references to ticketing systems and informational websites.

Importantly, the legislation will not apply to websites and other forms of archive material not updated or edited after 28 June 2025. Nor will it apply to pre-recorded videos published before that date.

The specific accessibility requirements for services include:

• providing information about the service, its accessibility features, and facilities
• making websites and mobile devices easily accessible
• applying practice and policies to address the needs of people with disabilities

What does this mean?

The specific wording of the legislation is available here but it’s a bit involved. I’ll try and summarize the relevant points as they refer to websites.

Audiovisual services

These include websites, web apps, smart TV apps, mobile apps, and related media players and connected TV services.

The Act specifically states that these examples must allow users with disabilities to access them using assistive technologies.

Travel

Real-time travel information must be accessible for rail, air, bus, and water transportation services. This includes information through websites, mobile services and interactive screens, and information terminals.

Important information including pre-journey information, timetables, cancellation and delay notifications, and the available products and services should all be accessible.

The Directive also includes the websites and mobile apps of operators in these sectors. The Index already includes rail operator websites. We’ll expand it in the future to cover other transportation sectors.

E-commerce websites of travel operators are already covered under the EU Web Accessibility Directive – specifically in the sale of tickets for such services online.

Finance

Online banking websites and apps need to be accessible under the EEA. However, there aren’t any specifics on exactly how yet. The wording is (emphasis mine) ‘this Directive should establish common accessibility requirements for certain banking and financial services provided to consumers’.

So while they should establish the requirements, it doesn’t look like they have yet.

Ecommerce

Ok, here’s the big one. When I was researching this post and read “e-commerce” my initial thoughts were, “I hope they don’t just limit this to the travel sector” – mainly because that wouldn’t go far enough.

But it turns out that “e-commerce” does indeed cover all online transactions in the EU. This is, frankly, huge news. Here’s the wording (emphasis mine):

“The e-commerce services accessibility obligations of this Directive should apply to the online sale of any product or service and should therefore also apply to the sale of a product or service covered in its own right under this Directive.”

So, my understanding of this (and I Am Not A Lawyer) is that all e-commerce transactions in the EU will be covered, along with those products and services covered in this Directive.

Now, there are some exclusions. SME’s and other small enterprises should be exempted based on ‘disproportional burden’ – that is, the cost to small businesses of implementing everything in the Directive should not be too high compared to their profitability.

In fact, SMEs and Microenterprises are protected under the Directive, which has adopted a “think small first” principle. You can read more about that in paragraph 64.

What are the accessibility requirements?

Annex I of the Directive contains a very long list of requirements for the products and services covered.

In summary, the products and services need to be designed with the four accessibility principles in mind (perceivable, operable, understandable, robust).

Information should be made available via more than one sensory channel. A good example of this would be something like adding audio descriptions to videos or adding alternative text to images.

Some of the wording is a little vague. For example, in reference to banking services and e-commerce respectively:

• “providing identification methods, electronic signatures, security, and payment services which are perceivable, operable, understandable and robust”
• “ensuring the accessibility of the functionality for identification, security, and payment when delivered as part of a service instead of a product by making it perceivable, operable, understandable and robust”

That said, examples of solutions to common problems are given in Annex II, which is useful. For example:

• “Making the identification dialogues on a screen readable by screen readers so that blind persons can use them.”
• “Making the payment service user interface available by voice so that blind persons can make online purchases independently.”

What about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)?

WCAG isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Directive. If you don’t know what WCAG is, here’s a 30-second video that explains it.

Why’s that important? Well, WCAG (as you’ll now know if you watched the video) is a set of standards that aims to actually list out all the specific things you should do to make your website more accessible.

It’s a pretty good starting point for most websites, and in fact, the EU Web Accessibility Directive, aimed at the public sector, states that WCAG 2.1 Level AA is where you should aim.

Now, the EAA doesn’t mention this specifically for any of the products or services it covers, but it’s probably a wise idea to aim for the same standards while they decide.

If you want to, you can read through all the WCAG 2.1 guidelines here.

The first thing you’ll notice if you click that link is that WCAG is hard. Really hard. It’s not written in a particularly user-friendly way, and even the web developers who it’s aimed at have difficulty understanding its nuance.

What’s the solution to an inaccessible website?

There are two areas of responsibility when it comes to website accessibility.

• content – usually added by individual contributors across multiple teams, like the marketing and communications team
• the theme and underlying code – usually built and maintained by your developers

I wrote an article about who is responsible for web accessibility (spoiler alert – it’s everybody).

What are the next steps for EU business owners?

So, you have a couple of years before you have to do anything, right? Well, technically, yes. But the ROI of good web accessibility is real, and the sooner you start making your website better, the more income you’ll make and the better you’ll help people access your website.

Also, if you currently know nothing about accessibility (and this is way more common than you might think, so you’re not alone), you’ll need time to consider your options.

First, write an accessibility statement. This should outline your commitment to accessibility and list the areas that you need to improve, and also the steps you’re taking to improve.

Second, check your site for accessibility problems. Obviously, we can help you with that here at Silktide.

Third, consider downloading our free book on accessibility because it gives you a good introduction to what accessibility is and who it affects. It also includes real-world data outlining the top issues we find with our web accessibility testing platform.

It’s aimed at beginners, and you can download the free accessibility book here.

Finally, don’t be overwhelmed. The public sector got through this a couple of years ago, and in fact, they now excel in web accessibility. UK Local and Central Government, for example, rank at the top of all global websites for accessibility. The improvements made during 2020 running up to the EU Web Accessibility Directive deadline were phenomenal, and you can do it too.

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Here are some of the things that we do to make remote working the best way of working.

Back in 2020 employees around the world had no choice but to pack up their desks and set up an office at home. Today, remote working is the new norm. For a lot of organizations anyway.

Consider that people have different preferences. We understand that some people thrive in an office environment and others in their comfy home office. So, why not give employees the choice?

There are a lot of strong opinions about the benefits of remote work online, including claims that “a switch to permanent remote work would make us all less productive”, from the Washington Post.

I get it, and in some circumstances, I think that remote working could kill productivity. But I think that it comes down to how a business handles remote working. Without specific measures in place to help and truly support remote working, then it’s unsurprising.

Here at Silktide, we think that we’re doing remote work better. So, here are some of our solutions to the common challenges with working remotely and how we keep up productivity.

Relationships

In a traditional office environment it’s easy to build relationships with colleagues during a chat over the desk, a catch-up by the water cooler, or just over lunch.

If you and your colleagues are working from home then it’s much harder to build these relationships. Yet they are super important when it comes to having a team that works together efficiently. At Silktide, we do a bunch of things to tackle this.

One thing that every employee does is write their own personal README. Just like a README document that may come with a software download that tells you how to get started, a personal README is a short guide on how to get started with that person. It contains information about their job, experience, and what they can help with but also their hobbies, interests, and future goals.

It’s a great way to get to know people new and old so that you can easily build those relationships as you would if you were sat across the same desk.

Now we can’t take all of the credit. Employees at Slack, Google, Netflix, and GOV UK also use personal READMEs – and for good reason. I’ve found them invaluable when it comes to working with a remote team effectively.

While we all work “remote”, we still have offices in the US and UK. They’re perfect for regular meet-ups, meeting new employees, and, importantly, giving people the choice of where they’d prefer to work. You can’t assume everyone likes to work the same way.

Capturing the office vibe

Transitioning from a busy office environment to a new remote working role can be difficult for some people. I hate noise, so working in my almost silent office is a luxury for me. But others might miss that background chatter or the casual over-the-desk chats you’d get in an office.

At Silktide, many of our team members may host a background Zoom call for anyone to join to get a taste of that background office chat. They’re never scheduled in and there’s never any pressure to join. But for those who miss the office “buzz”, it’s a perfect substitute.

Getting set up

One challenge with remote working is that you never know the conditions of someone’s home working environment. Some people may be working from the kitchen countertop whereas others may have their own dedicated office space. You can’t always assume that everyone has the same kind of working environment.

That’s why Silktide provides all of its employees with an office budget that they can spend on a good desk, office chair, monitors, and anything else that they need in order to work comfortably.

And that’s not all, all new starters get their choice of laptop equipment since we know that people like to work in different ways. Ensuring that every employee has what they need to work effectively in their own remote environment is obvious to us.

Healthy working

If the pandemic taught us anything it was that we all should pay greater attention to our health, both physical and mental. When working remotely it can be easy to fall into unhealthy bad habits.

It’s worth considering how you can help provide additional ways for your remote workforce to remain healthy. A healthy body means a healthy mind after all.

For many of us, the transition to remote working during the pandemic wasn’t good for the waistline. Silktide supports and encourages healthy habits by funding gym membership. So you can ensure that while working remotely you can still maintain physical health.

But it’s not just about physical health. All of us have mental health of varying degrees and it’s important, particularly in a remote working environment, that employees feel supported.

That’s why Silktide has a dedicated and qualified Mental Health First-Aider who is available to have a confidential conversation in whichever format works for you. It’s supportive and needed. I don’t think there’s any reason why every organization shouldn’t have several qualified mental health first-aiders in the workplace.

Silktide also has a different take on the outdated notion of Human Resources. Instead, Silktide has a Happiness Manager who is responsible for the traditional HR responsibilities but also has the more important role of ensuring that everyone in the organization is, well, happy. From confidential chats to regular check-ins and gifts on birthdays, our Happiness Manager plays a huge role in our remote working practices.

Slack journals

As a SaaS business, the fact that we use Slack for internal communications comes as no surprise. But we use it in some interesting ways.

Everyone at Silktide has something called a Slack Journal – even our CEO. It’s a channel that everyone in the company can view. Think of it as a diary to jot down thoughts, pain points, things you’re working on, or even out-of-work plans.

The result is something that we think is special and helps us achieve a bunch of things. In a nutshell, journals help us:

• Let everyone know what’s going on without the need for time-wasting, tedious meetings
• Improve collaboration and knowledge-sharing between teams
• Reduce the risk of stress or overwork
• Improve relationship building, as often a journal is a reflection of a person’s personality

Flexibility

In a remote environment, you may find yourself spending more time cooped up in your makeshift office than you do on the sofa in front of the TV. And so here at Silktide, it’s important that all of our staff have the flexibility to work around their life.

We don’t have set lunch times, start or end times. Instead, all we ask of our teams is that they try their best to be around during the core work hours of 10 am-4 pm when possible. The rest of their working time is down to them.

Of course, it requires a huge amount of trust and things like Slack journals help with this. Giving employees the flexibility to take a pet to the vets, pick up the kids from school or even visit a loved one help to make employees feel valued. And at Silktide, we’re big believers that our people are our most important assets.

The takeaway

While we have organizations such as Twitter and Slack that continue to support a fully remote working culture, there are others who don’t. Leaked emails from Elon Musk showed his requests for all Tesla employees to stop remote work and return to the office (understandable given the nature of what Tesla does).

Then there are the brands in-between. Google and Apple are experimenting with a more hybrid approach, providing employees with, albeit limited, flexibility in where they want to work.

So is remote work good, or bad? I think it all comes down to how you manage remote working. We respect people who think differently from us about remote working. You may think that our solutions to the challenges that come with remote working are right, wrong, or maybe even inspiring. Either way, you should be thinking about how remote working operates at your organization.

And yet importantly, our employees have the choice. We still have an office. And giving employees the choice to work the way they work best seems like a no-brainer.

There are a bunch of ways in which Silktide gets remote working right and I hope some of these can inspire other organizations to improve their ways of remote working. And if you’re looking to join a company where you can feel valued, check out our careers page to see what opportunities we’ve got available.

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Exciting news for us. We’re in the Top 50 in G2’s award category, “Content Management Software”.

For those of you who don’t know, our mission is to help make the web a better place. We do this by helping large organizations find and fix website problems with web accessibility, content, marketing, privacy, user experience, and more.

In fact, I’ll let Jess explain it in this wonderful video.

Suffice it to say, receiving this award is a great honor and we thank all of our lovely customers for saying lovely things about us over the last few years over on our G2 page.

Why not head over to our web accessibility page and find out how we can help you make your websites more accessible too?

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Building a new website, or having someone else build it for you, is a great opportunity to fail spectacularly.

Normally, you only update a few things at a time, in a continual process of adding content or tweaking designs. But in a full website redesign and migration, you’re changing everything at once.

Your online presence and your reputation are reflected in the quality of your new site.

And by quality, we’re not talking about “Look at the shiny new thing”. We’re talking about hidden things, like technical failures, poor accessibility, bad user experience, and inconsistent content.

“New and shiny” does not always mean “better”.

80% of website redesigns make things worse (probably)

This flies in the face of your beliefs because you see your new website and think “wow, it’s pretty, it looks great, therefore it’s better”.

But that’s not true.

Often, the new website is slower, doesn’t convert as well, brings content problems across during migration, and has more errors.

This is normal.

How to migrate a website properly

Migrating a website is hard. There are a tonne of things to consider.

Before, during, and after a website migration is the perfect time to use automated testing software (like Silktide). Here’s a three-step workflow with an explanation as to why:

Before: Profile the existing site

Before you do anything, you need to profile your existing site, create an inventory of all your content, and importantly, take note of all the existing issues in your content.

There’s no point in blindly copying your content when it’s already littered with spelling errors and broken links.

I know the counter to this is “My website doesn’t have any spelling errors or broken links”. But how do you know? I mean, really know that your website is perfect. Have you read every single word, checked every single sentence, and clicked every single link?

And if you have, did you do it properly?

Nobody can be expected to manually check a website of many hundreds or even thousands of pages for these kinds of issues. So unless you’re completely scrapping all of your content entirely, you should check everything so you have at least a benchmark or starting point for comparison.

During: Profile the development site

Before you create or import your content into the development site, you should check your templates for spelling, broken links, and accessibility issues.

It’s a good idea, and much cheaper, to do this before you’ve built out 20,000 expensive pages based on an inaccessible or slow-loading foundation.

After: Continuously monitor everything

By testing after launch and on an ongoing basis, you can be immediately made aware of a catalog of issues that you somehow missed during the “adding content” stage.

You can triage the most important and assign them to people to deal with them in a more efficient and productive way.

Measure the improvements (or otherwise)

Automated website testing software like Silktide is very smart, but ultimately, completely indifferent to how you feel.

This is a good thing because it will give it to you straight. Did your website get empirically better or worse once migrated?

Remember, “How shiny is it?” is in no way related to “How good is it”.

In fact, of all the things Silktide tests, “shininess” is not one of them.

Silktide gives you scores for everything (you can even choose your website sections which each have their own scores).

The result? A cold, hard number that compares before and after.

“My agency is doing it for me and they said it’ll be accessible”

Are you sure? I mean, yes, they say that, of course. But are you sure it’ll be accessible? Do you know the developer who’s building it? Do they have a proven track record of building highly accessible sites?

Here’s a little secret. Nobody knows accessibility as well as they think they do.

This is not because they are a poor developer. It’s simply because nobody knows web accessibility in its entirety. It’s an impossibly large and broad-ranging subject, filled with nuance.

Time and time again we’ve seen relaunches of websites by agencies who say they know accessibility, yet the end result is poorer than the original.

Our own Index (our global web accessibility league table) is littered with examples of websites with accessibility issues, some of which are so severe it’s unlikely anybody using assistive technologies could perform even basic navigation.

Sure they look nice. But something that looks nice is not always the most accessible.

Again, an empirical, impartial measure of your website’s accessibility before and after the migration is the only way to be sure.

So, how can Silktide help?

First of all, Silktide finds issues across a wide range of areas on your site and presents you with a score. It then shows you where the issues are and explains in simple terms how to fix them. Once you’ve done your work, you’ll see your score increase.

The concept is very very simple, but the power lies in the way we do this. Our technology is unique. We don’t just read the code on your website, we actually load each page and view it as a human being would.

That’s why we can detect issues with, for example, mobile accessibility, that other platforms simply can’t. It’s why we can test complex user journeys, like checkouts and application forms, and report on whether they are both functional and accessible.

As they say though, “show, don’t tell”.

So click here and see Silktide for yourself.

Bonus Content – How our customers do it.

Watch a 2-minute case study to find out how Silktide can help you with migrating your website.

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Summary

• There are over 61 million adults with disabilities in the US and over 14.1 million disabled people in the UK and this number is increasing. 
• The spending power of UK families with at least one disabled person is estimated at £274 billion / year.
• 71% of disabled people abandon websites that present access barriers.
• Almost everyone experiences temporary or situational impairments (e.g. noise, poor lighting, distractions); these people benefit from web accessibility.
• 97.4% of the top 1 million websites have clear accessibility issues.
• 93% of disabled users don’t report inaccessible websites to their owners.

Defining accessibility

Web accessibility means making your website as usable as possible to the greatest number of people.

This is often seen as “people with disabilities”, but actually includes people who experience any impairment to their use of the web, including temporary impairments (e.g. a broken arm) and situational impairments (e.g. holding a baby).

The technologies which help people with traditional disabilities are equally effective on impairments – for example, captions are a solution for deaf users that also help people watching a video silently in public.

As a result, accessibility affects everyone.

Prevalence 

In the United States, 61 million people live with disabilities up from 56.7 million people in 2010.

• 6.9% of children are disabled
• 49% of working-age adults are disabled
• 43% of adults over 65 are disabled

In 2020, there were 14.1 million disabled people in the UK (source: GOV.UK). 

• 8% of children are disabled
• 19% of working-age adults are disabled
• 46% of pension-age adults are disabled

However, these figures drastically understate the number of people with a temporary or situational impairment. 

Consider that in the United States, about 26,000 people a year suffer from loss of upper extremities. But the number of people with similar temporary and situational impairments exceeds 20 million (source: Microsoft). 

Other examples:

• Distracted users, say watching TV, who benefit from websites that impose a lower cognitive burden on them
• Users with mobility impairments, say riding a train, who benefit from decently sized buttons, and forgiving controls
• Users unable to experience sound, due to their environment: at work, or at a bar

Most users are now on mobile devices, and the idea of a user sitting down to experience your website on a computer, in a quiet room is now the exception, not the rule.

Business case

Legal risk

Legal risk varies enormously by country and between private and public sector organizations. Most countries have adopted legislation build around the WCAG standard.

In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973) are widely used, and present a substantial risk of high compensation. In 2020, 10,982 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal court, a number that was barely slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

These trends are accelerating drastically. During January 2021, 1,108 cases were filed – the most ever in a single month.

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act (1995)  and Equality Act (2010) make it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide the service or providing a worse service because of their disability.

At the time of writing, although the UK public sector organizations have clearly enforced standards, the legal risk for private organizations is relatively low. A customer would need to demonstrate a breach of the Equality Act in a County or High court, which is difficult and expensive; although several cases have been initiated, all of these were settled out of court.

Globally, more legislation is being introduced over time, and although laws rarely change, the trend is clearly pointing towards more regulation with stricter enforcement.

Commercial opportunity

Modern organizations are seeing a transition similar to what happened with diversity and inclusion: what was initially seen as a frustrating new challenge, is increasingly being recognized as an incredible opportunity.

In the US, 26% of adults are reported to have a disability as of 2020, up from 18.7% in 2010.

Graph source: CDC

In the UK, 22% of all people report a disability (source: National Statistics); for people of state pension age, this is 46%. These numbers are increasing over time:

The total spending power of families with at least one disabled person in the UK is estimated at £274 billion a year. 71% of people with a disability people will abandon a website that presents them with access barriers.

Add to this the much higher number of people who have a temporary or situational disability, who benefit from the improved user experience of an accessible website.

Considered as a facet of website usability, the commercial opportunity of improving accessibility is enormous. On average, e-commerce websites that redesign for better usability double their sales; accessibility is a component of these gains.

Many components of accessibility are closely aligned with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), including the use of alternative text, headings, landmarks, semantics, captions, page titles, languages, code quality, and link size.

Improving accessibility can therefore improve search engine placement and traffic (source: W3C).

An accessible mobile experience is both a key ranking factor (source: Google) and a requirement of modern accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 and later). Websites rank differently in Google on mobile and desktop devices, depending on how accessible they are on mobile:

Brand and reputation

Organizations who embrace accessibility can benefit from the positive press that accessibility attracts, such as BBC’s coverage of Ticketmaster.

The reputational damage from being inaccessible is hard to quantify but is clearly present. Inaccessible websites are by definition, delivering an inferior user experience, which means lower customer retention, and fewer recommendations. 

Consider that the largest two companies in the world, as measured by market capitalization at the time of writing, are Microsoft and Apple. Both invest heavily into world-leading accessibility, which is prevalent throughout their products, services, training, brands, and marketing. Apple had public accessibility guidelines for their operating system back in 1987. 

Costs and solutions

The cost of making a website accessible is generally a small fraction of the overall cost of the website as a whole. This fixed cost is almost always a negligible fraction of the expected returns.

Once the correct processes, tools, and training are in place, the overhead for keeping a website accessible drops significantly, so long as it’s done properly.

A further concern can be how accessibility can reduce the responsiveness of your team. By introducing additional processes, accessibility can slow down the rate at which websites can be developed or updated.

Silktide is designed to help organizations identify and remediate accessibility issues quickly, and at scale. Wherever possible, issues are identified automatically, and Silktide helps teams share, triage, and understand how to fix them in the most efficient way.

By providing clear and transparent scoring of the different areas of your web estate, Silktide helps to align your teams. They can view their progress easily, on a regular basis, and across business departments. Together, scores help incentivize team members to care about and excel at accessibility.

Further reading

• The Business Case for Digital Accessibility (W3C)
• Accessibility of top 1 million websites (WebAIM)
• Assessing the online shopping experience of customers with disabilities, and the costs to business of ignoring them (Enterprise rent-a-car)
• We analyzed 6,554 websites for accessibility issues and here are the results (Silktide)

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It can feel overwhelming to know where to start with intentionally being more inclusive in your business. You may recognize that it’s important and the right thing to do, but you could also feel that you don’t have the time, expertise, or capacity needed to make meaningful improvements. 

As a web manager learning about digital accessibility, I’ve certainly felt like, “If I can’t be aware of and fix everything, will I open myself up to criticism by starting to make an effort?” Or, “I can influence accessibility on the website I manage, but what about the business’s other online/offline touchpoints, how can I ensure they’re inclusive?”

It’s been a case of putting my ego/fear of falling short aside and controlling what I can control. A written commitment to your users is a strong place to start. It can help you to build trust, prioritize improvements and provide accountability.

What you need to know first

As with any plan or strategy, you need to know where you’re starting from. You could completely outsource this and have a digital accessibility audit. These typically cover automated (using tools) and manual (with people) testing. 

A thorough audit will give you an overview of where the barriers are that could impact the experience of disabled people or those with situational impairments. It may also provide recommendations on how to apply fixes. 

However, this level of audit can be prohibitive, particularly for smaller businesses or larger ones with multiple websites

How to structure your statement

There isn’t a fixed structure for how you should structure your statement, but I’d advise including:

What website/s and/or apps does the statement cover?

Is it your primary domain or does it include any subdomains or other websites that your business owns?

Why is your organisation publishing this statement?

It’s tempting to write a generic statement about your business ‘being committed to as many people as possible being able to use the website’, but consider how you are going to achieve this and the trust you will risk if you don’t.

What level of compliance are you aiming for?

Most businesses will aim for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This is an industry standard but try not to be blinkered by it, as disability is a spectrum and every person’s experience is different. You may uncover in testing that there are barriers a user experiences that fall outside of WCAG’s criteria. Also, WCAG 2.2 is on the way.

What efforts have you made so far?

A summary of what you are confident isn’t currently creating barriers for users. This could include technical set-up: being able to zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen, being able to navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, etc. It could be doing regular testing with disabled users. It could be making your website text as simple as possible to understand.

Where do you know you need to improve?

It’s also important to acknowledge where improvements are needed. You may not be able to fix everything immediately, but it helps to be open about priorities and areas you’re currently working on. You could also include a link to a live roadmap.

How do you continually assess accessibility?

Websites are always evolving and accessibility is a long-term commitment, so it’s good to share how you plan ongoing improvements. This could be through regular testing with users with disabilities, regularly scanning the website with tools like the Silktide Accessibility Checker, or something less comprehensive like Google Lighthouse.

If users encounter a barrier, who can they contact?

A named or team contact and email address/phone number are useful for the user to be able to report any issues, for you to gather feedback, and to understand how a user may experience your website outside of test conditions. Be clear about what information you need to action any reports; the page/s, any assistive technology user, browser, device, etc.

An accessibility statement should be maintained like other legal documents on your website, such as your cookie or GDPR policy. That doesn’t mean it needs to be written in ‘legalese. Like all text throughout your website, it’s much more likely to be read and understood if you write in plain English (see this guide from Content Design London).

If you’re part of a public sector organization, GOV.UK gives clear guidance on what to include to be compliant with legal requirements and a sample accessibility statement. 

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Apple is the highest valued company in the world, and love them or hate them, everyone can learn from what got them there.

1. Consistency

The reason Apple announcements are so widely anticipated is because they’ve consistently done things in the past that got people excited. In one decade they introduced the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad:

That’s the equivalent of releasing four of the most successful films of all time, back to back. When someone does that, people pay attention to your next movie.

In life and in business, your brand is what you do consistently. Apple have made a point of consistently delivering high end, quality, desirable products. When you’re not consistent, you must work much harder to win people’s attention each time. Most companies have to beg and plead with us to buy their stuff. Apple could write iPhone 6 on a shoebox and get 10m pre-orders.

You are exactly the same. If you deliver consistently, your work will be prized in advance. Your reputation will accelerate your successes. But to obtain this level of consistency, you’ll need:

2. Focus

The highest valued company in the world only makes a handful of products:

Sony had more varieties of Walkman than Apple has products in total. The first thing Steve Jobs did on his return to Apple was reduce their computing line to just four models (2 desktops, 2 laptops), aiming to make each ‘best in class’.

To be consistently great, you need to focus. Thinning yourself out is a sure route to mediocrity, even for a billion dollar business. Jobs said this to Nike’s CEO:

“Nike makes some of the best products in the world. Products that you lust after. But you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

Unfortunately, as we become successful, we all tend to diversify. Companies and people are constantly beset by demands to do more. Most succumb to these demands, and are weakened, one distraction at a time.

The lesson you should learn here is to do the opposite. Use your successes to narrow your focus. Say no to almost everything, and concentrate upon:

3. Choosing the right things

Many of Apple’s best choices were widely criticized at the time, but later proved to be insightful.

For example, the iPhone launched with a seemingly primitive ‘one app at a time’ model. Apple decided that the benefits (better battery life, simplicity of use) outweighed the cons (less control for power users). Likewise for not supporting Flash, having non-removable batteries, a single locked-down App store and dropping floppy drives.

The fact that most of the industry argued these decisions were wrong (before ultimately copying them) shows you how powerful these decisions were – Apple had an unusual connection with what customers really wanted, not what the industry thought they did.

This is a hard skill to copy, and one reason why Jobs was considered a genius. But to distill part of that genius: be your own customer, and take a fresh look at things. Don’t succumb to social pressures at the expense of your own judgment. This will lead you to:

4. Distinction

Apple’s official slogan used to be Think Different, and not without reason. Their products stand out amongst a sea of rivals. In 1998, compare the first iMac:

with a traditional PC of the time:

Or the first iPhone:

with the other “hottest phones of 2007”:

The best kind of distinction is the kind that makes your customer feel distinctive. Apple have managed the trick of making themselves the Porsche of the mobile and computing world, without having to limit themselves to the top 1% of earners. Apple’s distinction was in making the right decisions (as judged by the buying public, not industry experts) and thereby inciting:

5. Desirability

Apple is a master of creating things that people want. It’s an oft overlooked business maxim that:

Product Desirability = Profitability

Through a remarkable fusion of consistency, focus, saying no, choosing the right things and distinctive products, Apple has built a brand cachet that any company would kill for. But ultimately, it’s really simple: people want their stuff.

This sounds obvious, but the majority of businesses, writers, musicians, poets and playwrights could attribute their failures to simply never creating things that people want.

One more thing

Jobs said he lived at the intersection of technology and liberal arts.

Most tech companies focus, understandably, on tech. Apple have built their success on artistic values.

To make great art, you focus on what you’re passionate about. Your work gets people excited. You make decisions that piss some people off because the otherwise your art is a slurry of mediocrity. No good artist surrenders to groupthink or is led by committee. I believe this artistic ethos is at the core of Apple’s DNA, and it’s the absolute antithesis of almost every corporation elsewhere in the world.

And it may just be the ultimate secret to their success.

What next?

All this points the way for Apple’s potential downfall. If they succumb to pressure they might start diversifying, saying yes to more, losing focus. As rivals get better at copying, they risk losing their distinction.

The biggest threat to Apple comes from within. They have built themselves upon the highest of expectations, and if they should fail them, they have a long way to fall.

Right now, Apple is the most valued company in the world. Fifteen years ago they were almost bankrupt. Whatever success they have, they earned it. All it took was a consistent, focused philosophy of saying no, focusing on the right things and building distinctive products that people want. What’s your excuse?

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Like millions of people, I was carried to work today in a comfortable metal box by the controlled explosion of 60-million-year-old dinosaur juice. (You call that petrol).

I avoided unexpected traffic on my way thanks to flying machines orbiting the earth, which talked to a metal and glass supercomputer in my pocket smaller than a bar of soap. (You call that a phone).

My pocket supercomputer is – of course – wirelessly connected to the entirety of humanity’s knowledge. The entirety of humanity’s knowledge is – of course – free. And I can search all of it as fast as I can type.

None of this is even interesting to anyone anymore.

At work, I help make software, which is to say I am able to benefit the lives of people mostly by thinking and occasionally pressing some buttons on a surface. Somehow, I am paid for this.

At the supermarket I look for bananas, which have been transported five thousand miles for my convenience, yet remain fresh, tasty, and so cheap I don’t even notice their price (12 pence). I enjoy food without even considering the possibility that it might be diseased, or toxic, or fatal. I buy a plump, delicious chicken – the byproduct of a thousand years of careful breeding – and let machines scan my choices with beams of light and pay them with a thin piece of plastic. If I run out of money, there are whole industries competing to loan me some, for a price.

Best of all, I realize, I have my place amongst all of this wonder, and so do most people around me. My trip to the supermarket likely helped employ a hundred thousand people or more; from chefs to engineers, shelf stackers to logo designers. A few of those people are in their dream jobs, most less so, but together we’re all a lot more prosperous and opportune than when we built our own shacks and dug dry vegetables out of our gardens.

Is this world perfect? No. Many are exploited, and most are denied it entirely. I’ve walked through slums in Africa, India, and South America. I know I’m amongst the luckiest alive.

But once upon a time, I wouldn’t have been lucky either. If you look at the whole of human history, a trend becomes clear. Draw a graph of the rights of women, or income per person, or human lifespan over the past thousand years. Compare the life of a child today with one fifty years ago. Consider how likely it is, today, that a person living in a developed nation will be drafted into war, or die in childbirth.

There are blips in that graph, to be sure, but the world is getting better constantly, and it’s not about to stop anytime soon.

If you’re able to read this, you live in the most amazing time imaginable. And the funniest thing is, most of us never even notice.

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When I first started a business, I was 21, bald, and had the social confidence of an asthmatic field mouse.

Fortunately I started my business with an ultra-confident Sales Director, who unfortunately turned out to be both hopeless and completely mental. He punched me in the face during our second board meeting.

At one of our first pitches to a prospective client he bragged how he “wasn’t much of a techie” and “didn’t know how to use email”. These were not inspiring words from a cutting edge web design company.

So in order to feed myself, I rapidly learnt how to sell. In our first year I secured government contracts and FORTUNE 500 clients, all with no money and an office the size of a refrigerator. Let me tell you how.

Credibility comes ahead of time

A new business has no reputation. So at the start, all credibility is on you, the founder.

For my part, I built websites as a student. One in particular – a social network for my university – had grown to thousands of active users, and was raising a lot of controversy on campus.

I made stuff like this simply because I wanted to, and the passion showed. When you can’t find paid work, create stuff for free. Free work is your way of bootstrapping credibility, and you don’t need anyone’s permission to earn it.

Enthusiasm + knowledge

I was not a conventional salesman, with slicked back hair and fancy suits. I was however, fiercely enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable. And it turns out that matters more.

People buy from people. You may resent this, but they’re far less moved by your brochure or your features. They evaluate you as a person, and that person had better be convincing. If you are sincerely bubbling over with excitement at all the wonderful things you could do for them, your enthusiasm will win many people over. Your credibility (above) should do the rest.

Confidence will come with time. But the best way to build confidence is to become good at something and get yourself in front of people who will appreciate it.

Get in front of everyone you know

My first sale – a £3,000 ($5,000) website – was to the residence where I had lived as a student.

These were people I knew. I blagged myself a meeting and sold them on what I could do. I already knew them and what they wanted; they were sold on the basis of my free social network and the fact that they knew me.

This is the key. People buy from who they know. You probably don’t want to hear that, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Just being vaguely known by that guy who knows that guy is enough to get you in the door of most places.

I sold to the school where I’d studied at university. I pitched to the companies where my friends were working. Every single person I knew, however low-level they might seem, was a potential inroad to another opportunity. This alone got me a sale to a FORTUNE 500 company (3M) in our first year.

Later I would learn about ‘networking events’, but I didn’t use any for the first 6 years of my business. The best lead is always from someone you already know, and the biggest mistake people make is assuming that they don’t know anyone.

Get in at the ground floor on big names

My first tiny sale to a department of a university suddenly gave me the ability to say “I did a website for this university”. Nevermind that it was a small project; it could have been free. The most powerful indicator of credibility is not your work, it’s the names you can associate with.

One great side effect of big names is they tend to have lots of staff, who move on to other organizations and recommend you. Someone from that university started working for a local council, and soon I had my first government client. Someone there moved on and I had another. Big names attract big names.

Another great thing about big names – you can grow within them. Over the next 5 years that small school website let us pitch for their parent department, and ultimately the whole university – over 20,000 webpages and a lot more money. We never lost that contract in 10 years.

Crucially: deliver on service. If you don’t make your clients happy, none of this will happen.

Write and sound the part

You want to look presentable, of course, but don’t invest your hopes into this. Your appearance won’t win many sales, but a bad appearance will certainly cost you some. Don’t be the smartarse kid who doesn’t realize he needs a haircut, shower or deodorant.

Master speaking and writing clearly. The quality of your communication is one of the strongest indicators people will use when judging you; it can make a smart kid sound stupid, or an idiot sound vaguely intelligent. If you don’t know how to use apostrophes or capital letters, you’d best believe people who do will not judge you kindly. And they will never tell you.

Don’t mistake professional communication for fancy words and long sentences. If you can say a lot with a little, you’ve a much better chance of being heard and respected.

Things that work (but not for you)

If your sales strategy involves SEO or ‘Social marketing’, get a new strategy. Ask people who use those things – they work in the long term, and mostly as embellishment for established businesses. You are not Coca-Cola. Plan accordingly.

Advertising is almost always a fiery pit where your money goes to die. Look for what other companies like yourself (early stage, same industry) are doing with their advertising, and whether they appear to be successful. If you do advertise, spend lightly.

Don’t waste money on premature status symbols. Dropping cash on a fancy watch / car / office has terrible ROI – it might make you feel good, but it barely touches your odds of selling. I didn’t even have a car for my first 5 years of business and I was able to win contracts worth £100k ($160k) / year.

Summary

• If you have no reputation, work for free.
• People buy from people, so be enthusiastic and knowledgeable.
• Reach out to everyone you know.
• One tiny sale to a big name is a tentpole you can build your reputation on.
• Big organizations spread word of mouth far faster.
• Look the part, but more importantly: write and sound the part.
• Don’t expect results from SEO, advertising or status symbols.

By the way, I bought my face-punching Sales Director out after a year. Lovely fellow – but let’s just say he sold his 49% share of the company for less than it’s worth 12 years later. Ho hum.