Helping you create a inclusive space To your digital branch
What is it?
Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility is the practice of creating an inclusive digital environment for all users. It ensures that digital content such as websites, documents, softwares, videos, and other multimedia content can be accessed by all users regardless of their abilities. Those who can be the most impacted by digital accessibility are the elderly community, those with permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary disabilities.
Who is impacted?
Those who can be the most impacted by digital accessibility are the elderly community, those with permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary disabilities.
People with Disabilities
About 16% of the global population is made up of the people with disabilities (World Health Organization, 2022). These disabilities include auditory, visual, cognitive, neurological and even motor impairments. In these cases, accessible design is necessary for these individuals as it provides equal opportunities and digital access to this demographic.
Elderly Community
As consumers age, they may experience changes in motor, vision and hearing skills which develop barriers. Accessible design can accommodate the physiological changes occurring and ensure that the developing technology meets them halfway through support.
Overall, digital accessibility is a cardinal rule for all digital design. For all users, it is important to develop digital spaces with ease to understand and use, improving the digital experience for all. In some cases, accessible design is vital to these groups as digital content can be a part of their everyday lives.
Temporary Disabilities
Digital accessibility also helps individuals who have temporary circumstances, such as those recovering from a temporary injury or in a restrictive environment such as a library and individuals are in need of captions for a video.
Digital accessibility: Over the Times…
1973
The Rehabilitation Act
Enacted in 1973, this federal law prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities from federal agencies and entities, receiving federal financial assistance.
1990
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed this civil rights law to prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities from public/private spaces.
1999
WCAG 1.0
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are established by the United Nations. These first set of standards were primarily focused on HTML.
Benefits of digital Accessibility
Legality
Digital accessibility is more than a good practice, it’s a legal mandate. Many countries have their own legal mandate that digital content must adhere to. Non-compliance exposes businesses and organizations to significant risks such as fines and legal disputes. Prioritizing inclusive design ensures a company’s public reputation to be aligned with laws.
Economic Opportunity
In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that about 1.3 billion people or 16% of the population have some type of disability. In 2023, they reported that about 1.1 billion people were 60 years old or older (World Health Organization, 2023). This shows two of the majorly impacted communities digital accessibility is for. They represent significant consumer groups but are usually left unnoticed. Prioritizing these communities is not just an ethical move but can also build a loyal customer base that strengthens business growth and profitability.
Ethical Responsibility
By creating a digital inclusive space for audiences, businesses can display their commitment to ethical equality, inclusivity, and conduct for their brand.
Competitive Advantage
Accessible digital landscapes provide a distinct design. By prioritizing inclusivity, businesses broaden their reach to overlooked demographics, fostering a unique identity and elevates brands above competitors. (W3C, 2018)
Innovative Technology
Integrating digital accessibility in a company’s digital content requires adapting to the current technological standards and staying compliant with accessibility laws, both of which elevate the company’s digital content quality, improving the user experience.
Public Effect
Investing time in strengthening a digital inclusive space highlights brand equity to consumers. When businesses lead with this factor, they polish their brand reputation and encourage customer loyalty through a commitment of social progress.
Market Reach
Inclusivity is a powerful driver for business growth. By ensuring a barrier-free digital experience, companies can tap into a significant market share, within the demographic of people with disabilities and the elderly.
WCAG
Web Accessibility
One of the primary ways brands can improve their digital accessibility tools is through web accessibility. Similar to digital accessibility, web accessibility is the practice of accessible design implemented into websites and their design. By prioritizing inclusive web design, organizations can reach wider audiences, improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and elevate the digital experience to all users.
One of the most widely set of standards for digital accessibility is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). They serve as a set of recommendations that ensure digital content is inclusive. These guidelines have been the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international organization which set the standards for the development of the internet. The guidelines are organized into four POUR core pillars.
Alternative text
Within a website’s code/markup, images should include equivalent alternative text (alt text). Without alt text, images can prove to be inaccessible to individuals who use screen readers or have vision barriers.
Perceivable Information must be presented for all users to make sense of, regardless of any barriers.
Operable The digital environment must be easy to navigate for all users.
Understable Users must be able to comprehend the information presented.
Robust Content must be and remain compatible with the current and evolving technologies. For example, interfaces should be adaptable to assistive technologies keyboards with time-restricted barriers.
Below are a few basic examples of accessibility tools that web designs can implement to adhere to digital accessibility. A few can be used throughout all digital aspects, not solely websites:
Color
According to the Lewandowska et al visual design color study (Lewandowska, 2021), eye-tracking captures objective user behavior. Certain colors used in web design helps bring out emotions for users such as green which brings out a feeling of youth, nature, health-care. The study recommends using external colors when improving web designs like ColoUR Balance Tool which evaluates screen color usage.
Keyboard input
Many users are unable to navigate the web with a mouse. An accessible platform ensures that all interactive elements are fully functional via a keyboard. Tools that support this can be assistive technology, such as speech-to-text software.
Audio Transcripts
Audio content must be accessible to those with auditory disabilities. Providing text transcripts ensures that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have full access to digital content.
Want to Learn more?
Videos
Web Accessibility Initiative: Introduction to web accessibility and W3C Standards
Created by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), this video provides a brief overview of the definition of web accessibility, the benefits, impacts and those who are affected.
Podcasts
Code Newbie: Building Products for Everyone
Author of the “Developing Accessible iOS Apps” book and senior accessibility iOS engineer at Spotify, Derksen-Staats discusses his career and his experiences in being a part of accessibility teams throughout many different companies including Spotify. He defines accessibility in technology as ensuring that everyone has access to software and digital content. In its current state, accessibility awareness is growing, he mentions that the current university computer science curriculum does not include accessibility tools to implement software. Derksen-Staats emphasizes accessibility as a valuable skill that should be integrated early in the development process of software and digital content, not included as an afterthought. He also addresses a few examples of including accessibility tools to software for listeners to implement such as visual personalization (font preference, subtitles, and voiceover. (Yitbarek, 2023)
References
accessiBe. (2018). Accessibe.com. https://accessibe.com/glossary/digital-accessibility
Bikkani, Aditya. (2025, June 13). The Importance of Accessibility for E-Commerce Websites: A Key to Greater Reach and Success - AEL Data. AEL Data. https://aeldata.com/importance-of-accessibility-for-ecommerce-websites/
Firth, Ashley. (2024). Practical Web Accessibility: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Inclusion. Apress.
Lewandowska, A., Olejnik-Krugly, A., Jankowski, J., & Dziśko, M. (2021). Subjective and Objective User Behavior Disparity: Towards Balanced Visual Design and Color Adjustment. Sensors (14248220), 21(24), 8502. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21248502
Motability Operations Chooses AudioEye to Further Strengthen Digital Accessibility and Customer Experience. (2025, August 13). PR Newswire. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A851380895/ITBC?u=nhc_main&sid=ebsco&xid=9cb0fe15
Radanliev, P., De Roure, D., Novitzky, P., & Sluganovic, I. (2024). Accessibility and inclusiveness of new information and communication technologies for disabled users and content creators in the Metaverse. Disability & Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 19(5), 1849–1863. https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2023.2241882
Salazar, H. A., Torres-Vera, B., & Ramírez, S. O. (2023). Implementación de técnicas de accesibilidad web: normativas, estrategias y mejores prácticas. Revista Vínculos, 20(2), 8–15.
Section508.gov. (n.d.). Www.section508.Gov. https://www.section508.gov/manage/benefits-of-accessibility/
U.S. Access Board - Revised 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines. (2018). Access-Board.gov. https://www.access-board.gov/ict/#E101-general
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2024). Rehabilitation act of 1973. US EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/rehabilitation-act-1973
W3C. (2018, November 9). The Business Case for Digital Accessibility. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). https://www.w3.org/WAI/business-case/
World Health Organization. (2022). Global report on health equity for persons with disabilities. World Health Organization https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/sensory-functions-disability-and-rehabilitation/global-report-on-health-equity-for-persons-with-disabilities
World Health Organization. (2023, October 20). Mental health of older adults. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-of-older-adults
Yitbarek, Saron (Host), Derksen-Staats, Daniel Devesa (2023, May 24) Building Products For Everyone [Audio Podcast] Code Newbie https://www.codenewbie.org/podcast/how-to-make-code-more-accessible