Your company’s success in the international market depends upon whether your website is accessible to the millions—potentially billions—of customers who want to buy your products. The smart move for savvy business owners is to make sure that access to your products is just a click away. But commercial success in today’s competitive arena depends upon ensuring that your products are available to everyone who might want them. That includes the estimated one billion members of the human race who have a disability that can prevent them from accessing your website if you haven’t made accessibility an IT priority. Access for people with disabilities is the smart business move. It’s the right ethical move. And, increasingly, it’s the required legal move, as governments expand their requirements overseeing access to persons with disabilities. 

Doing the right thing can put your business in the forefront of eCommerce visibility and prosperity. Are you failing to reach one billion potential new customers? Contact A-2-Z Accessibility and Marketing and we can help you increase your Internet profile to the global community. 

Accessibility Law in the UK

The British government’s emphasis on the need for persons with disabilities to have digital accessibility actually began with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. According to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, more than 18% of the British workforce is classified as having a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010. It was the EQA that expanded legal protections for persons with disabilities by defining websites as services. With the passage of the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, mobile apps and public sector websites are also includes in the regulations.

UK businesses cannot merely avoid discriminating against the disabled community. They are required to proactively anticipate the changing needs of the population with disabilities. Just as a physical door must allow a person with a disability to be able to enter a brick-and-mortar shop, so must a website serve as an open portal for all its Internet customers.

As the British government realized how much Internet access has improved the daily lives of citizens who are job hunting, or paying bills, or keeping in contact with family members and friends who live far away, it became obvious that more needed to be done to enhance digital access for all citizens, including those with disabilities. Ensuring accessibility for persons with vision, mobility, hearing and cognitive limitations doesn’t just improve their lives; it also has the potential, according to the independent analysis conducted by Booz and Co., to add £63 billion in value to the economy of the United Kingdom.

Is Your Business Reaching All Of Its Potential Customers? One Billion People with Disabilities Want To Know

Every business is eager to reach all of its potential customers, but how many businesses realize that they’re missing out on 15% of the global population because their websites are inaccessible to people who have visual, hearing, cognitive, or mobility limitations? 

In the competitive nature of the eCommerce world, meeting the accessibility needs of people with disabilities can give a business a distinct advantage when it comes to adding new customers and establishing your brand as a global entity. Having full access that includes assistive technologies for all your clients keeps you in compliance with legal and governmental requirements. The beneficial public relations of providing full access demonstrates your company’s active pursuit of its social responsibility. Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO) enhances your company’s profile in a marketplace that’s open for business to all potential customers. In the United States alone, the potential spending power of persons who are physically disabled, blind or color blind, hearing-impaired, autistic, learning disabled, dyslexic, and elderly is $220 billion! As the world’s population ages, the need for these enhanced accessibly features will continue to serve an ever-growing segment of people.

A-2-Z Accessibility and Marketing Bring New Customers To Your Websites

For most people, access to the Internet is simple. But what if you can’t physically see or hear, or manipulate a mouse or keyboard, or touch the screen? At A-2-Z Accessibility and Marketing, our experienced team knows what assistive technologies benefit those persons with disabilities so that they can navigate websites and applications to achieve full access to the opportunities available in the digital world. We bring our passion for providing access for everyone to all our clients, and we’ll work with you to ensure that all your products and platforms demonstrate a superior level of accessibility. We specialize in digital accessibility compliance and web accessibility testing, and our clients in private businesses, academia, banking, government, and insurance will attest to the results they’ve enjoyed from partnering with our team.