Why Accessibility Is Becoming a Nonnegotiable in B2B Marketing

Speaker A: Usability is definitely one of the top things that we see. Like a rising boat or rising tide lifts all boats. When you're creating one of the principles of accessible sites, as well as using plain language, not being overridden with jargon, having navigation that's clear and simple, you start to see how similar to your real world examples, when the site is just more easy to consume, easy to navigate, easy to read, that does make a better experience for every other user who's coming to the site Also.

Speaker B: Welcome back to Content Logistics. I'm your host, Bailey Gunnell and today we're tackling a topic that's quickly becoming impossible for B2B marketers to ignore. Accessibility. When we think of accessibility, we often picture ramps, elevators or automatic doors. But what does accessibility look like online? And more importantly, why should marketing teams prioritize it? From better SEO to winning enterprise deals, Accessibility isn't just about compliance. It's about making your content usable for everyone and unlocking its real business impact. To help us break it down, I'm joined by Mike Barton, Vice president of Corporate communications and content marketing at UH AudioEye. Mike has built his career leading content marketing at uh brands like Adobe and now drives awareness and Demand programs at UH AudioEye where the mission is to make the Internet more accessible for all. Let's get into it. Hey Mike, I am so excited to have you on the show. When we were chatting previously, I had mentioned this is a topic I am very new to, which is accessibility. And I am just excited to dive into it to learn more about your perspective on this, what your company does for this and why it matters to B2B companies. But I think it would be really helpful for listeners who are maybe like me, who this is a newer topic to define what digital accessibility is.

Speaker A: Yeah, simply, uh, put, it's ensuring that your websites, your apps, really any digital experience can be used by everyone and anyone, uh, including people with disabilities. And you know, I was very much similar to you like a few years ago before I came to AudioEye, where I probably couldn't define digital accessibility. I could probably kind of guess what it was. But was I thinking about it in terms of content that we were creating? Was I thinking about it in terms of our website and our digital experiences? Absolutely not. And which is not a good thing. And it's really like I'd spent my career like looking through my lens. Right. I had been from a person who had vision, although with some corrective, uh, technology myself, uh, who had hearing and could use both of my hands. So it really is important to realize that when we talk about different segments and different audiences in B2B, part of that discussion should and needs, um, to be people with disabilities who are accessing the Internet with different tools and in different ways, but who are still accessing the Internet and are still trying to do all the same things that we, uh, do on a daily basis.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think this will be just a really interesting topic to dive into. Especially, I think there's a lot of misconceptions in the B2B space, which I'm excited to get into, I think a little bit later. But I'd love to know a little bit about your story. You've been in content for a really long time, but what was the turning point for you that made you aware of accessibility?

Speaker A: Yeah, so for a lot of people, the reason they become aware of accessibility is that their company gets sued. That was not the case for me, luckily. But I was actually just talking to a former coworker a couple years ago and we were just talking about content and accessibility came up and I was essentially in the same shoes that you were when we first talked, which is like, tell me about. Right. And it just clicks the more it's like, oh, yeah, like I haven't thought of that. And oh, yeah, like when I've been creating interactive experiences or PDFs, right. I spend a lot of time in Adobe creating content videos. We would really try to create these experiences that would stand out, that people would return to, that would pull them in and engage them. Uh, but not once did we think, hey, could somebody who's, uh, using screen Reader, who, who's blind or has a visual impairment, could they use this really complex site? We created this really cool best practice guide as a PDF. Is that somebody that somebody who is using a, uh, keyboard only, who can't use a mouse, can they navigate their way through it? Or if they are similarly using a screen reader, is it able to read the tables and the data points and the charts accurately? And unfortunately, the answer for me in my ecosystem of content was no, I hadn't, uh, been doing that a lot. And so it was really, again, just an illuminating experience to talk with that coworker. After doing that and looking into AudioEye, I said, Hey, I want to, in addition to creating really good and compelling content, I want to teach and bring awareness to the me's of, uh, five, uh, ten years ago. Right. Who are out there trying to create great content. Creating great content, but are unintentionally leaving out a portion of the population which is much larger than most people think it is.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think we see like out in the real world, not in the digital space, a lot of examples of this, like ramps or parking spaces, automatic opening doors. And those things can really help people even without disabilities. Like you think about you're holding your groceries and you walk out the door and you're like, wow, it's so nice that the doors automatically open, but they can help the experiences of everyone. And I imagine that can also apply in a digital sense, that the experiences you're creating for people with disabilities can

Speaker A: also help everyone 100%. That's definitely one of the big selling points is especially those companies who come to us because they have been sued and they're like, hey, I wasn't thinking about this, I need a solution. You know, they're just looking at it from a compliance, a, uh, risk management perspective. But again, the more that you start to talk about, you realize, oh yeah, this actually not only can be a compliance thing where we don't get sued again in the future, but this can actually open up digital doors to consumers and businesses who have been trying to engage with me or trying to interact and just haven't been able to. And usability is definitely one of the top things that we see like a rising boat or rising tide lifts all boats. When you're creating one of the principles of accessible sites, as well as using plain language, not being overridden with jargon, having navigation that's clear and simple, you start to see how similar to your real world examples when the site is just more easy to consume, easy to navigate, easy to read, that does make a better experience for every other user who's coming to the site.

Speaker B: Also, yeah, it is sad I maybe to laugh at this, but that the, the force driving a lot of this is lawsuits. Um, so that is definitely, I think, sad. But why, why does this matter to B2B companies? Is it mostly from a compliance perspective? I know we talked about already a little bit about just the overall user experience. That's definitely something. But what's your pitch? Why, why should someone In a, uh, B2B setting really care about this?

Speaker A: Yeah, so, and I'll say I have had the same thought and kind of question you did, which is, uh, again, when I first started getting into accessibility where I was like, oh, it clicks. I understand it like when I tell businesses about this, they're all going to be like, oh yeah, we've got to put some money behind this. We've got to open up our digital doors as I was saying. But then you actually have the conversations with some of these. It really doesn't change if it's a small, even to the largest enterprise. It always comes down to priorities and accessibility being often a new topic. You've got to help them build a business case and see it as more than just risk management or more than a compliance checkbox right at the end of a uh, website update or some content creation. And so when we're having conversations with those businesses, again from like the smallest to the biggest, it really is helping them change and shift their perspective and reframe how they're looking at accessibility. Because I'd say especially those coming with a lawsuit and a lot of those who just want to be compliant, it is very much like ah, at the end of the process, um, effort and checkbox, which if you're going to truly build a targeted and segmented and personalized campaign in any setting, that's got to be something that is part of your strategy from the beginning. So we like to talk about those business benefits in terms of usability. There's also SEO benefits that come from building an accessible site because the semantic structure and the way that you're coding is more clear. You're as an example, alt text on pictures, which are typically one of the first things to go as you're just speedily creating a site or updating a site. Having alt text allows a screen reader to read that to a person with a visual impairment. But also the SEO engines and crawlers, right. Are going through and like, oh, this is kind of the, the information on the site. And so we see SEO improvements as AI is more and more becoming an engine of choice for people as well. And they're going to AI to ask questions to do, especially in B2B, do part of the sales process more and more with AI, the more that AI can easily scrape your site and understand the answers to questions which again with that clarity and some uh, of the best practices of building accessibly really benefits those AI engines. So the businesses see from a marketing perspective they're able to spend a little bit. I like to say you can spend 2, 3, 4% of your marketing tech budget and that helps make the other 95% of your tech budget that much more efficient and that much more effective.

Speaker B: Wow, that's crazy to think of all, uh, all of those benefits there. I think when we had chatted previously, you had also mentioned that it could end up being a deal breaker sometimes to maybe these enterprise deals. Do you mind talking to that a bit?

Speaker A: Yeah, so we're finding specifically in government, because it's an actual law and regulation that they need to be accessible and next year we're going to see greater enforcement of that. But even yeah, with larger enterprise companies as they're looking to engage with other technologies and services, we're seeing more and more that part of that process and part of the RFP is is your digital experience, is your digital product accessible? Can all people use it? And when it comes down to two or three potential customers or prospects, a uh, company is going to go with the one that's accessible even if it often doesn't have the same qualities and like capabilities as another provider. But because it's accessible, that can often be a deal breaker. And we're seeing that more and more with customers. In fact, one of our big HR customers recently worked with us to completely update their platform so that they can, as they seek to expand their business, be part of the conversation instead of being part of the group that gets declined because they're not accessible.

Speaker B: Wow. That, that's a huge competitive advantage. If it's comes down to like they've got maybe these checklists that's going to help them choose which company to move forward with.

Speaker A: Right. You know, and one other thing that I, ah, think we talked about before that I didn't mention also is people with disabilities are extremely loyal because it is so difficult to find a site that is easy to use, to find a site that does prioritize accessibility. I mean think about just any interaction that you take on a website or another B2B site. The less friction there is, the easier that they make it for you to do business with them, the more you're going to want to do business with them. Right. In the future because they just make it as easy as possible. And so for a person with disability where it might take 2, 3, 4, 5 times more time to complete actions just because they've got a kind of figure their way through the site and click through links that they're not quite sure where they're going to or try to understand why a form won't load or won't save. When they find those sites, they're much more loyal. And not only are they loyal customers, but they tell their other friends who might have disabilities, they tell their family and the friends and family of those people with disabilities want to also support the company's that make it easy for their loved ones and their friends. So in total that's like an $18 trillion wow. Purse of friends and family and people with disabilities in terms of just discretionary income. And so it's, I think the loyalty is one that people often kind of don't think about. But if you're able to again, acquire that customer with dollars you're already using by being more efficient, and then you're much more likely to keep them as a loyal customer. Just a huge benefit to those companies who are thinking, is accessibility something we should invest in now or maybe we'll get to it next year?

Speaker B: Yeah, I love the example you bring of them sharing it too. I think we all know that referrals is the best way to get business. It's usually the least amount of friction. So by winning those people over, that's a huge win for the company, 100%. So for people who are just getting started with this, I think we've talked through quite a few of the benefits. But how can they get started? What would be some simple, maybe first steps to making your digital experience more accessible?

Speaker A: Yeah, great question. I think knowledge is power in this situation where there's a lot of misperceptions and assumptions. I think one of the assumptions that I see a bunch as I'm talking to people is, yeah, we haven't been focused on it. We got a really great web team though, and so I'm guessing we're probably pretty good. And the reality is, if your web team isn't trying to build accessibly or doesn't have some basic foundational understanding, then there's just a lot of basics that are often being overlooked. And so I would say find a free accessibility scanner. We have1 on audioeye.com that is very easy to use. You just put in your URL, it'll scan your site and come back and tell you, here's how many issues we found, here's the types of issues that we found that were most common, and here's how they would impact a person with a disability. We did, uh, a study of 40,000 websites a few years ago, updated it, uh, this year with another 15,000. We found that the average web page had almost 300 accessibility issues. And that's not, that's not website, that's a web page. Right? So think of all the pages, uh, on your site and how it just compounds immediately. So I think that's step one is just how does my site look? Right? Where are we at? And again, each of those issues, they vary in degree towards like, something that might just cause some delay and frustration, to barriers that, like, legitimately I can't place an order because this form won't let my keyboard, because I'm only using a keyboard, it won't let me proceed to the next step. So I literally can't complete the action that you as a business want me to take. And so I think that's a great place to start. And once you understand what those types of issues are, it's really how do we want to approach solving accessibility? Do we want to teach our developers? Do we want to get them some best practices in learning? That's always a good start to at least understand the foundations and the basics and then really understand how from an ongoing and maintenance perspective. Like what do we do to ensure that what we're creating can be accessed and used by the whole population?

Speaker B: I want to go try your, your website analyzer. I'm nervous though.

Speaker A: Yes, it's, it's, you know, uh, you're looking at yourself in the mirror with no makeup on. Right. It's. You just get the real, the real understanding. But again, it's a little painful I think for a lot of people, but it's just helpful to see, okay, this is where we got to go. And again, the top three things are often images with missing or not descriptive enough alt text links with similar. You don't have the link text explained so that uh, a screen reader can read it in the background and forms. So if you think about all the images that are on most sites, especially E Commerce B2B as you're showing product imagery and things like that, all the links that you're sending you everywhere, and then forms which are critical to whatever CTA your site has, signing up for a newsletter, scheduling a demo, things like that, so those repeat so often, like you can fix it in a smaller number of places. And that solution also cascades. But on the flip side, if that's why we see sometimes 300, 400 issues on a site, because we've just got images and links that repeat and if they're built incorrectly, that uh, just exponentially increases in terms of the negative impact that it has.

Speaker B: When you're talking about links, is it like hyperlinked text or buttons when it's not clear where it's going to take them?

Speaker A: Okay, exactly. So as an example, I'm m using a screen reader. We'll say, which a person who's blind uses this technology that as it implies, will literally read the code, it'll read the navigation and they can use that to go through the site. So skip down to. I like to just always use a yellow shirt example. It's not the best B2B example, but it translates, I'm looking to buy a yellow shirt. And like you said, there's an add to cart button or a buy now if all that says is buy now. I guess if I'm in the context of my yellow shirt, that's not the best example. But so we'll use a B2B example. We'll say you're on the page and it says learn more. That's the button. Now I can see there's an image of a PDF and it says in there three best practices to convert traffic. But if none of that is included in the link description on that button and it just says learn more, I don't know where I'm clicking through. So I've got to click, go to the page, find out from the context and the content on the page. Is this something I do want to learn about? Whereas if it says more specifically learn or download a white paper on best practices for social media marketing. Right. That link is clear. I know where it's taking me. Things like that where again, we just, we build through the lens that we have as people. And so we often assume that people will connect dots visually. And so by not building it with that level of detail, it doesn't work for a screen reader. And really, again, going back to just clarity, uh, and simplicity, we really find that for sites who are taking those steps to write more clearly, write more specifically, it makes it easier for just a person who's busy, who's scanning your site quickly, who might only be giving you half their attention to still also know what they're clicking through and what action they're going to take. And so it's really an exercise that specifically helps screen readers, but really helps everybody.

Speaker B: Yeah, that I love. It does help everybody. There are a lot of websites out there that are very confusing and it's not clear what's going to happen when you fill out a form or what happens next. Like I can imagine that's so much harder for someone who is maybe experiencing it in a different way.

Speaker A: Yeah, ah, exactly. And especially in B2B. Right. Like it's almost like some B2B sites. And whether it's the writers or the design team, like it's almost like there's this mistaken liberty to like use words that are convoluted and too big. And I've often found that uh, insights like these as you're trying to write more simply, which again is a, uh, totally an accessibility practice, but it should be a, uh, best practice just for content marketers and Digital marketers in general. It just makes it much more clear to the prospect or the customer what service you offer, how it benefits them and what actions they can take for you to give them a solution. Again, like nothing I'm saying right now is revolutionary, but it just doesn't get. It doesn't get done and people don't focus on it. And the benefits are just amazing again in terms of accessibility, but also just setting your site apart from other sites that they might be comparing you against. Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, I see this a lot with captions on videos too. I'm sure that started off as an accessibility practice, but now people just scroll without the audio on. You can just have the captions. I think it helps your understanding too when you can read what's going on as well. And especially like if English isn't your first language, having that can be really helpful.

Speaker A: Yeah. Ah, that's a great, great point. One thing we also talk about is you've got people with disabilities and they live with it, uh, 24 7. We've also got situational and non permanent disabilities. So your example of using the captions like. Yes. So many people now use captions even in their home when they're like the kids are running around and it's noisy and like I just want to be able to hear better by reading it as I'm listening commuting on a busy airplane. Right. Like, so many benefits come to others as well when you're adding features like captions or live transcriptions on webinars and things like that. And it really is especially as our population as well gets older and older. Like in the next 10 to 20 years, we're going to have one of the largest aging populations. And with aging comes vision loss, comes hearing loss. And so many of your customers that you deal with today, similarly, as they continue to age, they're going to need better color contrast. They're going to need the ability to um, focus in on pages and have that same mental clarity as well. So it's just the audience is growing that we can serve through accessibility. And uh, the benefits to everybody. Right. Are continue to be more and more clear.

Speaker B: Yeah. One of something you posted on LinkedIn not too long ago I thought was really interesting about emojis in content. I love this article. It blew my mind. I'd never thought about emojis. Do you mind just recapping a little bit how emojis can affect accessibility?

Speaker A: Yeah. So and so many emojis everywhere. Right. It adds, it gives you an opportunity to kind of make it fun. Add some personality to what might otherwise be boring. I think if you were to go back like five or six years ago, B2B especially. Right. Very just text, very professional now. It's almost like emojis get thrown in everywhere to set you apart. But uh, although everyone's doing it now but with a screen reader again it reads what is there to the user. So if you have some bullets and uh, at the front of that bullet you've got three joy smiling face emojis and then your bullet and then some rocket ships is going to say smiley face emoji, Smiley face emoji, Smiley face emoji. You know our newest product is the best rocket ship. Rocket ship stock price going to the rise. Right. So it just when you read it like that again when you put them in there through your lens, you're visually like oh I can I see that you don't visually say it in your head. Yeah, joy, Joy. Right. But it's just something to consider that when you overuse emojis or use them in the wrong place in a uh, sentence or a flow, it throws off what's being read to a person with a screen reader. So again it's not that you have to abandon them altogether, it's just using them intentionally. Right. In the right place where it would make sense to then have a screen reader say joy smiley face. Right.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a really helpful thing to keep in mind. And it would be really confusing if it just popped up in the middle of a sentence or something.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's why it's actually. Which is kind of a second but a little bit more detailed way to check your accessibility is actually work with a person with a disability who has a screen reader and have them go through your site and tell you stuff like that. Right. Audit it and be able to say hey, here were some areas again that were frustrating. I could find a workaround, but frustrating. And here's places where so the emoji, that's a frustration. Right. You can kind of figure it out eventually. But they'll also be able to tell you those more real world specific use cases where I was dead ended and I couldn't actually move any further in your site or in the checkout flow or the signup process. And so having a person with a disability actually tested as well is another great way to really understand where your site starts to fall apart.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great idea and I think just applies to most marketing in general. Like it's always good to have other Outside people look at your messaging, make sure it's clear what next steps. But even better if you can get someone with accessibility to review it as well.

Speaker A: Right. Like user testing is not a new phenomenon. Right. Like if you're going out with a big launch, you'll not uncommon to preview it with users, get their feedback, implement that feedback. That's a huge missing component of most user groups is they don't have people with disabilities. So you're simply getting the feedback from maybe sighted people who again all use that website in the same way. So if you start to, even in your user testing, say we'd like a person with a mobility disability or somebody with a visual impairment, that uh, right there makes your user testing pool more representative of the entire population which most people, again another misconception, are surprised to find that 1 in 4 people in the US have a disability of some sort. Which that doesn't mean everybody's blind, everybody's deaf. Obviously those are like the two that people gravitate towards. But you've got mobility impairments, you've got invisible disabilities. So like cognitive neurodiverse, people on various spectrum of autism. And so when you start to realize that this is not a small population, again that also starts to realize not only does this reinforce that this is a good thing to do and it's the right thing to do, but also reinforces there is a big business impact and there's big business potential in focusing on this.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a huge part of the population. Yeah, uh, that's, that's a really big deal to, to keep that in mind. Well, we covered a lot of ground with this. I feel like I learned so much and I'm very nervous to go test our website, uh, and run that through. I'll let you know how we score. But is there any other tips you want to add or just perspective that you think would be helpful for companies who are considering this?

Speaker A: Yeah, I would say again, ah, starting with where you're, where you're at in an accessibility journey is important. And I think that's probably my final thought, which is accessibility is a journey. It's not a checkbox, it's not a stop. It's something that just like SEO, just like other marketing best practices, you need to continue to prioritize it and think about it from a long term perspective. And in so doing, you know, you'll start to understand how can we change our processes from web development, from testing, from working with our social media team and our content team, uh, and starting to implement Best practices there. It's really shifting the idea of accessibility once it does make sense from the end to the beginning and just starting to think accessibly as you build and as you plan and as you look to incorporate the best practices that you need to. And again, as part of that, I'll also say think about your website. Think about how you're representing people. Like, is your website representative of the 1 in 4 people, uh, in the world and in the US who have a disability? So even things like that, where it's just minor kind of representation, think that's important too, as companies get into it. But the reality is, again, it's a journey. It can seem overwhelming. There's a lot that we haven't even talked about today. But it doesn't have to be difficult. It's just one step at a time. Start with the painful moment of how inaccessible is my site. And then from there, once you again, uh, see kind of what the issues are, it's like, all right, it's images and forms. You can kind of start to see how do we build those in a way that allows us to open those digital doors.

Speaker B: Yeah, Just getting started with the little things. It is a journey. This is something that I know we need to do a better job at and I hope other companies and people can listen to this and, and just feel some excitement or motivation to look into this further and see what the next steps are. I have one fun question for you, Mike, which is, what is your biggest content marketing ick? So if you see something out in the wild and you're like, ah, that always bothers me when I see this.

Speaker A: What is my biggest content? Wow, that's a good one. I think my biggest ick. This is going to sound terrible, but LinkedIn at times is my biggest ick. Because. And I probably could be accused of doing it myself sometimes. But like, there's people who are sharing unique points of view, helpful direction, and then there's others where you're like, I know you're just right, trying to click bait or whatever it is. And so there's value in social media, there's value there. But I, to me, I like to see people who are their authentic selves and that are being real with it. Uh, again, sharing unique points of view that help me think differently about marketing, about life, about my approach to business. I think accessibility kind of often can fall into that as well, but at times not pointing any finger specifically, LinkedIn is my biggest dick.

Speaker B: Yes. Of all of the social media platforms, it is, I think one of the worst offenders. It does definitely feel like a game of who's doing the best in life or yeah there's a lot of toxicity there but also a great place to connect with people and I learn I ask people to be my podcast from there because I see great uh posts there is so much good but there's also a lot of stuff are frustrating

Speaker A: for sure not meant to. There's uh a ton of good there. Agreed 100% it's just wading through to find it sometimes.

Speaker B: 100%. Well Mike, thank you so much for joining the show today. I learned a lot. I'm really excited to dive into this more and just learn as time goes on. But thanks again for joining today.

Speaker A: Yeah thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Content Logistics. Make sure to subscribe to the show so you don't miss the next episode. Bye.