Most product teams treat accessibility as a compliance tax. But what if it could actually drive revenue?
Some might see accessibility as a cost centre. It adds expenses without generating revenue. Unlike a profit centre that directly contributes to the company's bottom line. This classification usually comes from senior leadership who control budgets and measure success through some sort of revenue metrics.
How can you turn accessibility from a cost centre to a profit centre?
You could go down the route of market expansion. "We can reach 1.3 billion people with disabilities globally!" sounds compelling until executives ask for proof.
This figure includes people with vastly different needs and purchasing power. And many accessibility improvements you undertake simply fix terrible experiences for existing customers rather than attracting new ones.
You could try to draw a straight line from "we improved keyboard navigation" to "we made €50K more this quarter."
Trying to prove keyboard navigation improvements generated additional sales is nearly impossible. You can't isolate accessibility's impact from other factors like marketing campaigns or seasonal trends. Remember that correlation isn't causation. Sales went up, but was it accessibility or your new marketing campaign? Most accessibility improvements benefit everyone, so how do you isolate the disabled user impact?
Finally, you could position accessibility as "we won't get sued."
But that's defensive thinking and still looks like a cost centre when you peel its layers.
The problem is you're waging a battle you've already lost.
You're better off if you stop trying to directly attribute revenue to accessibility features. Instead, frame it as part of your overall user experience strategy.
Track metrics that matter most, like reduced support tickets, higher conversion rates, improved user satisfaction scores. These benefits apply to all users, not just those with disabilities.
When you improve form error handling for screen readers, you're also helping users in noisy environments or with temporary injuries. Better colour contrast helps everyone using phones in bright sunlight.
Stop selling accessibility as a separate thing and start integrating it into broader product improvements that clearly drive business value.