Is Your Website Senior Friendly

Technology, when successfully used, provides seniors with an invaluable tool to help alleviate isolation as they age, having a positive impact on their lives. I can attest to this as I am blessed with seeing it happen before my very own eyes everyday with my senior clientele. Yet the special interests and needs of seniors have been largely ignored. I believe increased participation by the government, non-profit and business communities to have more senior friendly and accessible websites can have a transforming effect on seniors experience online and the profitability of businesses.

Why should you care if your website is senior friendly and accessible?
  1. Studies show seniors are online just as much as any other age group.
  2. Seniors have the largest discretionary income.
  3. Seniors are in need of many different services and products.
  4. Marketers now see seniors as a separate focus group after realizing that senior’s special interest & activities are very varied.
  5. There is now a worldwide precedent (Maguire vs SOCOG) that websites can be and are illegal if they are not accessible.

How can you provide a Senior Friendly Website?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. W3C recommends websites use XHTML for the content of the website, CSS to display the content and JavaScript to make the content more dynamic. I have watched my clients first hand struggle to access websites of many local businesses that don’t follow the W3C standards. As a result, my clients were unable to access the business’ product or service being offered.

As the seniors population continues to grow so will the number of persons with disabilities. Adopt the W3C standards before you miss out on future clients.

This article can be found in the Chamber of Commerce's Business Matters Magazine Vol. 5 Issue 4