Digital accessibility: what it is, and why it matters
Digital accessibility is often considered a nice-to-have and found at the bottom of the to-do list.
As a website developer specialising in this area, I’m sharing why you should consider digital accessibility at all stages – from planning to development – and the positive impact it can have on users, as well as the commercial benefits of increased conversion and revenue.
In the broadest sense, digital accessibility refers to creating products (such as websites, apps, documents, and multimedia) that enable people with diverse abilities and disabilities to use them effectively. It’s about ensuring content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, and we’re not creating barriers that prevent people from accessing important information and interacting with key functionality.
If, for example, someone couldn’t use a mouse and relied on navigating with a keyboard, would they still be able to use your product? Accessibility is not a “nice to have” and shouldn’t be something that is considered at the end of a project. It can have a real impact on users, exclude whole groups of people, and damage business reputation. Below are some reasons your organisation should care about it.
Despite its importance, the 2025 WebAIM One Million report found that 94.8% of homepages tested have accessibility failings that could be creating barriers for people. We have to do better.
Why accessibility is important
It’s the right thing to do
Accessibility is a right, not a privilege.
At its core, accessibility is about inclusion and equality. Every person deserves the opportunity to access information, services, and online interactions without unnecessary barriers. When digital services exclude people with disabilities, we reinforce inequality and marginalisation.
Moreover, inclusive design often has ripple effects: improving usability for all users, not just those with recognised disabilities. For example, captions on videos help not only deaf users, but also non-native speakers, or people in noisy environments.
You could be excluding a whole group of people (customers)
Ignoring accessibility means leaving money on the table. In the UK, the term “Purple Pound” refers to the spending power of disabled people and their households.
In the UK, it’s estimated that around 16.1 million people identify as being disabled — around 1 in 4 people. The collective total of spending power of people with disabilities and their households is estimated to be around £274 billion, with online making up for around £24.8 billion of that total (estimated in 2023).
From the same article, there are a number of findings that suggest that people with disabilities who encounter accessibility barriers on websites and with services will take their custom elsewhere and create a negative perception of an organisation.
Businesses lose money from disabled customers due to inaccessible websites and products. In 2016, research showed that:
- 7 in 10 disabled customers said they will click away from a website that they find difficult to use
- 83% of participants with access needs limit their shopping to sites that they know are accessible
- 86% have chosen to pay more for a product from an accessible website rather than buy the same product for less from a website that was harder to use
- 4 million people abandoned a retail website because of the barriers
- An estimated loss of £11.75 billion comes from the “Click-Away Pound”
In 2019, the Click-Away Pound grew to £17.1 billion.
According to Accenture’s analysis of the Disability Equality Index (DEI), companies that prioritise digital inclusion:
- are twice as likely to have higher shareholder returns
- 28% higher revenue
- see a 30% better performance in economic profit margins
Beyond direct sales, accessible design broadens reach, reduces friction, improves conversion, and strengthens loyalty. Once users have a frustrating experience, many will not revisit your site. So even on purely commercial grounds, accessibility is a smart investment — sometimes positively transformative.
You may have a legal requirement
Depending on the sector you operate in and where you offer the service, you may be legally required to make your product or service accessible. Not doing so may lead to fines and reputational damage. Here are the laws that are applicable in the UK.
Public Sector
In the UK, public sector bodies must adhere to the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, which mandate that websites and mobile apps meet accessibility standards.
Specifically, public sector digital services must conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA. They also must publish an accessibility statement that clearly describes how accessible the site is and notes any parts that do not comply.
Sites are regularly audited to ensure these standards are being met.
Equality Act 2010
The broader Equality Act 2010, which replaced the earlier Disability Discrimination Act 1995, does not explicitly define digital accessibility, but it imposes a duty on organisations (public and private) to make “reasonable adjustments” so as not to discriminate against disabled persons in accessing services.
European Accessibility Act (EAA)
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) pushes harmonisation of accessibility in goods and services, ranging from digital services to physical products and devices.
Even if you are based outside of the European Union (EU), if your services are available to people within the EU, you are in scope.
The act can be interpreted in slightly different ways depending on individual country implementations and requirements, but generally, EN 301 549 is the adopted standard. This has many of the same requirements as WCAG 2.1 (P.O.U.R – see below), so using these guidelines as a starting point can be a good place to begin. Although the EAA goes beyond WCAG, it’s about outcomes and people.
A brief WCAG explanation
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard that defines how to make web content accessible. The latest version, WCAG 2.2, refines and adds success criteria (especially better addressing cognitive, mobility, and low-vision needs).
Under WCAG 2.2, digital content should be:
- Perceivable – users must be able to sense the content (e.g. text alternatives, captions)
- Operable – interfaces must be usable (e.g. keyboard navigation, navigation timing)
- Understandable – content and interface should be clear and predictable (e.g. consistent help, readable language)
- Robust – content must reliably work with assistive technologies (e.g. compatibility with screen readers)
WCAG has three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA. For most organisations, level AA should be the goal.
Meeting WCAG 2.2 AA is both a legal requirement (for many public sector bodies) and a best practice standard.
Benefits for other key metrics (SEO and performance)
Even if your motivation is not legal compliance or ethics, accessibility is closely aligned with SEO best practices and site performance:
- Well-structured, semantic HTML (headings, lists, alt text, etc.) helps search engines understand your content
- Text alternatives (e.g. alt text on images, captions) add indexable content
- Cleaner, more efficient code (less clutter, better structure) often leads to faster page loads – which helps with SEO and user retention
- Better navigation (logical and consistent structure, skip links, keyboard access) reduces bounce rates and increases user dwell time – positive signals for search engines
In effect, many practices that help users with disabilities also signal to algorithms that your site is well structured, fast, and relevant.
Our accessibility experience
We care about people’s experiences with the products we create, and this includes making them as accessible and inclusive as possible. This is part of our process and craft.
Processes
We’re constantly looking at ways we can bring accessibility into our design and development workflows and ensure it’s prioritised in collaboration. We use a mix of automated and manual tools to test accessibility to check and monitor accessibility. We ensure accessibility is discussed when scoping features and tickets to help make it part of our “definition of done”.
Digital and branding
We work in both digital and print spaces with our partners. This can present interesting challenges, ensuring accessibility is considered across different mediums. Checking font size and contrast of not only web-based assets, but also that when printed, they will also be sufficient.
Accessible digital documents
We work with a number of higher education organisations. When producing documents such as a prospectus, the digital versions need to be accessible so that the content can be understood by everyone. This means producing accessible PDF versions that consider content accessibility such as heading structure, link text, contrast, and image alt text.
Accessibility reviews
We can conduct accessibility reviews on existing products to help understand where any accessibility gaps may be, and suggest remediation priorities. This is often done using a mixture of automated and manual accessibility testing tools, and on a representative sample of pages, for example, key pages and common or important user journeys.
Accessibility remediation
Alongside helping with finding accessibility issues, we can also help prioritise and work through actioning the issues, doing so in a sustainable and planned way that can help educate content authors and stakeholders, as well as just fixing the issues.
Accessibility isn’t just a one-time box to check; it’s a continuous commitment.
Our journey
We’re on our own accessibility journey at EXP. We’re constantly learning and adapting our processes to ensure we can help our partners on their accessibility journeys.
We’re currently trying to move accessibility conversations earlier into our process. Rather than just making it a dev/testing expectation, when issues can become more expensive to fix. We’re moving accessibility requirements into design, ticket writing, and even making sure we talk about it in early project conversations and pitches/proposals.
How EXP can help
Digital accessibility is no longer optional:
- The moral case: everyone deserves equal access
- The business case: the Purple Pound is too big to ignore
- The legal case: compliance is often required
- The technical case: accessibility boosts SEO, performance, and usability
Start small if you need to – but start. The sooner accessibility becomes part of your process, the more impact it will have.
We’d love to help you on that journey. Whether you need an audit, training, or ongoing support, get in touch and let’s start a conversation about making your digital products accessible.
EXP tech lunch talk
Going to finish on a bit of a self-plug. On Thursday 4 December, in the Fraser House Hub, we will be delivering a lunchtime tech talk around accessibility. It will be the first in a series that will also have some blog posts as well. It will start with an overview of accessibility, introducing the fundamentals. Future topics include:
- Methods of testing accessibility
- How accessibility can be added to the design workflow
- Tips for ensuring development considers accessibility
- The importance of accessibility and content
- How to create and check digital documents for accessibility
If you’d like to come along (free to attend), or catch up with the talk afterwards (we’re hoping to record), please get in touch, and we’d be happy to help organise this. If you’re reading this and a member of Fraser House, hopefully see you there!
