Website accessibility is an interesting topic. Within the digital marketing industry, it’s discussed and researched frequently, particularly as regulations and best practices change. In meetings with clients, though, mentions of website accessibility are typically met with shrugs. 

Most of the business owners and marketing managers we work with either assume they don’t need to worry about web accessibility or figure they don’t have anything to worry about. Neither of these should be taken for granted.

If you’ve been putting off thinking about website accessibility – or don’t know why it’s important in the first place – then this is your lucky day. First, because I’m going to lay out some basics for you in this post. And second, because this is the ideal time of year to catch up on the sorts of minor problems that could hold you back… or worse, end up costing your business huge amounts of money.

To explain how, we should begin with a quick overview.

What Is Website Accessibility and Why Is It Important?

Website accessibility is all about ensuring that anyone who comes to your pages can use and understand them. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Imagine you have a potential customer with a visual or hearing impairment. Will your content be formatted in such a way that they could use special tools to hear voice prompts or use other alternative means of interaction?

This isn’t as abstract a topic as you might think. Regardless of which agency you believe, and how you count disabilities, it is widely accepted that about one out of every eight Americans has some kind of impairment (per Pew Research).

That figure is large enough to be significant on its own. Very few of us can afford to ignore that percentage of any market. However, the latest boom in website accessibility is being driven by a more immediate concern.

Around the country, businesses have been sued (and plaintiffs awarded large sums) for failing to make online accommodations for those with disabilities. In the same way that builders are required to offer ramps for wheelchair users, website owners have a legal responsibility to take reasonable steps to allow everyone to consume public-facing content.

In short, optimizing your website for compatibility is the right thing to do. It’s also a good marketing strategy. And finally, it’s necessary if you want to stay on the right side of the Americans With Disabilities Act and avoid fines.

With that out of the way, the question becomes: what does an accessible and compliant website look like?

The Basics of Web Accessibility in 2025 and Beyond

In a big-picture sense, website accessibility is all about making your content available to those who have disabilities or require interactive tools to help with impairments. In more practical terms, that might include enhancements such as:

  • Offering existing blog posts or media files in alternative formats so they can be read out loud by text-to-speech software
  • Including alternative text that describes images or infographics on your website for the same reason
  • Integrating artificial intelligence tools that can assist with website navigation or combine different cues to provide the user with additional context or meaning
  • Ensuring that different parts of your website can be navigated using keyboards or tools available to those with limited mobility
  • Having the various parts of your website tested by users and audited by experts
  • Badges and other identifiers that show you have taken steps to make your website more accessible (and deter frivolous lawsuits)

These are simple examples, of course, and your own accessibility needs could vary. In addition, guidelines change over time, so you shouldn’t assume that a checklist you followed a few years ago is still relevant today.

Rather than worrying about the specifics, though, it’s more important to grasp the bigger point. In the end, website accessibility isn’t just about making sure you covered the bare minimum to avoid lawsuits (although that is crucial). Ideally, you would think about what you can do to clear that bar while also making it more likely that each person who visits your site has the highest possible chance of converting.

In this way, website accessibility and other more traditional digital marketing campaigns, like search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization, all come together. That’s because the things you do to make your website more accessible to those with special needs won’t make it any less appealing to the people who don’t have those requirements. It’s a way to gain traffic, leads, and sales opportunities without giving anything up.

Despite that reality, many business owners and executives never give any thought to how easy or difficult it is to interact with the content on their pages. This is your perfect chance to improve that and get ahead of your competitors at the same time.

Is Your Business Website Accessible for All Users?

Now that you know why website accessibility is such a pressing topic, and have a sense of what sort of features you should integrate, it’s time to take the next step. As I mentioned before, the turn of a new year is always a great time to review content, coding, and new standards. That definitely includes website accessibility.

So, if you aren’t sure how your pages stack up, it’s the perfect time to get in touch with our team. We can use our free auditing tools to help you evaluate what you have and spot room for improvements. While there are some free tools out there that can help you with the basics, we would encourage you not to take any chances. Believe it or not, there are lawyers who stay in business simply by scouring websites looking for businesses that haven’t kept up with the times. You don’t want to lose tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars because you’re one of them.

Learn more about our website accessibility services here, or contact us today to schedule your free consultation.

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