In today’s digital world, where online presence can make or break a business, ensuring that your website is accessible to everyone isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. Digital accessibility isn’t just about compliance with laws or ticking off a checklist; it’s about inclusivity, user experience, and ultimately, your bottom line.

In this post, we’ll explore four crucial ways that ignoring web accessibility can cost your business. We’ll dive into the statistics, share insights from experts, and show you how simple accessibility practices can lead to significant benefits. Let’s get started!

1. Your Customers Include People with Disabilities

One of the most overlooked aspects of web design is the diverse needs of your audience. Saying, "Our target market doesn’t include people with disabilities" is not only shortsighted but also inaccurate.

Statistics on Disability and Its Impact:
Globally, over 1 billion people experience some form of disability, which is about 15% of the world’s population. Of these, 190 million experience significant disabilities that impact their daily lives. In other words, if your business isn’t accessible, you’re potentially excluding a significant portion of your audience.

Why This Matters for Your Business:
People with disabilities are consumers just like anyone else. They buy products, use services, and engage with brands. However, if your website is inaccessible, you’re effectively turning them away at the door. This isn’t just bad for business—it’s a missed opportunity.

By prioritizing digital accessibility, you’re not only expanding your customer base, but you’re also showing that your business values inclusivity and equality. And that’s a message that resonates with everyone, not just those with disabilities.

Real-World Example:
Consider the case of Domino’s Pizza. A few years ago, they faced a lawsuit because their website and mobile app were not accessible to a blind customer using a screen reader. The result? Not only did they face legal action, but they also damaged their reputation and missed out on potential sales. This could have been avoided with an accessible website from the start.

2. Poor Accessibility Hurts the User Experience for Everyone

At its core, accessible design is about eliminating obstacles that hinder your customers' interactions with your site. But here’s the thing: these best practices don’t just benefit users with disabilities—they improve the experience for everyone.

Understanding Accessible Design:
Accessible design focuses on making your website usable for as many people as possible. This includes simple things like making text readable by choosing the right font size and color contrast, ensuring that buttons are large enough to be clicked easily, or providing captions for videos.

The Business Case for Accessible Design:
When you implement these best practices, you’re improving the overall user experience. A website that’s easy to navigate, read, and interact with keeps users engaged longer. They’re more likely to find what they’re looking for, make a purchase, or fill out a contact form.

For example, Google’s algorithm favors websites that offer a good user experience. This means that accessible websites are more likely to rank higher in search results, driving more traffic and potential customers to your business.

Impact on SEO:
It’s no secret that search engines prioritize websites that are user-friendly. When you follow accessibility best practices, you’re also ticking many of the boxes for SEO. A well-structured website with clear headings, alternative text for images, and fast load times isn’t just accessible—it’s optimized for search engines, too.

3. Inaccessible Websites Are Invisible to Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for any business that wants to succeed online. But did you know that if your website isn’t accessible, it could be invisible to search engines?

The Role of Accessibility in SEO:
One critical aspect of web accessibility is that your content must be robust. This means that it should be compatible with current and future technologies, including assistive technologies like screen readers. But it’s not just assistive technology that benefits—search engines also rely on this robustness to crawl and index your website.

Why This Matters:
If your site isn’t accessible, search engines may struggle to understand your content. For example, if images don’t have descriptive alt text, a screen reader (and a search engine) can’t “see” them. If your navigation relies on a complex, inaccessible structure, search engines might not be able to index your pages correctly.

This can seriously impact your SEO, leading to lower search rankings, less traffic, and ultimately, fewer customers.

Real-World Impact:
A study by the American Institutes for Research found that websites with accessibility issues often perform poorly in search engine rankings. This means that even if you have great content, people might not find it because search engines can’t properly crawl and index your site.

The Fix:
Ensuring that your website is accessible is one of the best things you can do for your SEO. Not only will you make your site usable for a wider audience, but you’ll also make it easier for search engines to understand and rank your content.

4. Accessibility Issues Lead to Higher Maintenance Costs

It’s true that building a website that meets accessibility standards does require some initial investment. You’ll need to spend time thinking about a wider range of users, and you’ll need to test your content against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). But here’s the kicker: websites with accessibility issues often cost more to maintain in the long run. One study from the American Society of Engineering Management (PDF)  found that fixing a usability issue after a product release can consume 100 times the development resources as compared to fixing the issue prior to release.

The Cost of Inaccessibility:
When you build an inaccessible website, you’re setting yourself up for future headaches. Every time you add new content, you’ll need to go back and fix any accessibility issues. If you don’t, you risk alienating users, facing legal action, or needing a costly redesign later on.

Usability and Cost:
Research has shown that websites designed with accessibility in mind tend to have lower maintenance costs over time. This is because accessible websites are often built with cleaner code, which is easier to update and manage. They’re also less likely to need expensive fixes to bring them into compliance with accessibility standards.

Long-Term Benefits:
By investing in accessibility upfront, you’re actually saving money in the long run. You’ll have a website that’s easier to maintain, less likely to require costly fixes, and better suited to handle future updates and changes.

Achieving Digital Accessibility Is Within Reach

While many business owners recognize the importance of an accessible website, they often feel daunted by the perceived complexity of achieving it. The good news is that there are clear guidelines to follow, and with the right help, digital accessibility is entirely attainable.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide clear, actionable steps for making your website accessible. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your website is usable for everyone, including people with disabilities. And the best part? You don’t have to do it alone.

At Corpowid, we specialize in helping businesses like yours create accessible, user-friendly websites. Our team of experts can guide you through the process, from initial assessment to implementation, ensuring that your website meets all accessibility standards.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Make your website accessible today and open your business to a wider audience. Contact Corpowid for a consultation and learn how we can help you create a website that’s not just compliant, but truly inclusive. By making digital accessibility a priority, you’re not only complying with regulations, but you’re also investing in the future of your business. Let Corpowid help you make the digital world accessible to everyone.