Cost Effectiveness of Accessibility

Many companies have found that creating accessible websites is cost-effective and generally good business practice.

Higher Productivity

Accessible websites are generally easier to use with increased navigational support in the form of sitemaps and obvious navigation bars. This can lead to increased user productivity, fewer errors, and greater site satisfaction in general. Accessible intranets lead to a decreased need for user support and lower training costs.

Long Term Cost Benefits

Making a website accessible may increase cost of initial design by one or two percent, but may increase the audience by as much as twenty percent. It is much more cost effective to create an accessible site from the beginning. It is estimated that Global 3,500 companies will spend $560 million to retrofit their websites to meet the WCAG 1.0 guidelines.

Easier to Upgrade

Accessible websites can increase the numbers of customers while also making the website easier to upgrade by the use of correctly coded style sheets. Correctly coded accessible websites employ the concept of graceful degradation. This means that while a website might not look exactly the same in an older browser or platform, the functionality is nonetheless retained. This principle applies equally to assistive technologies.

Further Information

Section 5, Web Design Recommendations Usability of E-Government Web-Sites for People with Disabilities by Chaomeng James Huang

Cost-Justifying Accessibility by Paul Sherman