On June 17th, Forbes has published the inaugural Accessibility 100 list: and in the first paragraph, points out that the field of accessibility is an untapped business opportunity.
“This isn’t a legal obligation or ‘We just want to do nice things for those poor people,’” says Marcie Roth, executive director of the World Institute on Disability. “You’re leaving money on the table because you’re only marketing to three out of four people.”
The list goes on to point out that in the current US climate, accessibility is seen as a casualty of war – the historical fits and starts of even pointing out that disability communities exist, and are roughly 20-25% of global audiences. That ratio tends to hold up no matter the country – and disability, or concerns that impact disabilities, ALSO relate to arthritis, carpal tunnel, even ‘just’ multitasking or having to get more information and filling out the remainder of a form after a meeting.
But that’s not for disabled people, someone might say. That’s just if I had a long form, or my workday had multiple meetings, so I have to break up my work or I get called away.
Disabilities aren’t “out there”. And disability does not necessarily mean receiving disability benefits of any kind; a lot of us work. We have injuries from being kids that might have not healed right. If we’re at computers all day, we may have migraines or carpal tunnel. And yes, we can take care of our health, but the curb cut effect still exists. That curb cuts – the same thing that enables wheelchair users to travel across a campus or to buildings – also help people with scooters, bicycles, strollers. It helps little children as well as older folk.
In our general rush to go to market, we concentrate on the easiest path. The idea of the happy path, where we don’t have to worry about error handling, or someone putting in the wrong input format.
But that means our calendar widgets for selecting dates and times aren’t accessible on keyboard.
That means that we use quick solutions that exclude 20-25% of our user base right off the bat.
While your business might not be for everyone – luxury brands, for example – why not enable as many users as you can, even then? Why build in discrimination?
And yes, there IS legal obligation: the European Accessibility Act deadline is this year. There are legal obligations like the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the US Section 508 for information and communication technologies – those are still active laws on the books.
But we’re equals. We’re professionals too. We want to contribute and use our skills to help you grow your user base.
Why not let us?