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March 12, 2024
Our team recently attended a website accessibility conference that heavily discussed the end benefits for end users, which of course makes sense. Somewhat unexpectedly, what the conference didn't touch on was that there’s a strong business case for accessibility compliance.
In the digital age, ensuring that your website is accessible is not just a legal requirement (a.k.a. “the stick”) but a strategic move that can significantly impact your business's success. Doing so can increase reach, reduce risk, and improve brand standing (a.k.a. the much more pleasant, “carrot”).
Below are a few business-drivers for improving your website’s state of accessibility.
Reducing legal risk is likely the most prominent reason businesses adhere to website accessibility, because those who don’t comply face major consequences
Not implementing accessibility updates to your website can lead to tremendous outcomes. Just listen to the cautionary tales of Target, where it had to pay nearly $10M in class damages and attorney fees in its case with The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) (source).
And it’s not just the big guys: according to a recent article from Forbes, “The vast majority of Digital ADA lawsuits are targeted towards the e-commerce sector which accounts for 84% of all lawsuits” (source).
The first and most obvious “carrot” use case by making your website more accessible is you open the door to a broader set of potential customers. According to the U.S Department of Labor, people with disabilities are the nation's largest minority with approximately 50 million Americans or 19% of the population (source).
If your company is global and your website lacks proper accessibility compliance, you are missing out on up to 1 billion potential customers (source).
“The global market of people with disabilities is over 1 billion people with a spending power of more than $6 trillion. Accessibility often improves the online experience for all users.” w3.org
Accessibility rightfully caters to individuals with permanent disabilities, but it also extends to those with temporary disabilities and situational impairments.
For example, closed captioning on television programs was originally intended to help those who are hard of hearing or deaf. Now, many other people benefit from the support of subtitles – those with sleeping babies in the next room, people in loud environments like a crowded bar, anyone with temporary ear infections, or people who learned or are learning English as a second language.
When your site accommodates diverse needs, it becomes more serviceable to a wider range of users with a wider array of situational needs or even preferences.
Bad news travels faster than good, and similarly, people are more likely to share their poor UX experiences (it can’t be just us at CXperts with an often-used #ux-fails Slack channel). Therefore, improving website accessibility is not just good for people, it’s good for goodwill.
Consider the impact on your bottom line, both positive and negative: neglecting web accessibility can damage your business's public image and go so far as making your brand appear as exclusive or discriminatory. On the other hand, your customers could feel proud to be spending their money and engagement with a company that is a trusted ally to those with disabilities.
Although search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t our main game, we know that there are some overlapping benefits between accessibility compliance and search engine visibility. For example, search engines love image alt-text and image descriptions can help add keywords for crawlers to index.
Furthermore, tools like FullStory have known benefits for accessibility compliance activities. Specifically, FullStory can use aria labels to support uniquely identifying specific elements, making indexing and searching for specific components on your site faster and easier (source).
Simply put: by leaving accessibility compliance on the backlog, you’re leaving money on the table and opening yourself up to risk.
At CXperts, we believe that making websites more accessible goes beyond compliance – it's about creating a more inclusive and serviceable online environment for everyone, while also creating business opportunities for your brand.
Our team of customer experience experts (or CXperts) can guide you through the process of enhancing website accessibility, improving not only compliance and experience but also a positive impact on your business. Let's work together to unlock the full potential of your online presence.
Drop us a note at hello@cxperts.io to kick off a discussion for a more inclusive and successful online presence.
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