Why Accessibility Makes Businesses More Competitive

It’s kind of wild how many businesses still act like accessibility is something they’ll just deal with later. Like, okay, sure, but customers and employees notice right away when a brand makes life easier for them. Don’t you want things to be easier for your team? And yes, for your customers too, they’re the ones that are keeping your business alive! A lot of businesses are so heavily focused on the bigger things, the more “fun” things like LinkedIn marketing, for example, that they just forget, push off, or even outright ignore the important aspects like these. 

 And honestly, accessibility isn’t just some extra nice gesture; it’s a really smart business move that gives companies a pretty big advantage without doing anything dramatic. Well, besides, in some countries, there are a lot of laws about accessibility, so you need to think about compliance too.

More People Can Actually Use What’s Offered

Well, not everyone clicks, scrolls, reads, or listens the exact same way. Some people need captions. Some need larger text. Some use assistive tech because that’s just what works for them. You probably know someone personally, be it a family member, friend, or even a team member or colleague that might have one of these needs, right? And, yeah, nobody has patience for a website that feels like a puzzle when they're just trying to buy something. You don’t either, right? Yeah, you get the point then. 

Accessibility Shows a Business Actually Cares

Well, people can totally tell when a brand is thinking about real human needs instead of just checking boxes. And yeah, you better believe that creates trust faster than any marketing message ever will. Like, when a customer can watch a video with captions in a noisy café or an employee can use adaptive equipment comfortably, they instantly feel included and respected. 

More and more businesses are actually using transcription services when it comes to content like podcasts, lectures, and videos they provide so their customers (and their team members too) can feel more a part of the brand (as they should). But of course, transcribing is just one example, like when it comes to your website, even just having a cleaner layout, and using alt tags for images really does help too.

Following the Rules Saves a Lot of Panic Later

Okay, but what does this even mean, though? Well, accessibility rules and standards keep growing, and ignoring them isn’t a great strategy. Sure, it’s easier to pretend it’s not a big deal, but eventually someone’s going to ask why things aren’t compliant, and then it becomes a stressful rush. Seriously, it’s just not worth dealing with. 

Accessible Content Reaches Way More People

So this was also mentioned above, there was an example about podcasts and videos. But it’s true, though, there’s honestly no downside to making content easier to consume. It doesn’t have to technically cost anything (it’s up to you how to do the accessibility, but there technically don’t need to be any extra resources used for making things accessible). Like, when it comes to clear navigation for your website, you can just add a plugin, when it comes to transcription, you can use a service, AI, or even do it yourself, the same goes for ALT tags.