Welcome to
Building a business case for accessibility
Created by TetraLogical for you
Module: foundations of a successful business case
Transcript
[Four circles, one orange, one pink, one purple and one red, and 4 purple lines fly into screen then join together to form the TetraLogical logo]
[The logo whooshes off screen and the white background transforms into a dark purple one with the title Building a Business Case for Accessibility written in large yellow font]
This module focuses on the foundations of a successful business case, and it'll take about 30 minutes to complete.
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By the end of the module, you'll know how to use your organisation's vision and values to support your business case, what are some key benefits of accessibility that you can include, and how to write clear accessibility goals.
Ready to start? Let's go.
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About 30 minutes
When to write a business case for accessibility
There are many reasons why we may decide to put together a business case for accessibility.
In some cases, we may want to raise awareness of the importance of accessibility at the start of a new project, to ensure it becomes an integral part of the work.
In other cases, we may need to secure budget to address a specific need. For example, we may need to organise training courses to upskill our team or provide them with the tools and software they need to produce accessible content. We may need the support of accessibility consultants or may decide to hire accessibility specialists.
There is no right or wrong time to build a business case for accessibility. Whether it is at the beginning of a project or in the middle of it, the key is to include the most compelling information to show stakeholders the value and benefits of accessibility.
Exercise: benefits of accessibility for your organisation
Take a moment to consider the benefits that accessibility may bring to your organisation, then note down your thoughts in the box.
Foundations of a successful business case
Every business case is different, as every project and organisation is different. However, considering the following three key aspects will help us build a successful business case for accessibility:
- Our organisation: how accessibility aligns with our organisation's vision and values
- Why accessibility matters: the many benefits that accessibility can bring to our organisation
- Clear goals: what exactly we are trying to achieve
Ready to learn more about each? Then move to the next screen.
Topic: accessibility and our organisation
Transcript
[The topic is introduced by an AI generated avatar of a black woman wearing a white blouse under a bright yellow blazer, and her hair tied up in a dark scarf on top of her head. The avatar is remarkably realistic, and the woman appears friendly and professional]
[The woman looks straight into the camera as she speaks.]
Many organisations have values and a vision that, directly or indirectly, relate to inclusion and accessibility. Referencing them can make our business case more convincing, and can show how accessibility fits with the organisational culture.
Our organisation's vision
By relating back to our organisation's vision, we can make our business case for accessibility stronger.
We should review our organisation's vision and look for words that can be associated with accessibility; for example, "inclusion", "everyone", "together", "making a difference", and so on.
Use the buttons below to review some examples before moving to the next screen.
Tumblr's vision
Tumblr is a popular social media blogging site with 327 million unique visitors a day.
Their vision statement is:
To empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve.
Some keywords in there could be used to support a business case for accessibility:
- Empower: everyone, disabled and non-disabled, should be empowered by inclusive, user-friendly design
- Best work: disabled content creators must be able to access a platform that supports them in doing their best work
- The audience they deserve: everyone, disabled and non-disabled, deserves to be able to create and access content
Nike's vision
Nike is one of the biggest sportswear brands in the world, with a clear vision statement:
Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.
* If you have a body, you are an athlete.
Here is how we could use some of the words in that statement to support a business case for accessibility:
- Inspiration: if a company chooses to exclude people by design, how can they be viewed as inspirational?
- Innovation: innovative sports clothes and shoes should also support disabled athletes
- If you have a body, you are an athlete: this includes everyone; disabled and non-disabled athletes
Our organisation's values
Together with the vision, our organisation's values play an important role in the way we do business. They sum up what our organisation stands for, influence the organisational culture, and ultimately drive how everyone in the organisation behaves.
Common examples of values are:
- Respect
- Fairness
- Sustainability
- Excellence
- Teamwork
- Trust
- Integrity
When writing our business case, we should reference back to as many organisational values as possible.
For example, if one of our organisation's values were "Fairness", we could use it to emphasise that all people interacting with our organisation and our products should have an equal experience. That means that all aspects of our products should be accessible to everybody.
Exercise: American Express' vision
Let's consider American Express' vision.
How could we use it to support our business case for accessibility? Note down your thoughts in the box below.
Reflection: American Express' vision
You previously noted down your thoughts on how American Express' vision could help support a business case for accessibility; you said:
Here is an example of how American Express' vision to "Provide the world’s best customer experience every day" could be referenced:
"In order to provide the world's best customer experience, the needs and expectations of all customers, disabled and non-disabled, must be considered."
Exercise: American Express' values
Now, let's consider American Express' values.
How could we use these values to support our business case for accessibility? Note down your thoughts in the box below.
Reflection: American Express' values
You previously noted down your thoughts on how American Express' values could help support a business case for accessibility; you said:
Here are a few more suggestions. Don't worry if you missed any; the more you learn about accessibility, the easier it becomes to think of supportive arguments.
American Express' values comfortably map to inclusion and accessibility:
- We do what's right: in order to do what's right, products and services must be accessible
- We back our customers: to build supportive relationships with customers, it's necessary to offer products they can use
- We make it great: excellent products are accessible products
- We respect people: showing respect means considering and meeting the needs of customers
- We embrace diversity: this means effectively serving diverse customers, including customers with disabilities
- We stand for equity and inclusion: accessibility is a key aspect of equity and inclusion
- We win as a team: working as a team means showing respect and appreciation for everybody, including colleagues and customers with disabilities
- We support communities: all people within communities must be considered
Topic: why accessibility matters
Transcript
[The topic is introduced by an AI generated avatar of a black woman wearing a white blouse under a bright yellow blazer, and her hair tied up in a dark scarf on top of her head. The avatar is remarkably realistic, and the woman appears friendly and professional]
[The woman looks straight into the camera as she speaks.]
There are many reasons why our organisation should consider accessibility, and many ways it can benefit from it.
Our business case should demonstrate the benefits that accessibility can bring to our organisation, including concrete data and real-world examples wherever possible.
Reason 1: our customers
First of all, many of our customers are disabled and need accessible products.
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 1.3 billion people in the world experience significant disability. This represents 16% of the world’s population, or 1 in 6 of us.
We know this is an underestimate because it only includes "significant" disabilities like being blind or using a wheelchair. It does not include neurodivergence, reading and literacy difficulties, age-related disabilities, or many others that go unreported.
By making products and services accessible, our organisation could increase its target audience by as much as 16%!
Reason 2: our competitors
People with disabilities are often loyal to brands that get accessibility right, because they have a good experience when using their products or services. They may also recommend accessible brands to friends and family.
If competitor brands make their products and services accessible for people with disabilities and our organisation doesn't, it will start losing market share.
As we put together our business case, we should do some market research into our industry to compare ourselves to our competitors.
Use the buttons below to learn more about market research activities we could conduct.
Review competitors' products
We can learn a lot just by reviewing our competitors' online presence. For example, we could look for an Accessibility Statement on their website, blog posts or articles about accessibility initiatives they're taking, or accessibility help and support pages.
We could also complete some quick accessibility tests on their website. The W3C Easy Checks are a set of 10 basic accessibility tests put together by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that anyone can do, including people who are new to accessibility.
The TetraLogical Quick accessibility tests video series also provides tips on how to check websites against key accessibility requirements.
Look for industry reports
White papers, annual reports, webinars, and published research are good ways of understanding what the current accessibility insights and trends are.
A useful one to reference is The State of Digital Accessibility Report from Level Access. This is an annual report on accessibility programmes and trends in the USA, but it's relevant to all countries and covers all industries.
The UK Government also does annual Accessibility monitoring of public sector websites and mobile apps, which may be useful to UK public bodies.
Reason 3: laws and regulations
In most countries, organisations have a legal responsibility to make their products accessible to everybody. There is a good chance our organisation has to comply with various accessibility laws or regulations.
Here are some of these laws and regulations (this is not an exhaustive list):
- Equality Act; UK
- Disability Discrimination Act; Northern Ireland
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); USA
- Rehabilitation Act, Section 508; USA
- Disability Discrimination Act; Australia
- Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA); Canada
- European Accessibility Act; European Union (EU)
- Public Sector Accessibility Directive; EU
In our business case, we should highlight the financial and reputational costs associated with non-compliance with the relevant regulations.
Do you need some case studies to back up your claims? Use the buttons below to learn about some high-profile cases.
Target
In 2005, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) filed a class action lawsuit against retailer Target, claiming its website violated the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Disabled Persons Act, as well as the ADA.
Target initially argued that its website was not covered by the ADA, but it ultimately changed its mind and settled by paying the NFB $6 million in class damages - and in doing so, it set a precedent for websites being covered under the ADA.
Netflix
Netflix was sued in 2012 by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), for failing to provide captions for movies and programmes available on its streaming service.
Netflix was the only streaming service provider at the time. The judge ordered them to caption their video catalogue by 2014 and to keep doing it in the future. Netflix was also required to pay NAD $755,000. This ruling set a precedent that continues to have an impact on the industry to this day.
Domino's Pizza
In 2019, Guillermo Robles filed a lawsuit against Domino's Pizza, claiming that it was not possible for a blind person using a screen reader to order from their website or app. The case was eventually decided in 2021 when the US Supreme Court refused to hear a petition from Domino's, after the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed that the ADA requirements of "full and equal enjoyment" and "effective communication" were standards that Domino's must meet.
Despite spending millions of Dollars trying to get the case overturned, Domino's was ordered to pay damages to Guillermo Robles, and to make its website and app accessible.
Reason 4: internal policies
If our organisation has internal policies that directly or indirectly reference accessibility, we should include them in our business case. It is everybody's responsibility to follow the rules and guidelines set in these policies.
Use the buttons below to learn more about different types of policies that may impact the accessibility of our products.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policy (EDI)
Many organisations have an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policy that describes the organisation's commitment to ensuring an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace. EDI policies cover people from all backgrounds, including people with disabilities, and different ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, levels of education, socioeconomic backgrounds, and geographical locations.
For an example of an EDI policy, head to the RNIB website.
Accessibility policy
Some organisations have an accessibility policy, which is an internal document that describes the organisation's strategy and roadmap for implementing accessibility. This could be for its digital products, such as websites and mobile applications, as well as the built environment, such as the workplace and stores.
Some organisations decide to make their accessibility policy public. For example, you can find the BBC's Digital Product Accessibility Policy on their website.
Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) & Accessibility Statement
Many organisations document the current level of accessibility of their products, and the conformance level they are aiming for, in an Accessibility Conformance Report or Accessibility Statement.
While ACRs are particularly popular in the United States, Accessibility Statements are more common in other countries. They both formally document the current and planned level of conformance of a website or mobile app to a specific standard.
By making these documents public, an organisation is held accountable for reaching the stated accessibility conformance level.
You can review the ACRs of various Microsoft products on the Microsoft website, or head to the NHS website to read their Accessibility Statement.
Reason 5: costs
Whether we are trying to secure budget to cover training costs, purchase tools and software, or hire people with accessibility expertise, it is a good idea to include these costs in our business case and compare them to the costs of not achieving accessibility.
Some of the costs of non-compliance we may want to include are:
- Legal costs: the costs that our organisation may incur should a customer file a lawsuit
- PR costs: the costs of rebuilding reputation after being faced with a lawsuit
- Remediation costs: the costs of remediating products that have not been designed with accessibility in mind
- Consultancy costs: the costs of regularly paying external consultants to provide the expertise that we don't have in-house
Topic: accessibility goals
A third key aspect of writing a successful business case for accessibility is to include clear goals.
The goals in our business case should be:
- Specific: we should be precise about what we are trying to achieve - do we want to comply with a specific standard or conformance level?
- Measurable: our goals should be measurable, so we know if and when we have achieved them
- Achievable: we should set realistic goals, or we won't be able to reach them
Example goals
There may be many different reasons why we need to put together an accessibility business case, and many different goals we may want to achieve.
Use the buttons below to read about some common accessibility goals.
Upskilling teams
A common reason why people write a business case is to raise budget to fund training courses.
To this purpose, we could put together a business case for self-led training and accessibility training programmes.
Self-led training supports the continuous development of accessibility skills, helping teams make accessibility part of everything they do. It also makes it easier to train teams at scale and keeps knowledge within organisations even after people leave.
Accessibility training programmes can then be used to provide teams with advanced training on different topics.
Accessibility pilots and programmes
Sometimes rolling out an organisation-wide accessibility programme is not feasible.
In this case, we might raise the budget to implement an accessibility pilot first, focusing on one of our products only. From there, we could learn what works and what needs changing, then build out processes throughout the rest of the organisation to eventually create an organisation-wide accessibility programme.
Sustainable accessibility
Another common goal is to reduce reliance on consultancy support, which can be costly over time.
To do so, we can produce a business plan to implement sustainable accessibility within our organisation.
With some initial investment in upskilling teams, hiring people with accessibility skills, and implementing processes to integrate accessibility in everything our organisation does, we can truly achieve sustainable accessibility.
Reflection: question text
At the start of the module, you noted down your thoughts about the benefits that accessibility may bring to your organisation:
Now take a moment to reflect on what you've learned in this module, and whether your understanding of how accessibility can benefit your organisation has changed.
If you're ready to try a few quiz questions, continue to the next screen. If not, no problem, you can revisit any topic in this module before you carry on.
Quiz question 1
Quiz question 2
Quiz question 3
Quiz question 4
Quiz question 5
Module summary
Congratulations! You've completed another module in the Building a Business Case for Accessibility course.
In this module we learned how to build a successful business case for accessibility.
In the next module we'll explore some resources and research that could prove useful as we write our business case. Use the Next button when you're ready to start the next module.
