Web Accessibility Helps Everyone

For the decade-plus that I’ve worked in web accessibility, there’s been a misunderstanding that you’re only helping “some” of your audience use your website better. Sure, you understand that 28.7% of the US have some sort of disability and we want to help them use your website. But have you ever had a boss ask, “Why is web accessibility important?” Or have you? If that’s the case, keep reading, because it helps everyone use your website better.

Too often we get caught up in web accessibility from a checklist perspective, but it’s not that. True web accessibility is about helping all people use your website. When we write content and design our website for people with disabilities, it creates a cleaner, faster, and more intuitive experience for everyone.

If you know you have accessibility issues on your website, but you’ve been struggling to get the project approved, this is the exact article you can share with your leadership team. Your marketing team is actively adding new content, hoping to reach people across your audience. That work won’t reach everyone if it doesn’t follow some basic best practices.

In this article, we’re going to break down who web accessibility serves, how it helps everyone, the legal aspects you need to understand, and next steps you can take to improve your website.

For over a decade, I’ve struggled to get people to understand the answer to this question. Once laws started getting passed and enforced, it was easier to say that you have a legal obligation to create an accessible website (more on that in a bit). As SEO got more sophisticated, AI search became a thing, and more and more companies focused on user experience, it was also easier to explain how accessibility best practices overlap with all discoverability and usability.

Web accessibility is truly important for one reason: not everyone surfs the internet the same way. When I started learning web accessibility in 2013, we were largely focused on helping the blind and visually-impaired community. They use assistive technology like screen readers that literally read the internet back to them. Instead of navigating through your website with a mouse, they’ll use a keyboard or specialized device.

But how we build websites and create content affects a ton of your customers.

When you improve your website’s (and social media’s) accessibility, you’re helping your customers who:

• Are hard of hearing, deaf, or have tinnitus
• Have dyslexia
• Have ADHD
• Deal with cognitive issues
• Struggle with their literacy
• Have physical reactions like epilepsy
• Are color blind
• Have low vision
• Suffer from arthritis and mobility problems
• Or are just dealing with a temporary disability

That’s a large amount of your potential customer base you could be actively excluding. Hard to tell leadership that you are investing all that time and budget into reaching all of your ideal customers when you really, really aren’t.

When we follow WCAG standards, we’re allowing everyone to use our website easily, no matter what their personal abilities are. Instead of excluding some of your customers, you’re truly reaching everyone.

What we do to help some people use our website better doesn’t just help them. When we make our websites more accessible, they are easier for everyone to use.

Think of it like a curb cut. These were added throughout cities to help wheelchair users, but this one at my hotel in Orlando was great if you were rolling a suitcase or stroller over to Disney Springs.

A common misconception I hear from other agencies and designers is that web accessibility is somehow limiting their creativity. The thing they’re not considering? What’s fun and creative for them may be confusing and unusable to 90% of their audience.

When we create websites for our businesses, the goal isn’t to have the most fun website. It’s to have a website that converts visitors into leads and leads into actual sales. It’s hard to do that when your creativity inhibits decision-making.

Let’s take a look at some of the things we do to improve accessibility that actually help everyone.

Who It’s For: Help deaf and hard-of-hearing customers understand your audio content.
Benefit for Everyone: People watching videos on silent while in public or revisiting a section of your content for a great idea you shared (they can search instead of scrubbing through).

Who It’s For: Allows people with low vision or color blindness to read all of your text.
Benefit for Everyone: Customers outside in bright sunlight can still read your content.

Who It’s For: Helps individuals with motor disabilities or vision loss navigate your website.
Benefit for Everyone: Faster for someone used to keyboard shortcuts, those with a temporary disability like a broken hand, or even someone whose mouse has run out of battery.

Who It’s For: Communicates information hierarchy to blind customers using screen readers.
Benefit for Everyone: Allows everyone to skim through your content and find what matters to them and helps search engines understand and index your website better.

Who It’s For: Describes images to blind and visually-impaired users.
Benefit for Everyone: ALT descriptions are shown if an image won’t load, so great for your customers in spots with bad signal. Also helps Google and search engines understand your images’ context.

Who It’s For: Helps individuals with dyslexia and literacy issues read and understand your content more easily.
Benefit for Everyone: Allows everyone to skim your content and understand how you help them without a ton of mental effort.

I was in an accessibility forum the other day, and one member complained that a leader of a large accessibility business was talking about the legal obligations of accessibility instead of the fact that it helps real people. My response to him? Laws make people care.

I would love it if the world (especially the corporate one) was a place where we just cared about making people’s lives better, but sometimes that’s not enough to get a budget. That’s why disability advocates work to get laws on the books so businesses and organizations have to comply.

With web accessibility, there are several laws you need to understand that might impact your organization. I have a full breakdown of accessibility laws that might apply to your organization, but let’s take a quick look at what you need to know.

Just a quick note – many of these laws apply if your organization sells or recruits in their country. You do not necessarily need a physical location there to be compliant.

Within the US, we have the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Passed in 1990, judges have ruled over and over that digital content also needs to be accessible.

While the explicit Title III Part H was pushed back to April 2027, that just states what WCAG level you need to meet to be compliant. Courts will tell you that you still have to provide an accessible experience before that.

For universities and organizations that get federal funding, you also need to meet Section 508. Basically, it requires that disabled users have equal access to technology and information.

Passed in 2010, the UK may be one of the earliest adopters of explicit digital accessibility laws. The Equality Act requires you to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities. Unlike US law, it does give you an explicit WCAG level to hit – 2.1 Level AA.

Enacted in 2019, the EU’s accessibility law came into full effect in June 2025. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) applies to the entire EU. While individual countries can set their own penalties for violating the act, the goal is to standardize accessibility requirements. The EAA also requires you to hit WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Canada’s accessibility law will not go into full effect until 2040. Their Accessible Canada Act is the plan for creating standards for the country. However, some provinces have their own law. Ontario has the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). This act applies to any business or entity doing business in Ontario. These organizations’ digital content must follow WCAG 2.0 AA standards or above.

Will your organization be punished by the government if you don’t meet these laws? That depends. Let’s be brutally honest and say that the US DOJ is probably not going to be penalizing people for a bit. But the UK, EU, and other countries do enforce penalties for violating their laws, even if you are not based in their country.

You are, of course, open to private litigation as well if you do not provide an accessible experience. And if your website isn’t accessible, word can spread quickly and affect your brand reputation, too.

Most of the laws throughout the world require you to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. US courts have also recognized that as the international standard in cases, making it the target even if not explicitly stated. If you focus on complying with WCAG, you should be protected.

Inclusive websites make for better websites. Meeting those accessibility standards protects your brand while improving your SEO, conversion rates, and overall customer experience. You’re starting to understand why web accessibility is important, but what do you do next?

You can start by making simple improvements – like adding meaningful ALT text to images and using the correct heading structure – but that’s all a little confusing when you’re getting started.

Make it easy and use our exact process for creating accessible content. Our upcoming course will give you not only our full checklist for web and social media content, but walk you through it step-by-step. You’ll not only know what you need to do, but exactly why and how to do it.

Join the waitlist and be the first to know when the doors open.

It’s time to make web accessibility easy so you can help more of your customers.