Enhancing Web Accessibility: A Strategic Imperative for Inclusive Design

How Web Accessibility Will Drive your Traffic Up

Website accessibility is becoming increasingly necessary in 2025. It is crucial for websites to be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities of a wide variety. By ensuring a wide range of access to the same information and services that are available to everyone and includes things like news articles, online shopping, online banking, government services and more we are making the world a more inclusive and accessible place. In today’s world, humans consume 99% of their information and content online. The importance of website accessibility is due to the growing number of people with disabilities.

According to the WorldBank.org, 16% of the world's population, and 26% of the U.S. population, have a disability. That's 1.3 billion people globally and around 85 million people in the United States who may be unable to access websites that are not designed with accessibility in mind. These statistics demonstrate that web accessibility is no longer optional but essential.

How does this impact businesses and nonprofits? Organizations that fail to provide accessible online experiences risk losing valuable customers, in addition to making themselves vulnerable to significant legal liabilities. Individuals with temporary, permanent, situational, or evolving disabilities access digital content in a variety of ways which makes it essential that your website can accommodate all users, regardless of their status. Their control of a mouse, their visual acuity, auditory capacity, or cognitive processing are all vital to their online experience. Over two-thirds of US based nonprofits serve people who identify with a disability.

So let’s dig deeper: these concepts are such an important factor for businesses and nonprofits to consider, as it allows us to reach a wider and often underserved audience. By making your site easier to navigate for everyone, you can boost user engagement, drive more sales, donor relations, critical services, and improve customer satisfaction—all of which contribute to revenue growth. According to a recent study e-commerce retailers missed out on an estimated $828 million due to inaccessible websites in 2023. Finances aside, accessibility can also enhance your brand image, strengthen your reputation, and even support better SEO performance. An astonishing 93.9% of people access the internet via their smart devices (phones) making mobile accessibility of your digital content inherently vital to success.

So ok, you now know the importance of website accessibility, now what? Don’t fret, you don’t have to hire a special company to bring you up to ADA compliance, there are resources available to make this transition easier. The World Wide Web Consortium, better known as W3C, has developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to help make websites more accessible. These guidelines provide a set of standards for web developers and designers to follow when creating websites. These two organizations outline four main concepts of website accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. We won’t break them down here but a link is available for further instruction.

By utilizing accessible websites is not merely a compliance exercise; it is a commitment to inclusion, a driver of business success, and representative of organization values. But there is something else to consider: there are actual legal ramifications for lack of accessibility. UsableNet’s 2023 Midyear Report on Digital Accessibility Lawsuits reported that website accessibility lawsuits increased from 2,314 in 2018 to more than 4,000 in 2022, and that 77% of the companies involved in these lawsuits have revenues under $25 million. Additionally, studies show that companies that utilize DEI practices in their businesses and organizations are 25% more profitable than those that don’t. In making accessibility a priority, businesses and organizations alike can better serve all people, increase their brand reputation, and maintain compliance with legal and other ADA regulations in an ever growing digital world.

Here's the best news of all: there are even more financial benefits to website accessibility. Several grant and funding opportunities exist to improve website accessibility. These range from IRS credits and tax deductions for businesses to state and federal programs focused on digital inclusion and accessibility technology. Organizations like Ability Central also offer grants specifically for projects improving communication and information access for people with disabilities. Let me help you grow your business. Let me show you how to fund these changes.