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ArchivedResources for Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization

This page is part of an older version of The Business Case for Digital Accessibility and made available here for archival purposes.

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

See Number of People Affected (statistics) section in the Social Factors page for important information on statistics.

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)

Promoting Accessibility

Tips, guidance, and case studies are available from the WAI-Engage wiki page on Promoting web accessibility.

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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