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Digital Accessibility Is an Investment, Not a Cost

Feb 4, 2019

There is still a myth out there that creating digital experiences to be accessible or remediating for digital accessibility is a cost with little or no benefit. Usually fueling this belief are the questions of how many people accessibility actually helps and whether it is really necessary. Here are just a few of the reasons to flip the script and think of digital accessibility as an investment, not a cost.

Why digital accessibility is worth the investment

Accessibility is an investment in your brand

Digital accessibility is newer on some people's radar, but it has been around and it is going to continue to grow in public awareness and implementation. More and more, people continue to choose and support brands that align with their values and that they see "doing right" by people. Accessibility is a civil right and companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion will be noticed for it — conversely, so will companies that don't.

Among other benefits to your brand:

  • Accessibility allows for more people to have positive experiences with your brand.
  • Accessibility creates more opportunities for brand advocates — loyal customers who will make a point to recommend products and services to people they think may benefit from them, like they have.
  • Accessibility improves SEO.

Read: Digital Accessibility Benefits Your Brand

Accessibility is an investment in your customer

Some organizations are still under the misguided impression that people with disabilities don't use computers or that they don't sell to people with disabilities. They do and you do. Consider this: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that 25% of US adults (61 million people), and 40% age 65 or older, have a disability.

Digital accessibility offers the chance for huge segments of the population to learn about and buy your products, to be included in and contribute to your online communities, and to enjoy independence in the marketplace. Of course, just because somebody can access your material doesn't mean they'll choose to do business with you, but you can be sure that if they can't access your material they won't. Your customers are diverse — show them that they're valued and welcome.

Accessibility in an investment in cleaner technology

Often, when websites and apps are developed with accessibility in mind, the code and information tend be cleaner. There are numerous benefits attached to this, some of which are:

  • Cleaner code that is developed correctly is less likely to break or fail to render as intended.
  • Cleaner code loads faster when someone opens a web page.
  • Code that uses proper semantic elements and structure tends to perform better in search results — for a search engine to rank a web page highly, it needs to understand the relationships between the information.
  • The content itself may be better-structured and organized in ways that are more intuitive and predictable, which helps all users navigate and perform important tasks.

Accessibility is an investment in compliance

 As recent accessibility lawsuit updates continue to show — like the Beyonce website lawsuit and Domino's website and app lawsuit — accessibility is a requirement under laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The best way to be on the right side of the law is to ensure your digital experiences are accessible according to established standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

 In the last month, we've launched two enhancements to our ongoing support package, designed to help website visitors resolve accessibility issues in real-time and to help companies that prioritize accessibility demonstrate their compliance. Learn more in these news releases:

Here to help your investment in accessibility pay off today and tomorrow

Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation with our experts and learn all the ways we can help you achieve, maintain, and prove digital compliance. Or, get started with a free and confidential website accessibility scan, and when you're ready to make a custom plan for your unique website or app, we'll be here to help.

Use our free Website Accessibility Checker to scan your site for ADA and WCAG compliance.

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