One day – during this administration or the next – the DOJ will likely issue ADA website accessibility compliance regulations. If you have an accessible website, you will already meet those standards and be ahead of the curve. 

Accessibility is Just Good Business Sense

Aside from decreasing the risk of ADA litigation, having a WCAG 2.0 AA compliant website is just good business sense.  

Your company’s website is a primary marketing and communications tool. Your clients and customer (past, present and future) are coming to you from all kinds of backgrounds and circumstances. Conservative estimates place the sight-impaired community at roughly 8 million people. Other studies suggest that aging baby boomers will double the current number of hearing- or visually impaired Americans over the next 15-30 years.

These figures do not count the significantly higher number of people who favor accessibility, i.e. interest group members, socially conscious persons, and friends and family members of those 8 million sight-impaired individuals. It makes good business sense to have an accessible website so that as many people as possible can use your services. Doing so also shows the larger public that you understand the needs of the disabled community and want to implement policies that best serve them.

It’s also worthy to note that many search engines expect accessibility to be a primary goal in website development. Google rewards WCAG 2.0 AA-compliant sites with higher rankings. Having a more accessible website now may significantly benefit your search-engine optimization (SEO) and ranking potential without you having to devote marketing budget dollars to an SEO marketing campaign.