If you think it is costly to design accessible and inclusive websites, just think about how much inaccessibility will cost your business. Web accessibility is not only an ethical choice. It is a smart business move that doesn’t require excessive time or resources.
Statista reveals that about 13.5% of the U.S. population has a disability. This represents a huge untapped market if your digital properties are not accessible. Pure play ecommerce retailers are estimated to lose over $6.9 billion in annual revenue for non-compliance to accessibility standards.
What’s more, in recent years, there has been a boom in lawsuits filed against businesses for their websites, apps and documents being inaccessible. Some recent studies among Fortune 50 companies state that a single accessibility lawsuit may cost a company about $350,000.
Below, we will show you the significant impact that inaccessibility can have on your business and provide practical tips on how to make your business accessible and inclusive without breaking the bank.
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The Economic Impact of Inaccessibility
The economic impact of inaccessibility on businesses is huge! It can affect potential income, the customer base and market share. Moreover, it can bring an increase in operational expenses as well as higher legal risks.
Overlooked Market Share
Imagine this: the disability market is even bigger than the entire Chinese market, boasting 1.85 billion people with disabilities and a disposable income of about $2 trillion annually.
What’s more, people with disabilities have a strong preference for shopping online. According to research conducted by Fable, half of those with disabilities make weekly shopping of physical products online, with 6% doing so daily.
When shopping online, people with disabilities value accessibility above all else. If they meet the inaccessibility of an ecommerce website, they will not hesitate to leave it.
Potential Legal Risks
Inaccessibility creates potential legal risks and can lead to significant financial losses for businesses.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the well-known civil rights law, requires businesses operating in the U.S. to make sure their websites are accessible to all, regardless of any disabilities. In other words, each business needs to ensure its website can work with assistive technologies, have accessible images and videos, adequate color contrast, accessible web forms and include other features for better accessibility.
Non-compliance with the ADA rules can lead to lawsuits and huge financial losses. For example, the typical settlement for an ADA website accessibility lawsuit may range from $5,000 to $20,000. Note that based on the extent and quantity of violations, settlements can vary from several thousand dollars to millions of dollars.
Another interesting fact regarding accessibility is that in 2023, the number of federal ADA lawsuits exceeded 8,200. Despite the growing recognition of digital accessibility and its significance, over the past decade (since the first tracked lawsuit in 2013), the cases have tripled, resulting in significant losses for businesses.
Even the biggest names in business, like Beyonce’s Parkwood Entertainment, Target and Netflix have not managed to avoid ADA lawsuits.
To avoid lawsuits and financial losses, businesses should comply with the ADA rules and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), regularly train their staff and monitor websites for accessibility.
Increased Operating Expenses
Inaccessibility can increase the operating expenses of businesses several times. The costs may include legal disputes, paying lawsuit settlements, paying non-compliance fines, redesigning websites to comply with accessibility standards, marketing campaigns to repair the brand reputation and more.
It is more budget-friendly to design your business website with accessibility in mind rather than waiting for a lawsuit or other accessibility issues to arise before making changes.
What Makes Websites Accessible
Here are tips to make your website accessible and enable all users to interact with your content.
Keyboard-Friendly Navigation
Keyboard-friendly navigation is a key element of web accessibility. People with motor disabilities, blind people or those who have little or no use of hands rely on the keyboard to navigate websites. Adding keyboard shortcuts and commands makes your website a friendlier place for all.
Screen Reader Compatibility
Screen reader compatibility suggests making websites easily accessible with screen readers and other assistive technology. Screen readers are special programs that read out the content, letting people with disabilities understand it. These programs allow users to understand and explore websites using braille displays or keyboards.
So how do you enable screen reader compatibility on your website?
You need to start by developing your website with accessibility in mind. It requires accessible coding, alt text for images, accessible web forms, appropriate color contrast, content presented in a logical order, etc.
Alt Texts for Images
Alt text is a textual description of images and other visual elements. It allows screen readers to convey the information to people with visual impairments and other disabilities.
Best practices for adding alt texts to images for accessibility include:
- Keeping the text short but descriptive. The ideal length of the text should be up to 100 characters.
- Not using phrases like “picture of” or “image of.”
- Adding the essential information first.
- Not using technical language and a promotional tone of voice.
Color Contrast
Good contrast is what will make your business website stand out and be inclusive. The wrong color contrast mostly affects people with color blindness and visual impairments. Aim for a high contrast between the background and text, following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommendation of a 4.5:1 color ratio. Additionally, use bold instead of emphasis, dark text on light backgrounds, and vice versa.
Responsive Design
Responsive design is what makes your website look good and work well on any device, whether it’s a laptop or a mobile phone. Instead of having to make multiple versions of your site for different screens, responsive design magically adjusts everything to fit perfectly.
To make your website responsive, make sure to use logical and clear elements. Avoid using pop-ups as they can pose challenges for people with disabilities. Additionally, increase load speed and properly optimize images to maintain quality.
Accessible Online Forms
Whether it’s a job application or feedback, your online forms should be accessible to people with disabilities to avoid form abandonment and enhance the user experience of your website.
To make online forms accessible, you need to:
- Properly label all the fields;
- Use an asterisk to mark the required fields;
- Keep fields short (ideally 4-5); and
- Make the forms operable by the keyboard.
Easy to Read Fonts
To make your website content accessible and inclusive, the fonts should be simple and easy to read. Among the most accessible fonts are Arial, Times New Roman, Tahoma, Helvetica, Calibri and Verdana.
Captions or Transcripts for Multimedia Content
People with auditory disability, non-native speakers and others need captions and transcripts to understand multimedia content.
If your video has no sound, you don’t have to include captions; rather, provide detailed transcripts to assist people with disabilities in understanding the content.
Accessibility Audit and Improvements
One key step to avoid your business paying high costs for inaccessibility is to perform an audit for full web accessibility and make improvements accordingly. The audit will highlight the areas that don’t meet WCAG and ADA standards, guiding you in making the required changes.
Closing Words
The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that the global population with disabilities will hit 2 billion. With this in mind, more and more businesses realize that building a website with accessibility in mind from the start is far more cost-effective than making adjustments later.
Businesses are increasingly moving online, which makes digital accessibility more important than ever. For those businesses that look to save money and grow, accessibility is key.
David Gevorkian is CEO and Founder of Be Accessible, which he started because of his passion for website accessibility and ADA compliance. He spent much of his career working for financial institutions creating websites and mobile applications. He earned his Master’s in Business Administration from Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. Gevorkian is an advocate for creating web interfaces usable by all people. He enjoys recording music and playing soccer with friends.
