This week I walked passed a company building a wheelchair ramp to facilitate access to its building for people unable to climb the stairs. I wondered why the company had taken so long to put in a ramp, anyone in a wheelchair would have had a hard time entering the premises.

Would the company have made this decision if it were not obliged by law to do so? In terms of the internet, accessibility for people with certain kinds of disabilities is a major issue.

In terms of the law, the issue of accessibility and the internet has taken a major knock with the recent ruling in the US when a federal judge ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces such as restaurants and movie theatres and not the Internet. This case was as a result of a blind man called Robert Gumson who tried to compel Southwest airlines to redesign its Web site to improve accessibility.

For many companies their web site is a significant public face. Many people might not notice that a site has not been designed with accessibility in mind, but for those with disabilities this omission is painfully obvious.

While the internet is a great leveler for many types of disabilities for others it presents unique challenges. The implications for blind people and those with very poor eyesight are fairly obvious, for a great number of people with dyslexia, reading and learning disorders the implications are less obvious but very real.

Catering for the needs of people with disabilities online makes good business sense because it increases the number of visitors to a site which increases the likelihood of selling a product or service, it improves the image of the company because it is seen to be in line with best practice.

If one thinks of the wheelchair ramp – it is of vital importance to the person in a wheelchair but it will be widely used by people without disabilities as it is a convenient way of walking up levels, especially if you have a pram or a carrying something heavy.

A web site designed with accessibility in mind is good for everyone as it present choices. If one looks at the Browsealoud speech enabling service for example; A company pays for its site to be speech enabled, any user wanting to listen to the content of the site downloads the software which is free and is then able to browse the site and have text read as the cursor moves over it. For the dyslexic person this represents liberation from the painstaking ordeal of trying to make sense of text, for the site visitor without dyslexia they might choose to have the option of having large blocks of text read aloud rather than read it themselves. Accessibility usually means more options for everyone and greater ease of use for all.

It was not that long ago that many companies would have scoffed at being told they had to make their physical premises more accessible. In hind-site few would argue that improving accessibility has benefited everyone.

From a marketing strategy perspective making your web site accessible makes sense, while it might involve a measure of redesign and bit of money, the longer term rewards are obvious – it is also the right thing to do.

Gary Morrison is a motivational speaker and marketing executive based in Northern Ireland. He may be emailed at garymorrison213@msn.com Brwosealoud may be viewed at www.browsealoud.com