Make your website accessible for every ability

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Hi, hello, welcome.
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I'm Amanda Hugh, your host of Small Business Good Addicts.
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I escaped the corporate world after 12 months of a side bustle which turned into my full-time income.
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Fast forward 10 years and I'm running not my first but my second small business.
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And this time around it's with a passion to share all that I know, all that I've learned and all that I'm still learning with fellow small business ownership.
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As the title of the show suggests, I am addicted to growing my business and I know you are too.
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Growth means different things to different people though, and that's why we talk about a whole foot subject in growth addicts.
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Whether that's not solo episode, just me and with one of my many autumn guests.
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Between us we shared advice, tips, and real-life entrepreneurial experience.
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To grab a pen, a cover and a biscuit, obviously, and get ready to grow that small business of yours.
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This is Small Business Growth Addicts.
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Growth Addicts.
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Thank you so much for joining us today.
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Today I have Rachel Mess with me today, and honestly, this conversation I would just challenge you not to listen to it and want to go and make changes today because I did literally as soon as I hung up with Rachel on this conversation, I emailed her straight away to ask her to have a look at my website for me.
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Rachel is an accessible web and brand designer.
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Based in Glasgow, she specialises in showing small business owners how they can make simple updates to their branding, their website, their social media to make it more inclusive.
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And that's inclusive of everybody, regardless of age, race, physical ability, visual ability, everything, to make sure that your website, your content is accessible for everybody.
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And like I said, I would defy you to listen to this and not want to go and make that possible if it's not already possible within your content.
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So without further ado, let's dive into this conversation with Rachel.
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Let's pause there for a second to hear a word from our sponsor.
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How are you today?
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I'm very good.
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How are you?
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Good, I'm grand.
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And so, of course, today we're going to be talking about everything accessible, web design, and a brand design.
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And honestly, I've been so looking forward to this conversation, as I am with all the podcast episodes, but this is one I'm really open to learning about personally as well.
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My son has a visual impairment, so this does mean a lot to me personally to understand this more.
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So thank you so much for joining us to talk to us about this.
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I think it's something as small business owners we don't know enough about.
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So let's just kick straight off.
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Can you just tell us in plain, no jargon, layman's terms, what does accessible web brand design even mean?
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So basically it is all about just designing and building like your website and your brand out so that it is accessible to anyone, regardless of like age, disability, computer literacy, anything like that.
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You basically don't want any barriers on your website that if somebody pops along and if they've got, say, got a visual impairment or if they're just older and their computer literacy isn't as high, or things like that, they go onto your website and it's confusing or it's hard to read, or if it's somebody who uses a screen reader and it's not being built, that somebody using that screen reader can actually like navigate and understand the content, then they're going to leave your website and potentially then go to a competitor.
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Obviously, as a business, that's not something we want to be doing.
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But then just as like people, hopefully we don't want to be doing that anyway.
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We want our businesses to be really inclusive and to welcome everybody like into our spaces and our communities.
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Couldn't agree more.
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And you know, you mentioned something there that I hadn't even thought of.
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Age.
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My father-in-law is 70-something.
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What's he 74?
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He's been looking into pension stuff recently.
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I think he's got some old pensions he's trying to track and trace and whatnot.
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And the letters they're sending out is all log online, go online to access this.
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And he he hasn't a clue where to start, you know.
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He's got an iPad for FaceTiming the kids primarily.
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That's about it.
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And so he's bringing them up to me.
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And I must admit, some of them I've even struggled with, and I'm very, I think, computer literate.
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That's it.
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And like I think these processes are so they make them kind of overly complicated, or systems aren't talking to each other.
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It's all different companies, and it is confusing.
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And my dad's actually, my dad's only 66, but he was just a sort of chronic, like anti-tech guy from like the get-go.
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If he ever needs to do anything online, I mean he'll turn around and be like, Rachel, can you go on that Google and find out?
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You're like, Yeah, sure.
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I know.
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And of course, with you being in this line of work, you must get that a lot.
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Like you are Google, you are the internet.
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Yeah, yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, and I do feel for him, I must admit, like, we joke, don't we?
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Like the you know, generations and whatnot.
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But if you don't know, you don't know.
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It's like a lot of small business owners using social media as well, for example, you know, uh depending on what generation you're in.
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You you if you don't know, how do you know?
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And it has moved so quickly, it's not like previous generations where like a new machine or a new tool or something came out that had its own lifespan of like 30, 40, 50 years, and somebody would come in and they would learn this, and maybe the machine would have an upgrade or an improvement, but you'd had a long time to kind of get used to it.
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But I feel like technology has gone so quickly that anybody that was kind of slow into it, then it probably really quickly got quite overwhelming.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And of course, now we're introducing AI in the biggest way we've seen so far, and like, wow, that's a whole other layer altogether, isn't it?
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Yeah.
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What got you into this style of work then?
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Like, what made you realise how important accessibility is?
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It all kind of happened by accident.
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Basically, I had studied UX design.
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I'd got a diploma in UX design, which is user experience, and I was designing my own website.
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I think what most business owners do.
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Like now, with like Squarespace and Wix, we can go on and create like our own brand and whatever.
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So I was using a different platform, but I'd gone, I'd picked like the colour that I liked the most and the fonts that I liked and all of that.
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It wasn't until it was finished my sister came and looked at it, and my sister's visually impaired.
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For some reason, doing this, she literally had it popped into my head at all.
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Like, I'm so used to thinking about her, like in like the physical worlds.
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If we go out for a meal, I'll read the menu.
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If we're in the shops, I'll find the aisle that we're looking for, find the thing, tell her how much it is.
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She's constantly on my mind when we're together and we're out somewhere.
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But I was in my own little design world here, and I was like throwing bits together and I was like, this looks great.
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And then she came up and told me all the things that she struggled to read on it.
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And I was like, Oh my gosh, I I'm so embarrassed.
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And I actually, because I was self-taught, like just through courses, I assumed that I'd been a complete idiot.
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And I was like, this is so obvious, everybody will obviously be doing this.
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So I really need to make sure that I know all of these things because I can't build a website for a business and it's not accessible, and then they can potentially lose sales because I've not like known that part of the trade.
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So then, really, as I started networking to kind of cover my own back, I was going, and I make sure it's all accessible, I make sure like I do all of these things, I check contrast levels and adult tags and all of these things.
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Nine out of ten business owners would be like, no one's ever mentioned that before.
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I don't know if our developers done this, or and then that really got me kind of seen how it's just not something most of us know about.
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So it kind of quite quickly became the thing that people would sort of think of me for.
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So I would imagine then that's quite unique what you offer them, because I don't think I know anyone else who's as focused on the accessibility side of web design.
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I mean, there is definitely other agencies and other designers who do talk a lot about accessibility.
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I'm definitely not the only one, which is good because there's a lot of businesses out there who who I think as the more we have these conversations about like diversity and inclusion, maybe within the workspace, the more we kind of say, like, is that being seen throughout your whole brand from every contact point?
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Is it an inclusive brand for people to come across and get in touch with you and to engage with you online?
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I think it's becoming more and more of a conversation.
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So thankfully there are like a few of us, but you're right, not many.
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Like the majority of web designers in agencies, not that they don't do any of these checks, it's just not like a kind of founding principle, maybe is the best way to put it.
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And it's maybe more of a case of here's the things that we're meant to do, but I don't know, say like they really like a certain design, and if the client really likes a certain design, then it's maybe something they'll go, okay.
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Well, we can just do this, that's the one you prefer, we'll go with it.
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Whereas I think because I talk about it so much, and for the majority of like my clients, if there's a style that they like and it's not accessible, then we definitely have a conversation about that and we'll tweak it so that it is accessible because I'm just really not happy with like putting my name to something that is then not inclusive.
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Good, and that's a really, really incredible value to have.
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Yep.
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Lots of respect for that.
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As you said at the start, just as humans, it's something we should all be striving for.
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Why wouldn't the earth would we want to knowingly exclude anyone from accessing our work?
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If you know me by now, you'll know that I love social media.
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It's how I've grown my businesses and now I want to help you do the same.
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That's why I created Get Seen Get Sales, my mentor group for small business owners who want to get seen online and actually attract followers that convert to customers.
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Inside, you'll get weekly content prompts, live workshops, and support on everything you need to grow confidently on social media.
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If you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just ready to do things differently, I've got you.
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Head to smallbusinessgrowthaddicts.com to join us.
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With small business owner websites, a lot of them are DIY, aren't they?
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Especially at the start when you're starting up and the funds are not there and whatnot.
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So if you're looking at these sort of websites, what are the most sort of common barriers you see against accessibility and DIY, particularly websites?
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Well, actually, just across all websites.
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There's actually a scan, uh kind of survey that's done every year by a company called WebAim, and they basically scan like a million websites.
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The biggest issue on all websites essentially is colour contrast, whether that's been a professionally designed and built website or a DIY.
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So colour contrast is always like the main thing.
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Which does that mean exactly, Rachel, contrast?
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So contrast is how easy is it for somebody to read text depending on the background colour.
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There's a lot of like contrast checkers.
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So when you are creating, if you're doing a DIY brand and website, when you're creating your colour palette, think about what color is the text going to be, what colour of backgrounds do I want.
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Say if you've got like a nice kind of brand colour, we'll use pink as an example because pink can actually be like quite a tricky colour depending on the shade.
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So if you've got a shade of pink and you know that you want that for like all of your buttons, you can go onto a contrast checker and you can get the colour codes and pop that in the little contrast checker, and then you can go right here and what colour am I going to use for my text?
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And put the colour of the text in the other box, and that will give you essentially like a score, and it'll tell you like, is this a high contrast colour or not?
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And if it's not, then you want to change that shade of pink that you're using.
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So you want high contrast between the text and the background that makes it easier to read.
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Yep.
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And there's two levels.
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So there's double A and triple A.
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So double A is basically like minimum sort of standard, like everything should be.
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And I think that because as I say, my son's got multiple disabilities, but he has a visual impairment.
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And when we're talking about contrast, it's usually on like stairs, for example.
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So when he first got diagnosed, and the VI visual impairment rehabilitation service came out to assess our full house and garden and the full environment, and our deck and stairs are all grey with no change whatsoever.
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And they were explaining how he would struggle to see the edge of the stairs.
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So we put on yellow and black tape on the edge of each stairs so he can see that.
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Like, you know, it's like yellow and black stripes, you know.
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So I guess that's then brings that more.
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So would he look at that?
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It might be quite flat, but that tape on it pops out.
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And then it works the same with the website, then pops that text out more.
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Yeah, it's and especially with the fact that there's stripes there, like in a physical setting.
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Because if you think of say people that are colourblind, now you're fine as well because you've gone with like yellow and black.
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But if that was like a red tape, if somebody was colourblind and visually impaired or was suffering with sight loss, and then they could be walking up to that and like not see the red tape.
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So the fact that it's even got a stripe on it as well, then like creates that.
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But like yellow and white is obviously the reason why you see so much kind of yellow used within like safety things is because it's a high contrast colour with black.
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Okay, it's all about making that pop, then.
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Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
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Okay, so you see issues with contrast.
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What else?
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Yeah, text size is another big one, and I think that is definitely getting better, but I think it's still sort of very common from 90s, early 2000s, where like you would always use like size 12 in all of your documents, and then I think as that kind of transitioned into social media posts and website content.
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I mean, I know that I would kind of automatically be like, yeah, so like 12 pixels, because that's what we all used when we were doing Word documents and everything, but you want minimum of 16 pixels throughout all of your text on your website, so that's a little tip.
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Okay, yeah, that's a great tip.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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Um, other ones are alt tags on images.
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So there's kind of two sides to this.
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So an alt tag is a description of an image, so that if somebody is using a screen reader, then they get a description of what that image is.
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It's mostly important for if you've got any images that say are like a graph or percentages or anything that's informative, any sort of images there for like information purposes, then somebody that's using a screen reader, when they get to that image, it has to tell them what the contents of that image is.
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Otherwise, they'll just get the screen reader saying image or maybe like the image and then the file name or something, and they're literally not getting the information that's in there.
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The other thing is if you've got, say, particularly like a service-based business, if you're a hairdresser or an interior designer or an architect or something like that, if somebody who uses a screen reader is going on and they're looking for your service, and then they're going through the website and all it's saying is image, image, image, image, image, then they have no idea like what that is.
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And it probably just means that they end up like maybe asking somebody, do you know somewhere that I can go or somebody I can phone?
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Because I literally can't do any research on this because there's no descriptions on the images.
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It's just a shame basically, because there's so many people who will have like visual impairments and who do use screen readers.
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And maybe sight is one of those things as well that anyone can become blind or visually impaired through like just age, strokes, diabetes, anything like that.
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So you might have been like a really independent person, and then suddenly you're kind of not, and you're going like, I'm gonna find a hairdresser that I want to go to, or I'm gonna find a builder that I want to work with.
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And if you're going on and you're just getting that barrier of not being able to understand the visuals, that could just be like Yeah, not a great experience.
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I have full use of my vision and I know how frustrating it is if I go on a website and I can't find what I'm looking for.
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I can't imagine not being able to see it properly and relying on that and just hearing image, image, image.
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I would be so annoyed.
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And it's just something that I think so many of us don't think about because when you do have full sight, you just take it for granted.
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You do just take it for granted.
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Um it's just understandable, it's not something that's in your radar.
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It's just trying to make sure that those barriers aren't there for somebody because as businesses we want to create like a really good user experience for anyone that comes across our business.
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And of course, it's like anything that's not great in the user experience, they will likely tell someone else about it.
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And the opposite as well, within like the disabled, like a lot of disabled communities would say, but if say, so like my sister has albinism, there are albinism-specific groups where people will connect with each other and create friendships and recommend services and all of that.
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If they come across a service that was really inclusive and really easy to use and really easy to book, they'll go tell people that they know because they're like, I was just on this website and it was so easy to go on.
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You should if you need some, if you need this service, go and use this because it was such an easy website, and that's what we want people to be seeing.
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Absolutely.
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Now you've probably got more common mistakes or things that you see, you know, barriers you see, but could we just jump into actually what a screen reader is?
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Somebody who's blind will use a screen reader software.
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JAWS is the kind of main one that I know.
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There is a second one that's fairly popular, but I always forget the name.
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But essentially it's a software that reads out content within your computer.
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So if you go to the start button, it'll tell you you're on the start button.
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It'll read everything out.
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Everything that we read on a computer screen, it will read that out to the person as they navigate their computer, the internet, social media, like everything.
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Fantastic tool to have though, isn't it?
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And is it purely people who are completely blind who would use that?
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You would need to have severe vision loss.
00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:52.799
There are softwares that have like a pretty kind of steep learning curve to them.
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:57.519
So I've actually started working with a guy called Daniel who is blind.
00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:10.400
So now all of like my websites that I'm building, Daniel's gonna test them out for me, like using his screen reader, because I can't do it because it's too much sort of like time to try and learn this whole system as well.
00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:13.039
And he's there, he knows how to do it, he's very proficient.
00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:17.440
He's gone through school and university and his career using one.
00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:22.000
So absolutely happy to pay him to test things out for me.
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.480
I can do all of the scans and do everything.
00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:31.039
I can think I'm doing absolutely everything right until somebody is actually running it through and physically testing it.
00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:32.720
It'll make sure everything's perfect.
00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:37.519
That's a great thing to have someone there who can do that for you, is happy to offer that service for you.
00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:42.160
That's fantastic because then you're getting firsthand exactly what that user experience is like, aren't you?
00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:42.720
Exactly.
00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:54.160
And I think you know, online scanners and testers are great and they will bring up kind of a lot, but it is just different than somebody navigating it themselves, they'll notice little blips.
00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:55.119
Yeah, brilliant.
00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:55.839
Okay, great.
00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:03.279
So you've mentioned the um colour contrast and text size and alt tags, and then we'll talk about screen readers.
00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:06.480
Any other common accessibility issues you see?
00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:24.480
This is really popular because and it absolutely came from simple minimalist sort of design trends, but it's so common to see contact forms where the field name is inside the text box instead of there being like a label above the text box.
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:31.359
Basically, when that happens, that text that we're seeing inside is actually just like hint text for us.
00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:36.400
It's not supposed to be used for labeling the input field.
00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:39.119
So your first name, last name, email address, etc.
00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:48.880
So that's important for screen readers, screen reader users, because it will tell them contact form, input field, first name, and it will actually read that out to them.
00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:54.880
Whereas if there isn't that label, it won't read out the function of that first input field.
00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:57.359
And then it's also just kind of irritating.
00:20:57.519 --> 00:21:06.000
I feel like we've all been filling out a form where you start filling out a field and then you get distracted and somebody's asking you a question, and then you go back and you're like, what was I putting in here?
00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:13.759
And then you have to delete what you've typed to see what the hint text is to remember what details you were putting in, and then go again.
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:18.000
That's another kind of really big common one is no labels on forms.
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:20.799
Links, links, they're just like on websites.
00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:22.000
This is just really common.
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:28.160
If you have, say, a click here to download this form or click here to go to this page.
00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:33.599
We're really used to seeing the word here is what the hyperlink is.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:46.640
So there's some people, if they have like a motor disability and they're not using a mouse or the keypad, they will actually use the tab button on a keyboard to navigate pages on the website.
00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:52.960
And if you're using the tab key, then that jumps you to all of the links on a page.
00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:57.119
So it'll take them to the link, but that link will just be the word here.
00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:02.799
It won't be click here to go to this page or click here to download this form.
00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:09.920
And that is when we're jumping people to a link, we want it to be super specific and really clear where here it's taking them to.
00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:14.319
I'm listening to this and know I know fine well I've got things like that on my website.
00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:15.440
Everyone does.
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:16.160
Everyone does.
00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:22.000
So that's one of the things is like not to feel bad about it because we don't but we don't know what we don't know.
00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:29.119
And like I said, like I didn't know any of this until Hannah came up being like, eh, that's really hard to read, and so is that, and so is that.
00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:30.720
And I was like, oh my god.
00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:33.119
So I never want people to feel bad about it.
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.039
Once you then know these things, then you can start to tweak them and fix them.
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:38.160
That's what we're here for.
00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:39.680
They are pretty simple fixes.
00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:43.039
We're doing this episode today, and you're listening to this episode today to learn.
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:44.400
We don't know what we don't know.
00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:47.920
So, yeah, there's no shame, no feeling bad, no guilt.
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.000
We're learning today, so that if there are any of these barriers, we can go and fix them.
00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:54.240
And Rachel's going to tell us next.
00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:56.720
Let's pause to hear from our sponsors today.
00:22:57.039 --> 00:23:00.000
Not only are our sponsors, awesome businesses themselves.
00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:07.119
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00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:47.519
That's kmtaxreturns.co.uk.
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:49.680
Where do we start?
00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:54.079
Is there a way we can like go into our websites to sort of audit it?
00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:54.799
Absolutely.
00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:56.400
There are three scanners.
00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:00.799
So there's one called accessibilitychecker.org.
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:05.440
That gives you like two scans per every 24 hours or something like that.
00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:08.000
You can go in and it'll give you a score.
00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:22.079
Now, I will say I've never seen it give a score higher than 95% because the checker basically wants you to sign up for their platform so that they can you can buy their plugin to then fix all the things.
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:30.720
So it's never going to give you 100%, but that'll give you a score, and then below it will give you like the list of issues that it's found.
00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:42.960
There's also plugins for WebAim, and they'll scan it and tell you if images are missing alt tags, if you're missing things like heading levels, which is getting kind of like techgy and jargony.
00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:44.799
Yeah, that'll list everything out.
00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:51.440
I offer an audit service as well, which is£50, not to blow up my own trumpet too much.
00:24:51.680 --> 00:25:03.680
But at least with that, you're yet getting a video call with me, or you can opt for a pre-recorded video where I'm going on Loom and I'm going through everything, and I'll explain everything kind of clearly so that it makes sense.
00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:19.440
Whereas a lot of these like tech scanners will list everything, but it's not in plain English, and it'll be referencing bits of code, and when you're sitting there going, I haven't got to clue about this, that then makes it feel quite overwhelming and you don't know where to start.
00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:35.680
Whereas, at least with me, it's a person that's going like, Okay, so these are the issues, this is how you'll fix it, and I'll give you some like suggestions to say if it was for images that need alt tags, I'll just end up being like, say something like this, or say something like that, and it gives you a starting point.
00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:36.880
That sounds good, Rachel.
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:37.839
I think that's something I need.
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:48.240
And I would much prefer to have someone like you do it, because as you say, they'll probably do that scan, that takes time, and then it'll give me a whole list of things that I'll just really probably not know where to go with.
00:25:48.559 --> 00:25:54.240
And it almost makes you a bit frightened, you're almost just like, oh my god, like, oh, there's all of these things, what do I do?
00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:56.400
Shut my website down, just forget it.
00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:56.960
I know.
00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:01.920
And a lot of the time it's like maybe like the same issue as you is across the website.
00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:07.279
So once you fix it once, it's so easy to then go and fix the rest of them.
00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:09.759
So usually it's not like a big deal.
00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:17.680
If we're maybe thinking, if you're listening here and thinking like me, like I know I've definitely got join here, click here, that sort of thing.
00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:25.759
I must admit though, recently I use Wix for my website, and when I'm doing the SEO part, it does prompt me to add alt text and whatnot, which is great.
00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:31.039
It's got a little sort of list, just green and red ticks, so I can see at a glance what's missing.
00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:33.440
So that always prompts me to add alt text and whatnot.
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:36.799
But I know there's plenty of previous blogs that won't have that.
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:40.240
If that is the case and we know fine well, there's a few things we can pick.
00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:40.960
What would you say?
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:44.880
What's the sort of top three to choose to go and fix today?
00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:45.839
And and how?
00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:49.440
Top three I mistake is your contrast levels.
00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:56.240
That's actually the most annoying one of them because we tend to be very connected to our brand colours.
00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:07.519
When you're your own business and business owner and you've picked the colours, we are attached to them, and then it's used across your social media, across all of your marketing.
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:09.200
It could be in your logo.
00:27:09.359 --> 00:27:12.960
If it gets to a point where you're changing logos, that's actually not a high priority for me.
00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:22.319
Like the logo function as it is, if that's going to be a lot of extra effort, you're kind of maybe if your main brand colour is a low contrast colour with your text.
00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:24.640
That's kind of like the biggest thing.
00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:30.160
And the one that I think some people are can be quite reluctant to touch because they're like, no, I really like it.
00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:31.680
And I get that, I do get it.
00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:35.759
But just as businesses, we also want to be like as accessible as possible.
00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:44.319
The low contrast, the alt tags, and labels on your forms, those are kind of the top three issues across websites.
00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:47.200
They're kind of like the top three accessibility issues across the internet.
00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:49.039
I would target those three first.
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:52.720
Okay, and so alt tags, what are we actually writing?
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:57.119
So, say it was a picture of me on a blog, for example, with headphones on.
00:27:57.359 --> 00:27:59.920
Am I describing that image exactly as?
00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:06.960
That's actually a really good question because this is where we kind of get into how important is the image?
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:13.119
So I think when it's photos of us as the Bits and Stoners, they're literally just there for decoration.
00:28:13.359 --> 00:28:16.640
I kind of like to do a sort of blended outlook on this.
00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:25.200
So if I was on your website and you had pictures of you on every page, then I would probably put descriptions on the home page.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:36.960
So I would describe you as Amanda is a white woman in her 40s with shoulder length, dark hair, she's at a coffee table writing in a notepad.
00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:41.039
So I would give a few descriptions like that on the home page.
00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:53.359
Once we get into pictures of you on the blogs, pictures of you on various pages, pictures of you throughout, somebody who's using a screen reader doesn't need to get constant descriptions.
00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:55.599
Yeah, that but that's a thought, isn't it?
00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:58.079
Like they don't want to open every page and have the same thing.
00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:00.000
Literally, like it's not that deep.
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:12.640
I like to have a few because again, just on the inclusion side, because somebody who can see is getting then an idea of your age, race, getting a kind of connection with you.
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:16.880
I guess it depends maybe on the brand how important you think that that is.
00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:21.359
I think we all just like to have like a kind of visual idea of who we're working with.
00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:25.359
It makes the service more human when we can see the person.
00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:29.200
So if it is somebody who uses a screen reader, they can't see the person.
00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:36.559
So let's give them like a little description so they've got just a basic idea, but they don't need that description over and over and over again.
00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:37.680
I'm glad you asked that.
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:43.279
Because I think that sometimes I'm repeating it and I'm thinking, God, how would this sound if someone's listening to this?
00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:49.920
It'd be quite interesting actually to use a screen reader once to try it for myself to actually see what that experience is like.
00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:59.839
All of our computers have got screen readers like built into them, so you can go into like your settings in the accessibility tab and you can activate a screen reader and go through.
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:01.119
And you can listen to it.
00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:02.880
That would be interesting actually.
00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:05.440
But just don't go and burn your website down, right?
00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:06.319
That's fixable.
00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:06.559
Okay.
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:07.440
Don't do that.
00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:08.000
It's fine.
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:08.960
Don't panic.
00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:10.079
Absolutely.
00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:14.799
And you mentioned as well about if it's actually like an information graphic.
00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:25.599
So, for example, at the bottom of my sort of blog show notes style blog for the podcast, I've just started putting in author bio, which is a graphic.
00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:30.559
Should I take that complete description into the alt text then if it's like an information graphic?
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.240
Don't make it too complicated.
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:37.839
Just a quick little description of what the thing is and then the information that that's in there.
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:44.480
So if it's an image of a person, we want to describe it so that we're given that full user experience as they would do if they were seeing the image.
00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:48.480
They want to know age, race, a description of how the person looks and what they're doing.
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:56.079
And then if it's a graph or an information or whatever, you're just literally making sure they can get that same information as they could if they were looking at it.
00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:13.200
A big thing that's often used, actually, just so that people get kind of common examples, is we'll often use images of testimonials, like screenshots of messages that we get through just putting in testimonial from Claire and then what Claire has said to us.
00:31:13.359 --> 00:31:14.720
Yeah, put in a description of that.
00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:16.079
That's something that's so common.
00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:21.279
You don't want people to go on and not be able to listen to that amazing feedback that a business has had.
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:24.720
You don't want them to be hearing image, image, image, image, image and getting frustrated.
00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:30.720
That's the section where they should be going, oh cool, this business is like really great and it has brilliant results.
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:32.480
So yeah, that's a really common one.
00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:35.519
Um if you've got any screenshots of testimonials.
00:31:35.759 --> 00:31:38.559
Yeah, and it's just about trying to put yourself in their shoes, isn't it?
00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:41.440
If this was being read out to me, what would I want to know?
00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:42.799
Like what's important to know?
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:43.359
Yeah.
00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:46.799
And so something we've not mentioned, I'm curious about, is fonts.
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:54.799
Now, I, as I say, have full vision aside from reading glasses and some fonts, especially on like Instagram or whatever, I just can't read them.
00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:59.039
Or I can't be bothered trying to read them because they're too swirly.
00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:00.160
Is it script fonts?
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:01.039
Is this an issue?
00:32:01.359 --> 00:32:08.000
Script fonts are actually one of the ones that I had used that my sister was like, that is so hard to read it.
00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:09.519
I was like, oh, okay.
00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:10.240
I get it.
00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:17.920
They're girly and they're pretty and they can feel quite boho or sophisticated and things, but yeah, they're really hard for people to read.
00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:23.279
And if I'm doing um an Instagram audit and I see it in the bio, it's the first thing I'll say to change.
00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:24.799
I find it irritating.
00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:25.920
There's no need for it.
00:32:26.319 --> 00:32:30.240
You shouldn't have to work hard to try and read what someone's does.
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:37.920
If someone's dyslexic or something, it can because script fonts they really change the shape of the letters.
00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:40.880
So someone who's dyslexic, and that's so common.
00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:43.519
We all know multiple people who are dyslexic.
00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:54.000
Like their brains so often just can't associate now that kind of squiggly letter with the letter that it actually is because the shapes don't match.
00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:58.000
So yeah, script fonts, I'm sorry, are yeah, in the bin.
00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:00.079
We want letters that are straight up and down.
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:02.720
We want sans fonts or sans serif.
00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:05.200
Those are the two the two that you want.
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:05.839
Yeah.
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:08.799
And what about layout of text on our website as well?
00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:14.160
Should it be left aligned, straight, left aligned, so we could just lead read the left to right?
00:33:14.559 --> 00:33:18.960
Left aligned because so centered text obviously is very common as well.
00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:33.200
Personally, if somebody really says to me, Oh, I really want this text to be centered, I will only do that right at your hero section, right at the top of a website, because you've generally only got maybe like two lines of text.
00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:44.240
The reason why this is important is because left-aligned text, the user, the reader, knows exactly where the next sentence is essentially starting.
00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:51.359
When you've got a long section of center aligned text, every new line is starting in a different position.
00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:57.119
That can make it hard for people to essentially like follow and find the next line.
00:33:57.440 --> 00:34:03.359
And then that gets frustrated, and if they've got any distractions that are happening in their day, then they're out.
00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:05.440
That's just like anything.
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:08.960
I always say the number one rule of business is make it easy for your customer to buy.
00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:11.039
And I guess that's what this ties into as well.
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:16.000
Make it easy for them to find out about you, and and which ultimately we want that to lead to a purchase.
00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:18.079
That's you know, that's the that's the dream here.
00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:18.880
That's the goal.
00:34:19.119 --> 00:34:21.199
Don't make it difficult for anybody.
00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:24.400
I completely check myself in this like as a business owner.
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:31.199
We get so attached to our websites and to our branding, and we want it to be a reflection of us.
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:37.280
And I mean, I'm going through our e-brand just out, and there have been multiple times where I've said to myself, like, this isn't about you.
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:38.800
This literally isn't about you.
00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:41.599
You need to like your ideal client all the time.
00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:45.199
It's literally got nothing to do with you, it's about your customers.
00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:50.239
You want it to be as easy for them as possible, and we do need to take ourselves out of it.
00:34:50.400 --> 00:35:03.280
And sometimes that involves a little you have to pause and maybe give yourself a little reality check and go, like, is this important or am I is my almost like my ego or like creativity kind of like getting in the way of things?
00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:07.599
Because and remember that we're not the important person almost in this.
00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:08.400
Yeah.
00:35:08.639 --> 00:35:12.079
And that comes with all aspects of our branding, doesn't it?
00:35:12.239 --> 00:35:16.639
And marketing, the colours and whatnot, where I've made the mistakes way back at the start.
00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:18.559
I spoke about that in my last podcast episodes.
00:35:18.719 --> 00:35:21.679
I just chose colours I liked and fonts I liked.
00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:24.559
There was no that was a the limit of the thought process.
00:35:24.719 --> 00:35:26.000
It's not about you.
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:31.840
It's not, it's about who you think is most likely to buy from you, your ideal client, isn't it?
00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:33.599
We want to light our brand in.
00:35:33.679 --> 00:35:36.960
Like that is, I do think that's important because we want to show up with confidence.
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:39.840
You want to be proud of it, you want to be excited to put things together.
00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:46.960
You don't want to be creating content and creating other marketing materials and being like, oh my god, I just hate this.
00:35:47.119 --> 00:35:48.320
This looks awful.
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:50.400
Like, absolutely that's not what we want.
00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:59.760
You do want to like your colours, and you do want it to be a semi-reflection of you so that somebody comes across your brand completely online and then they meet you in real life.
00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:01.679
You kind of want it to make sense.
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:21.039
You know, you don't want to meet someone be like, oh wow, say if you've got really bright pastel or colourful brand, and then you meet somebody and they're really like really kind of dull and a bit bland, and then you're like, hold on, wait a minute, where's the bubblegum pink pastel blue lady that I've been following on Instagram for three years?
00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:24.079
You do there, there has to be a link with you.
00:36:24.320 --> 00:36:25.360
That makes a lot of sense.
00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:29.599
And again, it's a mistake I made way back in the day with my floristry business.
00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:32.320
I went from out of the frying pan into the fire.
00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:39.360
So I had the colourful logo, but it was sort of muted pastel colours, which isn't really me or my ideal client at that point either.
00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:47.840
And then moved from one extreme to the other to white and navy blue with touches of gold, which gives elegant, corporate, trustworthy.
00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:53.119
And then I rock up in my hoodie, my flewery shoes.
00:36:55.119 --> 00:36:56.000
Oh man.
00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:57.760
And it wasn't aligned at all.
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:06.480
So at that point, but at least you were kind of going elegant, and probably at that point you're maybe looking at charging higher prices, so you do want it to be more sophisticated.
00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:17.840
So there definitely was like a thought process, but you probably just needed somebody there to maybe bounce ideas off of and have a play around and very much so spend a little bit more time on it.
00:37:18.079 --> 00:37:18.880
Yeah, yes.
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:21.440
Lessons have been learned, and now I love my branding.
00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:29.679
My branding is very colourful, it's there for my ideal client, but also for me, aligns with my values and everything I'm on a mission to do and whatnot.
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:33.840
And I feel confident showing it, it doesn't feel like it's not me at all.
00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:36.800
It doesn't feel embarrassing, it feels like an extension of me.
00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:38.880
However, it also meets my ideal client.
00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:40.400
So yeah, I love it.
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.840
So important, kind of looking at your ideal client scene, what colours it do you like?
00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:45.119
What colours do you resonate with?
00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:49.119
Colour psychology, absolutely.
00:37:49.519 --> 00:37:54.960
Quick pause from our conversation because I'm wondering how you'd feel if I told you I could give you a free£50 today.
00:37:55.119 --> 00:38:02.159
Yep, if you've been thinking about moving your business bank account, or perhaps you don't have a business bank account yet, I can highly recommend Monzo.
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:06.400
And if you open an account with them via the link in today's show notes, you get a free£50.
00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:08.639
Monzo are free to bank with.
00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:10.000
I bank with them personally.
00:38:10.159 --> 00:38:15.599
It's so easy to use, and also they won Best Business Banking Provider in the UK in 2024.
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:26.960
So if you don't have a business bank account yet or you're looking to change from where you are just now to free business banking and£50 in your account, head over to small businessgrowth addicts.com for the link and enjoy.
00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:31.039
I feel that we've spoken about loads about websites, which is amazing.
00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:36.559
Like I've got so much to get stuck into, but I think the first thing I'll just do as ask Rachel to just do an audit for me.
00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:38.400
No worries.
00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:52.000
But social media, we're all using social media, and I touched on there, and you know, there's one Instagram account I follow, and I love the account, but the bio just makes me want to just scream when I see it because it's all squirrely, swirly.
00:38:52.079 --> 00:38:53.199
I don't even know what it says.
00:38:53.440 --> 00:39:00.400
So, how does this go beyond our websites into like our full social media marketing and branding and everything?
00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:00.960
Yeah.
00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:13.760
The most important thing really is to make sure those brand like foundations, your colour palette, your and your font, don't have any accessibility issues within them, the contrast levels and how readable the text is.
00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:23.519
If you've got like a yellow and white colour palette and a script font, there's a lot of people that aren't going to be able to read any of the content that you're putting out there.
00:39:23.679 --> 00:39:27.599
Maybe they could read it if they really sat there and tried, but they're not going to do that.
00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:29.760
That's not then just on your website.
00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:37.360
That's on every carousel post, every Facebook post, any flyers you create, any KDF downloads that you've put together.
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:40.159
It goes all the way across your brand.
00:39:40.400 --> 00:39:45.199
I've got to have every brand colour in this document, including yellow in the writing.
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:51.119
Anyone who's sitting there with their yellow and white colour palette, that was my first website that I'd put together.
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:54.960
It was like a mustard of yellow and white and a script font.
00:39:55.199 --> 00:39:56.079
I've been there.
00:39:56.239 --> 00:39:57.840
I was like, I love yellow.
00:39:58.079 --> 00:40:03.360
Anyone listening, we've made these mistakes, and I currently am making them also on my own website.
00:40:03.440 --> 00:40:04.559
So you're not alone.
00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:06.000
I can't repeat enough.
00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:07.920
There's no shame, no judgment here.
00:40:08.159 --> 00:40:12.559
You didn't know any of this until you decided to listen to this episode.
00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:15.039
So don't worry about it.
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:24.960
But yeah, basically, when it comes to any all of our social medias and everything like that, if the brand foundations aren't accessible, then your brand isn't accessible.
00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:26.159
And it's not inclusive.
00:40:26.320 --> 00:40:37.840
And that's I'll use it, I use the word inclusive like so much because I know for like so many people in my network, more people that I'm getting to know, inclusion is just such an important thing to them.
00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:44.800
Whether that's been inclusive for people who are neurodivergent, people within like the LGBT, like trans community, all of that.
00:40:44.880 --> 00:40:47.840
Like we really want to be like inclusive safe spaces.
00:40:48.159 --> 00:40:58.719
Accessibility just has to be a bit of that because you can't be inclusive whilst not being accessible for for people to to literally read your content.
00:40:59.039 --> 00:41:08.719
Getting those brand foundations right is essential because otherwise, all of the thoughtful and beautiful and thought-provoking content that we're putting out there, you're missing people.
00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:09.119
Yeah.
00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:19.920
And if you think you've got not a lot of time on a website to catch someone's attention, reduce that dramatically on social media.
00:41:20.239 --> 00:41:23.039
Like you've got three seconds and or you're out.
00:41:23.280 --> 00:41:24.239
It's brutal.
00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:30.239
You helped me with a reel recently because I wasn't able to use trending audios.
00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:35.519
But I now get I didn't realise that edits give you like a little insights tab.
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:36.159
Yeah.
00:41:36.320 --> 00:41:38.320
And that can be really depressing.
00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:45.039
But if you're like seeing how quickly people move on and oh, I spent so much time on it.
00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:46.320
I know, I know.
00:41:46.480 --> 00:41:48.239
It's a savage place, it really is.
00:41:48.320 --> 00:42:12.239
So honestly, if you think people are getting not going to spend long trawling your website, you've got about three seconds on social media, and that's why Rachel's, of course, part of my mentor group where we do our utmost to make social media easy and fun and profitable and get content out there that's purposeful and quick to create, so that yeah, we're not spending hours on things for something that's going to potentially live and die within 24 hours.
00:42:12.480 --> 00:42:13.280
Literally, yeah.
00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:19.679
And like the algorithm and everything, and people's just the way people use social media, we all sit there and dim scroll.
00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:24.960
But I always just think like accessibility is one of those things where our patience is so short anyway.
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:28.000
But if somebody's literally can't read it, they're gone.
00:42:28.239 --> 00:42:28.880
I don't blame them.
00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:30.079
One bit, yeah, absolutely.
00:42:30.239 --> 00:42:35.920
So let's just make everything clear with everyone in mind, everybody, everybody.
00:42:36.159 --> 00:42:37.119
Yeah, absolutely.
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:40.159
Now we have covered a ton of information there.
00:42:40.239 --> 00:42:42.320
Like I've absolutely absorbed every bit of that.
00:42:42.400 --> 00:42:45.519
I've got an A4 bit of paper here that's covered both sides.
00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:48.800
I've just like the forever student, I'm like this all the time.
00:42:48.880 --> 00:42:50.880
Honestly, I just that's my way of learning.
00:42:51.119 --> 00:42:53.599
I just write everything down and it seems to soak in.
00:42:53.679 --> 00:42:56.239
The pen-brain connection is very strong for me.
00:42:56.480 --> 00:43:01.119
But if anyone's listening and thinking, right, okay, where do I start?
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:03.840
Because I know that I have some of these issues on my website.
00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:05.280
Where do I start right now?
00:43:05.679 --> 00:43:09.280
Free options are accessibility scanners and they will give you a list.
00:43:09.440 --> 00:43:13.760
If you want a free option, I can actually give you a list of them and then they could probably go in the show notes.
00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:16.320
Like I said before, I do accessibility audits.
00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:17.840
You can book one of those.
00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:22.239
So we can either jump on a call together or I can do a pre-recorded video for you.
00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:29.760
Or if you're somebody who really likes information kind of written down, then I can do a PDF report for you.
00:43:30.079 --> 00:43:33.440
I'll force myself to do it because I've I'm so much more of a talker.
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:34.960
Like I just I love to chat.
00:43:35.199 --> 00:43:40.880
The idea of a pre-recorded loom video sounds awesome, then that'll just be you like clicking through and showing us what's going on.
00:43:41.199 --> 00:43:45.440
Nobody has to sort of block time out of their calendar to go on a call.
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:54.000
If you would rather just get the loom recording and you can watch that after the kids have gone to bed or like whenever, that's a really nice and easy option for people.
00:43:54.320 --> 00:43:58.559
I'm going to presume that your website will be a good example of accessibility.
00:43:58.639 --> 00:44:00.079
So where can we find that, Rachel?
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:00.880
Yeah.
00:44:01.119 --> 00:44:04.559
Well, it will be the inclusive design company by the time this is out.
00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:05.280
Absolutely.
00:44:05.360 --> 00:44:07.280
Because of course you're going to rebrand just now.
00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:08.079
Tell us about that.
00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:14.880
Uh so I've been a Soul Trader freelancer for the last four years, and it's just been my name, RachelMess.com.
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:17.280
And RachelMess.com doesn't really mean anything.
00:44:17.360 --> 00:44:28.800
If you're looking for a web designer and you're looking for a company, and my ideal clients are the people who are looking for somebody who specializes in accessibility or who really cares about inclusion.
00:44:28.960 --> 00:44:46.480
So yeah, the inclusive design company just seems like such a it is what it says on the fin type thing that's now registered and there will be probably not a completely finesse, finished website by the time this comes out, but eventually it will get to probably more fun.
00:44:46.719 --> 00:44:52.239
And I really need to, I've been saying I'm gonna be I was gonna be doing this for months and I've not launched it yet.
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:58.239
So kind of giving myself like a little kick this week to be like, get something there, but it will be accessible.
00:44:58.400 --> 00:45:00.000
So go there, have a look.
00:45:00.239 --> 00:45:03.280
It is the inclusive design company.
00:45:03.519 --> 00:45:05.440
Well, I'll pop the link in the show notes.
00:45:05.519 --> 00:45:06.559
And what about social media?
00:45:06.639 --> 00:45:09.039
What's your fave social media hub that we can come and find you on?
00:45:09.119 --> 00:45:09.920
Get some chat.
00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:15.280
I have been very active on Instagram and I've been enjoying Instagram, and I am on LinkedIn as well.
00:45:15.360 --> 00:45:17.840
Yeah, so those are basically the two main places.
00:45:18.079 --> 00:45:23.119
Facebook it will automatically get posted, but I tend to forget to go in and actually spend any time in there.
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:25.519
It's easy done when you're cross-posted, isn't it?
00:45:25.679 --> 00:45:27.119
Because you think you've ticked that box.
00:45:27.280 --> 00:45:28.079
Yeah, yep.
00:45:28.239 --> 00:45:32.800
Well, we'll we'll link to your Instagram and LinkedIn then, so we can just come and connect with you there.
00:45:32.880 --> 00:45:33.840
That'd be great.
00:45:34.079 --> 00:45:37.760
That was just an incredible learning experience, Rachel.
00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:38.480
Thank you so much.
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:42.480
Do you think there's anything we didn't include that we should have included there?
00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:45.039
Those are the really the kind of main points.
00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:53.840
And again, if anyone's looking for sort of extra help, then get in touch and and I can absolutely like sort of explain more.
00:45:54.079 --> 00:45:58.719
I've already got like a couple of like free downloads, and I'm working on a few more of the next couple of weeks.
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:10.880
So there will be more sort of like resources available as well with kind of hopefully like helpful guides to maybe help you with like your colour contrast like decisions around colour palettes or anything like that.
00:46:11.119 --> 00:46:11.519
Awesome.
00:46:11.679 --> 00:46:20.559
Okay, well, I am gonna book for the website audit, and you can fit me in whenever you've you've got space for me, and then maybe I could share the details of that as well.
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:28.880
So if anyone's thinking about that, just what's actually included in it, and I can show that off and how that helped me move through my website and make some make some changes.
00:46:29.119 --> 00:46:43.199
Because I say, Yeah, this feels personal when you have someone in your family, like you mentioned, your sister, my son has a visual impairment and physical disabilities, so he might actually navigate a computer, he's only five, so we've not quite crossed that bridge yet, but he might very well navigate it differently.
00:46:43.360 --> 00:46:45.440
And I'm thinking of my father-in-law as well, you know.
00:46:45.519 --> 00:46:50.480
I just want to make sure if anybody wants to find me and reads what's I'm putting out there that they can.
00:46:50.559 --> 00:46:51.840
That's really the bottom line.
00:46:52.079 --> 00:46:56.559
I think once you start kind of learning about these things, it's hard to pretend that you don't know it anymore.
00:46:56.639 --> 00:47:00.000
So then you're just like, well, I know this now, so I I need to do something about it.
00:47:00.239 --> 00:47:01.280
Yeah, absolutely.
00:47:01.519 --> 00:47:02.000
Awesome.
00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:03.199
Thank you so much, Rachel.
00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:05.280
Take care and I will speak to you soon.
00:47:05.760 --> 00:47:10.159
Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of Small Business Growth Addicts.
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:17.679
I hope today's episode has given you inspiration and tangible tips that you can use to grow your small business in a way that feels right for you.
00:47:17.920 --> 00:47:30.000
If you love today's episode, please head over to smallbusinessgrowthadicts.com and check out today's show notes where you can find details of our wonderful guests, sponsors, discounts, freebies, and so much more.
00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:32.239
Please also don't forget to leave a review today.
00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:35.119
Reviews are invaluable to us to help us get the show out there.
00:47:35.280 --> 00:47:38.400
Every single one is read and very much appreciated.
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:39.920
Until next time.