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Is Your Website Shutting Out Customers With Disabilities?
The Digital Slice Podcast is brought to you by The Friedman Group, LLC
What if accessibility is the growth lever your business has been ignoring? One in four people in the U.S. have a disability. Is your website ready?
If your website or app is not accessible, potential customers may be standing at your digital door unable to engage with your business.
Join Brad Friedman and Mike Barton as they explore why digital accessibility matters, where most businesses fall short, and how to build more inclusive digital experiences from the start so you can improve usability, reduce friction, and better serve people with disabilities.
Mike is a marketing and communications leader dedicated to making the internet more accessible for all. As Vice President of Corporate Communication & Content Marketing at AudioEye, Mike leads marketing strategy, driving awareness and demand through blogs, social media, PR, video, and digital storytelling.
Previously, at Adobe, he shaped content and executive messaging across Experience Cloud, Creative Cloud enterprise, and Document Cloud. With deep expertise in customer engagement and industry-specific storytelling, Mike excels at aligning business objectives with audience needs—crafting compelling narratives that resonate with C-suite leaders, end users, and decision-makers across industries.
In this Episode:
- Mike explains what digital accessibility means and why it matters in everyday online life.
- Mike highlights how people with disabilities experience websites, apps, and digital content differently.
- Mike outlines common accessibility problems, including weak alt text, poorly labeled form fields, and generic links.
- Mike shares what effective alt text should include so users can understand images in context.
- Mike urges businesses to build accessibility into design and development early instead of treating it like a final checkbox.
- Mike reframes accessibility as a growth opportunity tied to usability, SEO, and customer loyalty.
Quotes from this Episode:
- [00:00:44] “Digital accessibility is really, as it sounds, making the digital world accessible to everybody.” – Mike Barton
- [00:01:00] “One in four people in the US have a disability of some sort.” – Mike Barton
- [00:03:40] “If you have a presence online, if you have an app, all these things apply to you as well” – Mike Barton
- [00:11:40] “Our best practices that we found don't just benefit people with disabilities. They generally also benefit the rest of the population” – Mike Barton
- [00:15:03] “It's not a new audience. It's an audience who's been standing at your digital door waiting for you to open it.” – Mike Barton
Today's Guest:
Mike Barton:
- AudioEye: https://www.audioeye.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omnibarton/
Connect with Brad
Brad Friedman
- X: @BradFriedman and @FriedmanGrp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefriedmangroup
- LinkedIn (Brad): https://www.linkedin.com/in/bfriedman/
- LinkedIn (The Friedman Group, LLC): https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-friedman-group-llc
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/friedmansocialmedia
- Website: https://friedmansocialmedia.com
You can also call the office at 720.248.8185 or email brad@friedmansocialmedia.com.
Books
- “Brad Friedman on Digital Marketing,” by Brad Friedman
- “The Small Business Owner's Guide To Inbound Marketing,” by Brad Friedman
- “100 Livestreaming & Digital Media Predictions,” by Ross Brand with a chapter by Brad Friedman
Sponsors and Tools
This podcast is brought to you by Magai. The tool we use for our AI needs. Magai is over 30 AI apps in one. There's just one subscription to access all the best AI models. Get Magai right here, https://friedmansocialmedia.com/magai. And, if it’s your first time purchasing, use BRAD30 at checkout to get 30% off your first 3 months.
Our favorite Social Media Management Tool is AgoraPulse. Please contact me to learn more about Agorapulse and allow me to connect you with my contact at the company.
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Affiliate Links & Transparency
Thank you for trusting me with my honest opinion on future purchases you may make after listening to this podcast. I am always completely transparent with you. As a friend of The Friedman Group, LLC you allow me to be able to use affiliate/referral links when suggesting items for purchase. Please know I am a customer myself or have done sufficient research to feel comfortable sharing these links with you. When you click on a link and purchase the item I may receive a small “commission.” This allows me to continue to provide you with quality content and doesn't affect you in any way at checkout.
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