Last time, we talked about what accessibility debt is. Now, let's talk business impact.
We'll look at four ways accessibility debt impacts your bottom line and team performance.
- Direct revenue
- Hidden operational costs
- Legal risks
- Brand position
At the end, I'll share with you some metrics you can start tracking right now to get ahead of accessibility debt.
Direct revenue
You probably know by now, but I'll say it anyway. Every accessibility barrier in your product is turning away customers. 20% of people worldwide live with a disability. And that's not counting temporary impairments or aging users. That's not revenue anyone can afford to turn away. Because when they hit a wall in your product, they're not just frustrated. They're likely to abandon your product altogether.
Hidden operational costs
Accessibility debt doesn't just sit there. It piles up and over time, it actively slows your team down. When developers have to work around accumulated accessibility issues, it takes longer to ship new features. QA cycles become longer when testers navigate through known issues to verify new functionality. Your technical support team spends extra time helping users work around accessibility problems.
All of this adds up to decreased development velocity and increased operational costs.
Legal risks
The numbers here are stark.
According to the UsableNet 2024 Year End Report, which tracks digital accessibility lawsuits, we've seen more than 4,000 cases filed in 2024. The cost isn't just in potential settlements either. Emergency remediation projects to fix accessibility issues after a complaint can cost 3-4 times more than building it accessibly from the start. Your legal team's time, external consultants and rushed development work quickly add up.
Brand position
Although you can't attach a monetary value to it, this might be the most expensive cost of all. Inaccessible products damage your brand. That's the crux of it. Companies known for poor accessibility struggle to position themselves as industry leaders. They lose partnership opportunities and find it harder to attract top talent who want to work on inclusive products.
Next time, we'll dive into how to set up systems to track and measure your accessibility debt. For now, take a look at your current metrics. If you struggle and don't know what to look for, here are some to get you started:
- Development time spent fixing accessibility bugs
- Support tickets specifically related to accessibility issues
- User session recordings and analytics showing abandonment points
- Conversion rates across different user groups
Or any of the accessibility metrics that give you early warnings.