Is Your Practice on the Dental Web 2.0 Platform? If Not, Now Is the Time.
The Dental Web 2.0 Platform and Its Place in Your Practice
As a dental practice owner, you want to make sure that anyone and everyone in your area has access to great dental care. You know the health risks that come with poor oral hygiene and what happens when people miss those dental appointments every six months. You’re in the business of creating and maintaining happy and healthy smiles.
But one thing that is often easy to overlook is how people—your patients and prospective patients—interact with you and your business. How do they find you? How do they know that you offer the dental treatments that you need?
Today’s consumers are more tech-savvy than ever and often take to the internet to find, purchase, and schedule what they need. So, with that in the back of your mind, what is the experience like for someone with a visual impairment? Can they navigate your dental practice website to book their appointments and get their questions answered?
In this article, we’ll discuss website accessibility and how your dental website design matters more than you might think.
What is Dental Web 2.0?
Let’s talk a bit about what many marketers and business owners think of when they think about website accessibility. A common belief is that if you create a great website, all you need to do is invest in one of those accessibility overlays to provide the tools that those with visual impairments need to work their way through the website.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite that easy. These overlays, while well intentioned, can lead to more complications than solutions. For instance, they might replicate some functions already present on your site, yet do so unreliably, which degrades the experience for your visitors, including those with visual impairments.
For instance, if an overlay isn’t clearly visible to a user, they cannot interact with it to adjust settings that may conflict with their screen readers or other assistive tools. This lack of interaction can block access to essential site functions. And, these overlays fail to automatically generate text descriptions for images, which are extremely important for users to understand visual content. They also provide inconsistent fixes to keyboard accessibility, which is a must for those who cannot use a mouse and often mishandle form labels and error messages.
Technologically, overlays can remain static while the underlying web page changes, leading to outdated or inaccessible content for users relying on real-time updates. Additionally, these repairs can increase web page loading times and trigger unexpected changes, further disrupting the navigation experience for those using assistive technology.
Given these challenges, dental practices must work toward a higher goal in their digital accessibility efforts. This brings us to adopting the W3C Web Accessibility 2.0 standards, which provide the framework for creating accessible digital environments. We crafted our Dental Web 2.0 Platform to align with these standards, offering tools from HIPAA-compliant forms to tailored branding elements to prioritize your website as accessible, functional, and welcoming to all patients.
The Importance of Website Accessibility
Website accessibility isn’t just about making your site more user-friendly for those with visual impairments. It’s actually your legal obligation as a business owner.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has pretty explicit requirements. Anyone with a public-facing website must make it readily accessible and usable for those with disabilities. So when you think of your website, understand that this is a legal requirement. But more importantly, it’s about doing the right thing for the patients who might be searching for a dental home in your area.
- Text readability: Your website text should be clear and easy to read, using fonts that are accessible and sizes that are adjustable according to the user’s needs.
- Navigability: Make sure that users can easily navigate your website using a keyboard alone. This ensures those who do not use a mouse can access all elements effortlessly.
- Audio and visual alternatives: Include audio descriptions and closed captioning for media and provide alt text for all images to make sure that information is conveyed effectively to users with visual or auditory impairments.
- Consistency: Maintain consistent layout and design throughout your site to avoid confusion and make it easier for users to understand how to navigate your pages.
- Error identification and recovery: Design forms and other interactive elements to flag errors clearly and guide users through the correction process without undue frustration.
- Adjustable settings: Allow users to modify settings such as color contrast and font size to improve visibility and readability according to their specific needs.
Why Now Is the Time To Upgrade
If your dental website design is missing the market and pushing away patients because of website accessibility issues, now is the time to make the change.
Adopting Dental Web 2.0 technologies not only positions your practice as a leader in digital inclusivity but also places you at the forefront of the evolving digital landscape. This proactive approach can significantly differentiate your practice from competitors, attracting a broader audience and fostering patient loyalty.
Over time, these upgrades can improve practice growth, heighten patient satisfaction, and increase operational efficiency. By modernizing your website with accessible technologies, you’re investing in a future where all patients feel valued and supported.
At Jameson Marketing, we’re proud to offer our Dental Web 2.0 platform, which is fully accessible. We’re a dental marketing agency that works with dental practice owners all over the country to create a better online experience for their patients.
Ready to learn more? Contact us today.
