Ignoring website accessibility can come with a hefty price tag, both financially and in terms of reputation.
According to "The WebAIM Million," WebAIM's 2024 report on the accessibility of 1,000,000 homepages,
"95.9% of home pages had detected WCAG 2 failures. This improved slightly from 96.3% in 2023. Over the last five years, the number of pages with detectable WCAG failures has decreased by only 1.9% from 97.8%. These are only automatically detected errors that align with WCAG conformance failures with a high level of reliability, which suggests that the rate of full WCAG 2 A / AA conformance was certainly lower."
If your website isn't accessible, it's like a physical store without a ramp for wheelchair users. It creates obstacles that prevent people with disabilities from fully accessing your content —it shuts people with disabilities out —making you vulnerable to lawsuits and irreparable damage to your organization’s reputation.
Here are some common web accessibility issues that have led to lawsuits.
- Images without accessible ALT text
- Videos without captions or transcripts
- Keyboard traps
- Keyboard-only access barriers
- Poor color contrast ratio
- Use of color alone to convey information
- Lack of visible focus indicator
- Poor document accessibility, for example PDFs
- Missing form labels and instructions
Pro Tip: Several issues on that list could be considered "low-hanging fruit," easily and quickly remediated. Those issues would include "images without ALT text," "use of color alone," and "poor color contrast ratio."
The Costs of Ignoring Accessibility
Kris Rivenburgh, attorney and author of "The ADA Book," tells us that the conservative average cost of a website litigation case is around $25,000. He breaks it out like this:
- 10,000 plaintiff’s law firm fees (settlement amount)
- $2,000-$5,500 your defense attorney fees
- $5,000-$15,000 accessibility audit and remediation
And that is with no embellishment whatsoever; those are very real price tags once the dust clears on a settlement.
Usable Net's 2023 Year-End Report states, "Plaintiffs filed over 4,500 federal and state-filed ADA-related digital lawsuits, which is around 500 more than in 2022." That’s a lot of attorneys’ fees.
Not only can a non-compliant website have you paying legal fees, but it can also cause you to miss out on customer dollars. Excluding a significant portion of the population limits your customer base and potential sales. In the marketplace, people with disabilities—as well as their families, friends, and advocates—have considerable spending power, with nearly half a trillion dollars in disposable income.
Now, let’s look at the cost of retrofitting, going back after your website is live, and remediating accessibility issues. Karl Groves puts it best when he compares bug fixes and retrofitting to "Boehm Curve." To paraphrase,
Fixing bugs early saves money. The cost starts low in the planning phase but balloons as development progresses. Imagine it multiplies: 1x at requirements, 5x at design, and 10x in code, reaching a whopping 150x by release!
Image courtesy of Online PM Courses, Delivery Performance Domain
When it comes to your brand, making accessibility a priority unlocks a broader audience, builds brand loyalty, and showcases your commitment to inclusivity. Focusing on accessibility gives you a competitive edge, demonstrates your brand's dedication to inclusivity, strengthens customer trust, and positions you as an industry leader.
Proactive Accessibility: An Investment, Not a Cost
Accessibility does not have to be expensive. The most effective, efficient, and inexpensive way to create an accessible website is to embed accessibility standards and testing into the design, development, and peer review processes—in other words, embrace Shift Left Accessibility.
And when looking for a reliable automated testing tool, simpler is better—and often less expensive. The more complex a platform is, the more it will cost to own because it requires more ongoing support from technical staff and user training to ensure everyone can effectively utilize the features.
Speaking of testing, consider scheduling automated and manual compliance audits at least twice a year and always with any significant updates or redesigns you make.
Pro Tip: Short on time for remediation? Prioritize issues found into these three categories:
- Low-hanging fruit
- The WCAG standards
- Your website users
This way, you can be sure that new content and features follow accessibility guidelines and remain usable by everyone.
By adopting accessibility, you welcome a broader audience, enhance user experience, and keep accessibility-related expenses to a minimum. It's a win-win for your brand reputation, customer satisfaction, and your bottom line.
Resources
- Cost of Implementing Digital Accessibility at the Enterprise Level
- Getting instant return from your accessibility testing
- Cost of Making Your Website Accessible /ADA Compliant Is Workable
- What Does It Cost to Make a Website ADA Compliant?
- The cost of ignoring website accessibility
- $25,000? Website Accessibility Lawsuits Cost Money
- ADA Lawsuit Settlement Amounts: What You Must Know Before It’s Too Late