This document discusses the profitability of web accessibility for designers, companies, and clients. It notes that 98.1% of websites need accessibility remediation and over 1 in 4 people have a recognized disability. Implementing accessibility allows designers and companies to increase their value, enhance their brand, extend their market reach, and minimize legal risks. It also opens a potential market of people with disabilities and their communities, who have over $490 billion in annual disposable income in the US alone. The document provides tips on how to plan for and implement accessibility, such as checking for common issues, having a native user test sites, and being transparent with clients.

1. The Profitability of Accessibility
Sumner M. Davenport
WP Accessibility Day 2020

2. Definition of Profitability
noun
the degree to which a business or activity yields profit or financial gain.

3. What is Accessibility?
• Removing barriers that prevent people from accessing a building, an area, a
service, a website or a digital product.
• Creating products that are usable by people with the widest possible range
of abilities.
• Making things accessible to all people.

4. What is Web Accessibility?
#wA11y
11
Web accessibility” refers to a website designed to include
all users, including it being easily used or accessed by people
with disabilities with the same ease of access as a user without a disability.
Accessibility involves a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory,
physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological.

5. Is There a Need for Web Accessibility?
People with Disabilities, their families, and communities make up
a powerful consumer base.

6. Is there a problem with lack of Web
Accessibility?
98.1%
Source:
http://bit.ly/WebAIM-Million2019
https://webaim.org/
1 Million Sites

7. Are there other problems with lack of Web
Accessibility?
Increase in web
accessibility lawsuits

8. Most common types of WCAG 2 failures
Source:
http://bit.ly/WebAIM-Million2019
WCAG Failure Type % of home pages
Low Contrast Text 86.3%
Missing alternative text for images 66.0%
Empty Links 59.9%
Missing form input labels 53.8%
Empty buttons 28.7%
Missing document language 28.0%

9. Common Problems Referenced in lawsuits
• The Website prevents screen reader from accessing some primary content;
• The Website does not provide a text equivalent for non-text elements;
• Forms lack functionality for disabled;
• Text cannot be resized up to 200% without loss of content or functionality;
• Content enforces a time limit, the user is not able to extend, adjust or disable;
• Web pages do not have titles;
• The purpose of each link cannot be determined from the link text alone.

10. What is the Solution to Lack of Accessibility?
• Make products that are accessible to everyone
• Remediate products and areas that have barriers
• Support companies and products
that are accessible
• Innovate new products

11. Increased VALUE for Designers and Companies
Accessibility can drive innovation
Enhance your brand
Accessibility + SEO
Extend market reach
Minimize legal risk

12. Profitability for Designers
98.1%

13. Your Unique Value – Value Based

14. Accessibility Efforts

15. More Value
Updates
Maintenance Plans

16. Total Value
Unique Value
Cost per hour
Team
Complexity
Timeline
Future offerings

17. Strategy - Plan

18. Be Transparent to Your Client

19. Audit/Testing

20. Ultimate
Tester

21. Easy Corrections First
1. Page titles
2. Headings,
3. Basic Structure Check,
4. Image text alternatives,
5. Contrast ratio ("color contrast"),
6. Hyperlinks,
7. Forms, labels, and errors,
8. Resize Text and Reflow,
9. Multimedia (video, audio) alternatives,
10. Keyboard access.

22. Web Accessibility (WCAG) Checklist
https://bit.ly/POUR-spreadsheet

23. Increased Profit
 Increased value to Client.
 Increase in fees charged.
 Increase in business income.
 Increase in profit.

24. PLUGINS - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

25. Profitability for Companies
People with disabilities are not a solitary market;
they are surrounded by family members and friends
who also recognize the value in products and services
that accommodate all people in society.

26. Profitability for Companies - US
• The total after-tax disposable income for working-age
people with disabilities is about $490 billion
• Discretionary income for working-age people with
disabilities is about $21 billion
Individuals with hearing difficulties represent the disability
category with the greatest amount of discretionary income,
followed by those with Vision disabilities.

27. Profitability for Companies - UK
UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) estimates that the number of
UK disabled adults who are active internet users is 10.07 million
 Users with access needs have a combined spending power of £24.8 billion
 69% of people will simply click-away when confronted with a problematic
website.
 The size of the Click-Away Pound is more than £17 billion
 This spending is ‘re-directed’ to barrier-free sites, as people who ‘click away’
will seek to find an accessible alternative and spend their money there.

28. Worst Case Scenario

29. Marketing to the Disabled Community
• Develop products that meet the needs of people with disabilities.
• Build or remediate all digital products to Accessibility success standards.
• Community involvement.
• Employ people with disabilities.
• Inclusive advertising.
• Accessibility Statement.

30. Value vs Cheapest
Photographer unknown
Captured from Facebook

31. Automatic Accessibility Checkers
Deque Axe-Pro Beta (https://deque.com)
Tenon.io API (http://tenon.io)
WAVE Toolbar Online (http://wave.webaim.org/)
and Browser Add-on.
(Microsoft + AXE) Accessibility Insights for the Web
AXE Browser Add-on.
Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools.
AInspector – Firefox Add-on

32. Resources
https://www.w3.org/WAI/
Web Accessibility Initiative https://www.w3.org/WAI/
Knowbility/AccessU/AIR https://knowbility.org/
Deque University https://dequeuniversity.com/
WebAIM https://webaim.org/
CSUN http://bit.ly/CSUN-Conference
University of Illinois http://bit.ly/UnivIllinois-classes
University of Washington https://www.washington.edu/accessibility/

33. Native User Testers
Knowbility Access Works https://access-works.com/
Pearson https://www.pearson.com/
CSUN https://www.csun.edu/

34. Links and Resources
• The WebAIM Million
An annual accessibility analysis of the top 1,000,000 home pages
http://bit.ly/WebAIM-Million2019
• Click Away Pound Report: http://bit.ly/Click-Away-Pound
• AIR – Hidden Market: Purchasing Power of Working-Age Adults with
Disabilities: http://bit.ly/Spending-Power
• Web Accessibility Lawsuits, PACER: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/

35. Summary
98.1% of websites need remediation
1 in 4 people have a recognized disability
Accessibility is International
Plan your design to include Accessibility
Have a strategy for Remediation
Understand the why and how of your Value to a client
Understand the potential market so you can explain it to your client
Check the obvious – fonts, structure, color schemes, video/audio captions/transcripts.
Don’t rely only on automated testers, Test your site MANUALLY
Have a native user of Accessibility technology test your site
Be transparent in your work and share reports with your clients
Support the Community

36. Questions?

37. Thank You.
wA11ywp.org
Twitter: @sumnerdavenport
LinkedIn: SumnerDavenport
WordPress San Fernando Valley
Meetup