By Lisa Riemers and Matisse Hamel-Nelis
Accessibility is more than just a checkbox exercise. Forward-thinking organisations are embedding accessibility into their operations to unlock innovation, expand market reach, and build resilience in an increasingly diverse world. Read on to learn about how accessible products and services can deliver value for your organisation.
In boardrooms around the world, accessibility is shifting from a compliance checkbox to a strategic imperative. Forward-thinking organisations are discovering that embedding accessibility into their core operations isn’t just about meeting legal requirements; it unlocks innovation, expands market reach, and builds resilience in an increasingly diverse world.
While legal frameworks like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the European Accessibility Act, and the U.K.’s Equality Act provide important guardrails, the real opportunity lies in recognising accessibility as a business advantage.
Beyond the ramp: What do we mean by accessibility?
When we consider accessibility, we mean making sure products and services can be bought and used by people regardless of their needs. From mobility ramps to hearing loops, organisations may have been considering accessibility in the physical world for a number of years. However, the last few decades of technological developments have presented a number of opportunities – as well as creating new digital barriers that must be overcome to make sure people aren’t accidentally or intentionally excluded.
Driving innovation
One of the most compelling business arguments for accessibility is its capacity to drive innovation and deliver value. The constraints of accessible design often lead to breakthrough solutions that benefit everyone. Curb cuts, designed for wheelchair users, benefit everyone from parents with strollers to delivery workers.
Voice interfaces, originally developed for users with visual disabilities, now power smart homes and virtual assistants, which present new routes to market and ways to interact with services.
Accessibility can also enhance business processes. Companies that design inclusive hiring practices often improve their overall talent acquisition. Organisations that create accessible customer communications frequently see improvements in customer satisfaction and reduced support costs.
Unlocking a bigger share of your market and your audience
Consider this: people with disabilities represent a global market of over one billion consumers with a combined spending power exceeding $13 trillion annually (when you include their family and friends too). When you also consider that 1 in 6 people globally have a disability, 1 in 10 people are dyslexic, and 1 in 3 of us will need assistive technology at some point in our lives, it’s not an edge case, it’s a missed opportunity.
Yet many organisations still approach accessibility reactively, scrambling to retrofit solutions when issues arise. This piecemeal approach is both costly and ineffective. Instead, leading companies are weaving accessibility into their organisational DNA, making sure products and services are fully usable from the outset.
Legislation driving innovation
While it may feel as though some legislation is going backwards in some markets, we’re seeing a global legislative landscape accelerating this shift. The European Union’s Web Accessibility Directive requires public sector websites and mobile applications to meet accessibility standards, while the European Accessibility Act has extended these requirements to private sector services in 2025. Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act has prompted significant corporate action, particularly following high-profile legal cases in the banking sector. In Asia, Japan’s Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities and similar legislation in South Korea are creating new expectations for business compliance.
This global convergence means that multinational organisations can no longer treat accessibility as a regional consideration. A truly accessible organisation must navigate multiple regulatory environments while maintaining consistent standards across all operations.
Leading from the top
Building accessibility as a core principle begins with leadership commitment that goes beyond token gestures, with clear accountability. The most successful organisations treat accessibility as everyone’s responsibility, creating champions across departments from support services to operations, from product development to customer service. These champions become internal advocates, ensuring these considerations are woven into every project and decision.
Providing practical, actionable guidance
Training plays a crucial role, but it needs to be practical and relevant. It may start with building awareness, but effective programmes focus on skills teams can use immediately. A marketing team might learn about alternative text and colour contrast, while human resources focus on accessible recruitment practices and workplace accommodations. HR practices need particular attention: job postings should use inclusive language and clearly communicate available accommodations, while interview processes must be flexible.
The transformation extends to every aspect of operations. Procurement processes should include accessibility requirements, ensuring that purchased software, services, and physical spaces meet standards from the outset. This proactive approach prevents costly retrofitting later.
For organisations serious about accessibility, communication becomes a strategic differentiator. This goes far beyond adding captions to videos or ensuring websites meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It’s about fundamentally rethinking how information is shared and consumed.
Clarity drives effective communication
Research shows that even lawyers don’t like legalese; plain language uses the words your audience understands the first time they read it. This clarity becomes essential, not just for people with cognitive disabilities, but for anyone trying to understand complex financial products, legal documents, or technical specifications. When major banks redesign their application processes using plain language principles, they consistently see improvements in completion rates across all customer segments.
Accessible visuals have more impact
Visual design needs to also consider users with various visual abilities. It’s not just those with sight loss; 1 in 10 men (and 1 in 200 women) are estimated to be colourblind. This means not relying on colour to convey information, making thoughtful colour choices with sufficient contrast ratios, and using layouts that work well with screen readers and magnification software. These considerations result in cleaner, more intuitive designs that have a bigger impact to your audience.
Services that work for all users
Digital accessibility deserves particular attention given our increasingly online way of life. Websites and applications need to be navigable by keyboard, compatible with assistive technologies, and usable across different devices and connection speeds. The good news? Many accessibility features improve search engine optimization and mobile usability, creating additional business benefits.
Customer service protocols must account for diverse communication needs. This might mean training staff to communicate effectively with customers who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, providing information in multiple formats, or ensuring phone systems work with hearing aids and other assistive devices.
Measure what matters
Organisations that successfully embed accessibility create robust measurement systems that go beyond tracking compliance metrics to include user experience indicators, employee feedback, and customer satisfaction data. Regular audits can help identify gaps and opportunities, but the most effective organisations create feedback loops that turn insights into action.
The importance of lived experience
Employee resource groups and customer advisory panels that include people with disabilities provide invaluable perspectives. These groups can highlight blind spots, test new initiatives, and ensure that accessibility efforts stay grounded in lived experience rather than assumptions.
Progress not perfection
The organisations positioning themselves for long-term success recognize that accessibility is not a destination but a journey of continuous improvement. They start with leadership commitment and clear accountability structures, invest in education and tools that empower teams to make inclusive choices, and design systems that make accessibility the default, not the exception.
Most importantly, they see accessibility not as a constraint to navigate around, but as a design principle that unlocks better solutions for everyone. In an increasingly connected and diverse world, the question isn’t whether your organisation can afford to prioritize accessibility; it’s whether you can afford not to.
About the Authors
Lisa Riemers is a communications strategist and accessibility advocate who helps organisations tell powerful, inclusive stories that connect and inspire.
Matisse Hamel-Nelis is an award-winning Métis communications and digital accessibility consultant based in Toronto. Together, they are the co-authors of the new book, Accessible Communications.
