Top 4 reasons to make your website accessible

1 – Increase Profits

At least 1 in 7^[i] people in the UK have access needs when visiting websites. The true figure is likely higher^[ii]. Since 7 in 10 disabled customers^[iii] will click away from a website they find difficult to use, businesses in the UK are losing at least £17.1 billion a year due to poor web accessibility.

Real-world examples can show the business benefit of having a website which works well for your disabled audience:

• NHS Digital: traffic up 73% after the website was made more accessible.^[iv]
• Legal & General: 50% more visitors from search after an accessible rebuild. iv

2 – Benefit Non-Disabled People

A lot of people can benefit from an accessible website, even if they are not disabled:

• Improved SEO: Semantic HTML, alt text for images, transcripts, captions and clearly structured headings and content all help boost your site’s Search Engine Optimisation.
• AI and voice assistants: These improvements also benefit AI and assistants like Siri, which rely on clean, well-ordered and clearly labelled content with predictable interfaces.
• Better mobile experience: An accessible site needs to work well on a range of devices, and with more than half^[v] of users accessing sites on their phones, extra focus on your mobile site can benefit most of your users.
• Translations: Accessible content can be much easier for users to auto translate into their native language, adding an extra potential group of users.
• Convenience: Simple, easy to skim content is great if you are tired, distracted or in a hurry. Higher contrast helps people use the site in bright sunlight. Being able to use a site with one hand can be great if you are holding a coffee. Subtitles are handy in noisy environments. Transcripts can be searched through if you want to find something quickly without watching a whole video.
• Temporary conditions: If you have a short-term injury or illness, you may suddenly find yourself in need of accessible websites.
• Reduced customer service enquiries: If people can get what they need from your website, they are less likely to call up for information, potentially reducing your overheads.

3 – Avoid Legal Problems

For a private business owner, the law makes it clear that you have to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make sure your services are accessible to people with disabilities, under The Equality Act 2010. It’s also not enough to wait until a disabled person makes a complaint about your website to start thinking about accessibility. According to the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) any organisation that provides a service online has an ‘anticipatory’ duty to make reasonable adjustments. Any disabled website visitor who feels they have been discriminated against by a company online can make a claim in court.

Public sector organisations

All public sector organisations, including government departments, NHS organisations, colleges and universities, and some charities, are subject to extra laws, in addition to the ones mentioned above.

The Public Sector Bodies (Website and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (PSBRA) states that any public sector website offering a service must meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) level AA. These rules can be enforced by the EHRC.

European Accessibility Act (EAA)

Since June 2025, any organisation providing products and services to consumers in the EU needs an accessible website, if they have at least 10 employees and a turnover of €2 million. Failure to comply can result in fines and legal proceedings.

4 – It’s the Right Thing to Do

It’s not easy to be a disabled person in a world that hasn’t been built for you. Facing the same barriers day in and day out can really take its toll. According to Scope, 49% of working-age adults feel excluded from society because of their condition or impairment, and 41% working-age disabled people do not feel valued by society.

While there can sometimes be substantial challenges to making services accessible in physical environments, it is much easier to make these changes online. And because the physical world is often much harder for disabled people to access, they have an even greater need for online services.

Despite this, disabled people are 50% more likely to face barriers accessing digital and online services compared to non-disabled people^[vi], and accessibility errors are slowly increasing^[vii]. 

How to make your website more accessible

Getting an accessible website doesn’t have to cost more money – all you need is to work with someone who knows how to meet the guidelines, and to learn a few techniques yourself to make sure the content you add will work for people with disabilities too.

All the websites I create are built to the WCAG 2.2 AA standards. I can meet the AAA standards on request. Or I can review your current website and offer detailed remediation advice to fix any access issues, and write accessibility statements when required.

Contact me