Resources for Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization

This page is an appendix to Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization.

Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement is implied.

Case Studies of Accessibility Improvements

Legal & General Group - doubled visitor numbers, cut maintenance costs by two thirds, increased natural search traffic by 50%. Read the Legal & General case study. (2007, UK)
Tesco - £35 thousand GBP to build website, £13 million GBP per year in resultant revenue. Read the Tesco case study. (2004, UK)
CNET - 30% increase in traffic from Google after CNET started providing transcripts (reported AST(.ppt)). We saw a significant increase in SEO referrals when we launched an HTML version of our site, the major component of which was our transcripts. - Justin Eckhouse, CNET, 2009.

Statistics on People with Disabilities and Web Use

The Market for Accessible Technology - Research by Forrester, commissioned by Microsoft. Example: Among US computer users in 2003 ranging from 18 to 64, 57% (74.2 million) are likely to directly or indirectly benefit from the use of accessible technology due to difficulties and impairments that may impact computer use.
Industry sector case studies: ecommerce - a round up of data from a number of sources by the UK Employers Forum on Disability. Example: 71% of people with disabilities in the UK use the Web to find information on goods and services.
Web Accessibility for Older Users Presentation and Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review - includes statistics on older users online. Example: number of people over 65 is increasing rapidly; in 2020 (just 10 years away) it is expected to be nearly 30% in Japan, 20% in Europe, and 16% in U.S.

Accessibility Improving Search Engine Optimization

SEO and Accessibility Overlap - an article detailing many of the overlaps between accessibility guidelines and best practice for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Webmaster World Forum: General Search Engine Promotion and Marketing Issues - a lengthy thread of discussion of the applicability of the WCAG 2.0 techniques documents to "on-page SEO".

Example for ROI calculations

Brinck, T. Return on Goodwill: Return on Investment for Accessibility . In Cost-Justifying Usability, Randolph G. Bias, Deborah J. Mayhew, eds. 2005. Example calculation gives a market increase of 8% and ROI of 2.4:1.

Cautionary Tales of Inaccessibility

When organizations do not make their websites accessible, they risk legal action and negative publicity, as the case studies below illustrate.

Target Corporation - settlement for damages of $6 million USD and attorney's fees and costs over $3.7 million after lawsuit by US National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Read the Target case study. (2008, USA)
Sydney Olympic Games - required to pay $20,000 AUD in damages due to poor accessibility. Read the Sydney Olympics case study. (2000, Australia)
Amex - "Bank upgrade is excluding blind. Visually impaired customers of American Express say they can no longer read their credit card statements online." - headlines after making its statements less accessible in a format change. [BBC News ] (2008, UK)

Sharing Your Resources

Please send additional resources and case study information to: team-accessibility-business-case@w3.org

If you have made accessibility improvements to your website in the last three years, we may be able to help you gather data and develop a case study. Please contact: team-accessibility-business-case@w3.org for details.

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