Why it's important to pay attention to website accessibility

It’s not one of the easiest jobs; making your website accessible. Sometimes you’ll want to translate your website into multiple languages, making the job even more complex. In this article we will be taking a look at how to make your WordPress website accessible in multiple languages using Neuronto AI and accessiBe.

Why should I pay extra attention to Accessibility?

It’s important to make your website as user-friendly for as many people as possible. Most of us would immediately think of people with auditory, visual, motor, or cognitive impairments when hearing that sentence, but these aren’t the only people you should keep in mind when talking about accessibility.

When it comes to accessibility for a website, you need to keep in mind the audience we just named, but also people using mobile devices, those with slow internet connections, potential customers using your website in another country, and the audience using older hardware. These people are often forgotten, but you shouldn’t forget that there might also be valuable customers within that group.

Creating an accessible multilingual website

Another factor to take into consideration when talking about accessibility, is the ability to access the site globally. Now, we’re not talking about being able to reach the site from across the world. We’re talking about actually being able to understand the website. Although English may be one of the most common languages on the internet, merely 25% of users have English as their first language with Chinese, Spanish and Arabic following in its footsteps.

These statistics show us that it is crucial to make sure your website is multilingual. You might be wondering why you should translate your site when most internet users understand basic English. According to research, consumers are 65% more likely to buy a product when their own native language is used and at least 73% want to see product reviews in their native language. Combine that with the fact that 40% of consumers have already decided not to buy something from a platform written in another language, and you’ve got yourself some pretty convincing reasons to start translating your site.

How to identify the demographics of your potential customers

There’s no sense in dropping everything to start translating your site right now. You’ll need to find out where your potential customers are coming from. It would be a waste of time to dive in and translate your website to Spanish right now, when most of your leads are coming from France. Finding out where your leads are coming from is surprisingly simple. If you’re using Google Analytics right now, a simple search in the dashboard could be all you need. Social media also offers you the ability to see the exact country, age-range and other interesting factors. Of course, you could also choose to use your own data and create user surveys. You’d need to have a pretty large and willing customer base to use this method though.

The ideal accessibility solution

It can be a lot of work to cater to all groups, but there’s a simple solution. We recommend downloading a WordPress accessibility plugin like accessiBe in combination with a professional translation service like Neuronto AI.

AccessiBe is one of the best plugins to use when you want to make sure your website is accessible by all user groups. This plugin gives you access to automatic screen-reader adjustments, which the visually impaired users can appreciate. Automatic keyboard navigation adjustments are also included, giving users the ability to use their keyboards when there’s no mouse or trackpad available. Of course, you don’t need to worry about complying with accessibility laws as the plugin monitors this daily. If there are any infringements, you will be notified so you can take action when necessary. You’ll also be receiving a monthly compliance report.

What is Neuronto AI?

Now you know what AccessiBe can do for your website, let’s take a look at how Neuronto AI can help your website improve its accessibility. Using an all-in-one translation service can save you a lot of time and effort. Neuronto AI offers automatic content detection and machine translation at the highest level, but we all know that machines can make mistakes sometimes, especially as words on a screen don’t always deliver the message the same way a conversation would. That’s why you can also invite your own translation team to collaborate inside the Neuronto AI DeepL WordPress Plugin dashboard. If you don’t have your own translation team, you can hire a professional translator from one of Neuronto AI’s partners.

Neuronto AI makes sure to include the best SEO practices in the translated language, including titles, metadata, alt-text etc. This means you’ll also be able to rank higher in international search engines. When an international lead lands on your website, they will automatically be redirected to the most appropriate language version of your website.

Launching a multilingual website

Launching a multilingual website can be a real stress factor for some people, but with the right tools at your disposal, you’ll be conquering the international market in no-time! We stand by AccessiBe and Neuronto AI 100%, and we can’t wait to hear your opinion on this combination.