Our business case

Creating accessible products isn't just the right thing to do – there are so many reasons why being inclusive is good for business.

Below is our business case which helped achieve buy-in from Leadership and helped sell the benefits of accessibility across our organisation.

What makes up our business case?


Commercial

The size of your audience can be crucial to your success. You could be unknowingly excluding 20% (Source: gov.uk) of your potential customers if your products aren’t accessible.


Legal

Governing laws differ in every country, but accessibility legislation is becoming more prevalent across the globe. You don’t want to wait until you MUST do this, and quickly.


Moral

Being inclusive of everyone is morally the right thing to do. If you’re not investing in inclusivity, you could be excluding entire communities from using you.

Commercial

  • Across the world, 1 in 5 people (Source: gov.uk) have a permanent disability, and many disabilities affect how people interact with technology. By creating accessible products with no digital barriers in place, you’re enabling everyone to be able to use you. And hopefully enjoy using your products!

  • In the UK alone, the total spending power of families with at least 1 disabled person is estimated at £274 billion a year (Source: The Purple Pound). This is thought to be $13 trillion globally (Source: The Valuable 500). Do we want to knowingly miss out on that?

  • Web accessibility boosts your SEO efforts and improves your website’s organic search rankings. It also results in well-structured pages, easier navigation and an enhanced user experience all round. This is a great article on the subject: Web Accessibility and SEO: A Perfect Fit

  • No brand wants to be called out on social media due to poor customer experience. Often, accessibility issues on a website or app can mean users are completely unable to carry out a task, which is, quite rightly, worth complaining about.

  • Caring about accessibility and inclusion can only do good things for your brand. It attracts people who also care about it – and not just customers, but employees too.

  • Disabled people have faced digital access issues for a very long time, so when they find something that actually works for them, they stick with it. And they share the good news with their communities.

Legal

The onus is on each individual business to make sure that their digital products are accessible to all users, by making accommodations or adjustments for disabled users.

Laws vary between countries and industries. This list highlights the ones we pay particular attention to.

The UN publish a list of Disability Laws and Acts by Country/Area, which is useful if your business is global. There may also be additional accessibility laws and acts in each country.

  • UK Equality Act 2010 – This act legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society under nine protected characteristics, with “disability” being one of them. It also makes it a requirement for service providers to make ”reasonable adjustments” to enable disabled people to access their services.

  • European Accessibility Act (EAA) – This applies to private sector organisations and “requires everyday products and services to be accessible for persons with disabilities”. By June 2025, services which are in scope should be designed to “maximise their foreseeable use by persons with disabilities”. Here’s a slightly easier to read version – AbilityNet’s Fast Facts on the European Accessibility Act.

  • Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations – Although this applies to public sector entities (UK), organisations that do business with them must ensure that products or services developed for or sold to them meet the requirements of these regulations. These requirements include meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA and providing an Accessibility Statement.

  • Air Carrier Access Act 1986 (ACAA) – Designed to prohibit any discrimination against passengers with disabilities by air carriers.

  • Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 Act (ADA) – Requires websites to be accessible to disabled users.

Moral

It’s the right thing to do

It’s a hard one to argue against as it really is the right thing to do.

Exclude nobody

Unfortunately, digital exclusion happens so easily when accessibility is ignored. A website that only works for a single gender or people born in a specific country would never exist, and the same should apply to disability.

Provide an equitable experience for everyone

Nobody has the right to decide who gets a ‘better’ experience of their product over others, based on ability. Equitable experiences for everyone is the aim here.

Did you know…

  1. The accessible tourism industry in Europe could generate €88.6 billion ($98.8 billion USD) in revenues by 2025 (Source: Emerald Insight)

  2. 16% of the world’s population experience a significant disability today, according to WHO (the actual number is higher as this doesn’t take into account cognitive impairments)

  3. The UN estimates that over 1 billion people live with a disability and a further 2 billion people directly impacted by disability (that’s a third of the world's population)

  4. People with accessibility needs travel with an average of 1.9 other people

Skyscanner’s research with Scope highlighted that:

  1. Almost three quarters (73%) of disabled travellers said they would be more likely to use a travel provider with and accessible website

  2. 81% said they would be more likely to recommend a travel provider if they had a fully accessible website

  3. 93% of disabled households surveyed said they spent extra time planning a holiday – for over half that meant an extra 1-4 weeks

  4. 81% shared that disabled households are likely to face extra holidays costs as they factor in insurance policies and finding accessible accommodation and destinations