COVID-19 has disrupted how businesses reach and serve their customers. Stay-at-home orders have pushed companies to rethink and re-strategize how they can attract and retain customers.
The crisis has shown us that when pressed, many businesses and educational institutions can stop on a dime and transform an in-person experience to digital. Many have come to realize the significant impact a user-friendly digital presence has on one’s ability to survive.
With digital presence a priority, however, it’s key that organizations ensure their websites and other online platforms are accessible to everyone. This includes the 1 billion people worldwide who live with a disability.
These customers represent a tremendous market with significant spending power. In the U.S., the annual disposable income for people with disabilities is $490 billion. By simply making digital platforms accessible, businesses can not only survive this pandemic but thrive exponentially.
Businesses must also understand access to digital technologies is not a courtesy, nor an amenity. It’s a right. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that people with disabilities are able to enjoy equal access to public services and places of public accommodation, which includes online. U.S. companies that are noncompliant with accessibility standards are vulnerable to lawsuits.
Businesses must also understand access to digital technologies is not a courtesy, nor an amenity. It’s a right.
May 21 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, a campaign focusing on improving digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities and impairments. While this day is important for bringing attention to this issue, it’s even more important to realize that accessibility is a competitive advantage that will extend beyond May 21 and COVID-19.
Along with the growth of everything digital is the importance of the accessibility of everything digital, which will allow everyone to reap the benefits. As we build the digital world, we have the obligation and opportunity to make it accessible to people with disabilities, just as we have been doing with the physical world since passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
Mark Shapiro is president of the Bureau of Internet Accessibility Inc., based in East Greenwich.
