Accessibility is Good for Business
How do you justify the investment in making your website accessible, compliant and usable?
The Employers' Forum on Disability estimates that the annual spending power of disabled people in the UK is up to £80 billion. Disability is a factor in the lives of 20 million people in the UK. Incidence of disability increases with age, and the older population is rising towards 40% of the total. Why would any organisation exclude so many potential visitors?
An accessible website makes commercial sense. It has always been difficult to put real numbers to the business case for making a site fully accessible, not least because organisations have been reluctant to admit to poor site accessibility in the first place. However in 2006, in one of the few publicly-discussed cases of its kind, the financial services giant Legal and General revealed the scale of the return on their investment in website accessibility and usability.
The Legal and General Experience
Unusually, Legal and General measured the performance of their original website, and continued to monitor the new design once it had complied with the relevant accessibility standards and been subject to user testing. The results are impressive:-
- Online sales of some products up by 300%
- Maintenance costs down by 66%
- Natural search improved by 50%
- Number of users hitting the landing page then leaving, down by 10%
- Site accessibility complaints down to zero
While some new sales may be disabled people who had difficulty using the original site, most will be people who simply find the new site easier to use. Cost reductions are due to coding which complies with WCAG standards. Valid code also improves search results.
The message is clear. A site which is accessible, compliant and usable is better for all your users, and your business.
What does this mean for you?
You might think that the experience of a multinational giant has little relevance for you. In fact
the lessons apply to all websites. Unsure how accessibility applies to your site?
Call 01508 499940 for an informal discussion without obligation.
