Website Accessibility: Still Essential for Business Success

2/1/2025

Website Accessibility: Still Essential for Business Success

By Don Torrez, Certified Accessibility Coordinator, Director of Partnerships with CivicPlus

Last April, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would begin enforcing web accessibility laws for state and local governments. There is speculation that retail business websites would be next. This move is viewed as the first step in enforcing policies regarding website accessibility, which have evolved since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

With the recent shift away from DEI initiatives, there is considerable speculation about how the federal government will respond to its focus on web accessibility. Will the DOJ decide not to enforce its announced policy, as it has done in the past1?

Website managers should not be deterred by shifts in government policy. The benefits of making the web accessible extend far beyond compliance and can help us stay focused on being inclusive. While we cannot control external noise, we can take advantage of the opportunities that full accessibility offers.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that by 2025, more than one in four U.S. adults have a disability2. The significance of accessible technology is crucial as we learn more about health, and technology continues to make the world easier to navigate. Your website may miss a large segment of your intended audience if it is not designed to be accessible. Recognizing that the population of disabled individuals is not a monolith, an inaccessible website excludes a significant demographic. Businesses lose nearly $7 billion per year due to inaccessible websites3.
Making your website accessible can also improve technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO)4. For instance, properly tagged content enhances accuracy and provides search engines with the correct information to index your content effectively. Additionally, a well-crafted title tag is essential for basic SEO; it describes the page's content and is visible in search engine results, though not on the page itself.
Overall user experience improves with accessibility. Fully accessible websites have much higher UX scores than inaccessible sites. As we learned from the introduction of wheelchair ramps and curb cuts5, making environments accessible for assistive transportation benefits everyone. Similarly, creating accessible technology results in a more usable website that features strong color contrast, the ability to magnify fonts and images, and well-captioned videos.

Where to begin?

Train – familiarize yourself and your staff on the guidelines and requirements of accessibility7.
Plan – Adopt a policy for web accessibility and post it where your website users can easily obtain it8.
Reach out – The most important initial step is to have a way for a user to reach you if they have an accessibility obstacle on your website9.

These first steps are not technical but can build a foundation to help you make your website accessible. The lack of government attention to accessibility should not deter our efforts to create a more robust internet. There are benefits far beyond legal compliance. Let’s purpose to intentionally break down communication barriers across all demographics and strive for the ultimate goal of technology: to make the world smaller and more connected.

Notes:
1 DOJ Nixes All Pending ADA Rulemakings, Including Website Access Rules | ADA Title III
2 Disability Impacts All of Us Infographic | Disability and Health | CDC
3 The Cost of Inaccessibility: Businesses Lose More Than $6.9 Billion Annually - Retail TouchPoints5 Measuring Accessibility In The User Experience (UX) And The Searcher Experience
4 Cracking the Code: How Website Accessibility Affects SEO | by Anjum Siddiqui | Globant | Medium
5 The Curb-Cut Effect | PolicyLink
6ADA Update: A Primer for State and Local Governments | ADA.gov
7Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
8Plan | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C
9How to write an accessibility statement | Make Things Accessible

Don Torrez has collaborated with over 400 local governments to enhance their understanding of web accessibility and ensure compliance with relevant laws and guidelines. He has successfully addressed accessibility challenges alongside the Department of Justice, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Department of Homeland Security. As a Certified Accessibility Coordinator, Don has developed comprehensive training curricula on web accessibility and is an outspoken advocate for greater awareness of related issues. His mission is to eliminate the fear and confusion surrounding accessibility, making it more approachable and actionable for all.

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