Metrics to measure the ROI of web accessibility

Businesses across the globe are investing heavily in web accessibility, recognising its profound impact on customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and ultimately, the bottom line. Forrester’s 2022 Research discovered that, on average, every dollar invested into web accessibility and user experience improvements brings back $100, which gives a return on investment, or ROI, of 99% (source).

If you’re running a business, you understand the importance of investing in areas that drive growth and profitability. But when it comes to web accessibility, how to measure the return on the investment (ROI)? How to translate the softer aspects of ‘accessibility’ into hard, monetary terms that resonate with stakeholders?

Whether you’re a C-suite executive, a product manager, a business owner, or an accessibility advocate, this post will help you to gain a better understanding of the financial value of web accessibility.

What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility is a critical aspect of digital strategy that ensures inclusivity and equal access for all users, including those with disabilities. Web accessibility practice deals with every aspect of a user’s experience with a website or digital product. This covers navigation, content, interactive elements, etc.

But also web accessibility is a:

1. Way to Innovation

The accessibility problems of today are the mainstream breakthroughs of tomorrow.

Eve Andersson, Director, Accessibility Engineering, Google

Accessible design, by its very nature, is adaptable, meaning that content can be displayed accurately across a wide variety of devices, platforms, assistive technologies, and operating systems. In the real world, everyone enjoys the benefits of lower curbs, automatic door openers, ramps, and other disability access features. Similarly, on the web, accessibility features often become widely used options.

Here is a real-world example: auto-complete feature, initially provided for people with disabilities, is now widely used by all.

While innovation cannot be measured directly, I want to leave it here, as innovative solutions can have a tremendous impact on business growth and profitability.

2. Increased Market Reach

Making your website accessible can expand your potential customer base to include people with disabilities. If there are 1 million potential customers in your market, and 27% have some form of disability (source) an inaccessible website could be excluding 270,000 potential customers. If the average customer value is $100, that’s a potential $27 million in lost revenue.

source: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html

3. Competitive advantage

Small and medium-sized businesses(SMBs), lose countless customers to big companies like Amazon, which can invest in web accessibility.

The Click-Away Pound survey showed that 71% of customers will leave a website in just 10 seconds if it’s not accessible. (source) The estimated potential click-away in the UK in 2016 was £11.75 billion.

source: https://www.clickawaypound.com/downloads/cap16final2711.pdf

Another study by UserWay tells that retailers lose $828 Million in sales over Christmas due to inaccessible websites (source).

4. Mitigated Legal Risks.

In many jurisdictions, businesses are legally required to make their websites accessible. Non-compliance can result in costly lawsuits. For example, in 2019, the fast-food chain Domino’s was sued because its website was not accessible to blind people. (source)

The cost of such lawsuits can be substantial, both in terms of legal fees and damage to the company’s reputation.

5. Improved SEO

Many accessibility improvements, such as adding alt text to images and ensuring content is well-structured, also improve SEO. This can lead to increased traffic and, potentially, increased conversions (e.g., a sale, a sign-up, a download).

To calculate revenue from improved SEO: Multiply the number of conversions from organic traffic by the monetary value of each conversion. Use your standard tools to analyse SEO.

Site Explorer overview of ahrefs.com. Source: https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-roi/

6. NPS and increased Customer Loyalty

Net Promoter Score (NPS). While not a direct monetary measure, a high NPS score often correlates with increased customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals. Customers with a higher NPS are also less likely to switch to a competitor, reducing your churn rate.

7. Marketing costs

Similar to the SEO metric, existing user satisfaction can lead to a reduced need for expensive marketing campaigns to acquire new customers. The money saved here can be considered a monetary benefit of web accessibility.

8. Reduced Development Costs.

Reduced development costs mean the money you save by incorporating accessibility from the start of a project, compared to the cost of fixing accessibility problems after the project is done. To work this out, you will have to estimate the cost of proactive accessibility integration, the cost of retrofitting accessibility, and calculate the difference.

9. Reduced Support Costs

If a product is accessible and easy to use, customers will need less support, reducing the costs associated with customer service. For example, if a web accessibility improvement leads to a 20% reduction in support calls, and each call costs $10, then each user interaction has a web accessibility value of $2. It is important to mention, that users without disabilities benefit from the web accessibility improvements and will require less support on the fully accessible websites.

10. Increased Productivity

For software and tools used by employees, good user experience can lead to increased productivity. If a digital accessibility improvement saves each employee 1 hour per week, and the average employee cost is $40 per hour, then the web accessibility value is $40 per week per employee.

The bottom line

Remember, the specific metrics and methods used will depend on the nature of the business and the specific accessibility improvements being implemented. It’s also important to note that while these methods can provide a rough estimate of the monetary value of web accessibility, they can’t capture all the intangible benefits, such as increased customer satisfaction and improved brand reputation.

While the return on investment benefits of accessibility are convincing, they can’t be the only reason for starting a web accessibility initiative. Too often, when money savings drive new ideas in customer services, the effort doesn’t reach its full potential. Things are skipped to save costs, and the initiatives end up missing the target.

Even if there weren’t any business gains from accessibility, companies would still be ethically responsible to make their products accessible for users with disabilities, ensuring equal opportunity for all.

What’s next?

Based on general best practices in the field, here are some steps that companies can take to improve their digital accessibility:

1. Make a Top-Down Commitment: Accessibility should be a priority at all levels of the organisation, from the C-suite to individual contributors.
2. Integrate Accessibility into the Design Process: Accessibility should be considered from the start of the design process, not as an afterthought or a box to check at the end.
3. Hire an Accessibility specialist or Consult with Experts: If you don’t have the expertise in-house, consider hiring an accessibility specialist or consulting with an accessibility firm.
4. Regularly Audit Your Digital Assets: Use accessibility auditing tools and consider engaging users with disabilities to test your digital assets and identify areas for improvement.
5. Provide Training: All team members involved in creating digital experiences, from designers and developers to content creators, should receive training on accessibility best practices.
6. Create an Accessibility Statement: This is a public commitment to accessibility that outlines your goals and the steps you’re taking to achieve them.

Remember, improving accessibility is an ongoing process, not a one-time task. It requires a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Thank you for reading!

If you would love to learn more about web accessibility and inclusive web, follow my blog on Medium or contact me via LinkedIn;

Join our welcoming community of web accessibility allies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14252310/

And subscribe to our emails: www.a11ysydney.org

Sources:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html 27% in the US have a disability
2. Retailers To Lose $828 Million Of Sales Over Christmas Due To Inaccessible Websites https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2021/12/19/retailers-to-lose-828-million-of-sales-over-christmas-due-to-inaccessible-websites/?sh=fc6f81735b5a Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/01/18/roi-can-make-website-accessibility-a-no-brainer/?sh=33ab64726639
3. https://www.clickawaypound.com/cap16finalreport.html#:~:text=Click%2DAway%20Pound%20Survey%202016%20%2D%20Final%20Report&text=71%25%20of%20disabled%20customers%20with,UK%20online%20spend%20in%202016. Study by Click Away
4. Domino lawsuit https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-07/domino-s-rejected-by-supreme-court-on-blind-man-s-website-suit
5. ROI of SEO https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-roi/
6. The Business Case for Digital Accessibility https://www.w3.org/WAI/business-case/
7. Forrester Research: https://www.forrester.com/report/The-Six-Steps-For-Justifying-Better-UX/RES117708
8. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2022/05/19/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2022-whats-changed-in-forresters-four-years-covering-this-space/
9. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bsl.629 Web accessibility as a priority in Fortune 100 companies

If you would like to share with the medium community any additional resources, please do so in the comment section below. If you have a bit of advice on how I can improve the user’s experience on this page, please reach out to me on Linkedin.