Good accessibility is good business.
- It provides access to a market of customers that otherwise cannot use (and spend money) on your product. In the US, people with disabilities have about $500 billion in disposable income.
- It provides a competitive advantage over companies that are not accessible.
- It frequently provides higher quality than inaccessible products. Products that are thought through from an accessibility lens are often easier to use for non-disabled users, or provide features that otherwise may not be thought about. (For example, while closed captioning was developed specifically for Deaf audiences, it’s a service that almost everyone has used at some point, whether at a crowded bar or in a room with a sleeping baby.)
- It ensures continued use of the product to customers that transition from non-disabled to disabled. (Keeping a customer is just as important as gaining a customer.)
- It lowers legal risk of civil rights and access lawsuits.
Additional resources on business value
- Why Designing for Accessibility is Simply Good Business by Digital Design Standards
- The Business Value of Integrating Accessible Technology into Business Organizations by Microsoft
- Why accessibility is good for business (according to my mechanic) by Nicholas Steenhout
- The disabled community is the world’s third-largest economic power by Christina Mallon at Quartz at Work
- Understanding the cost of not being accessible by Karl Groves