To answer this question properly, you first need to ask: Why did you build this website in the first place? But before we get there, let me briefly explain what web accessibility actually means. Accessibility in websites and digital interfaces means:
- An easy-to-use interface
- Support for different navigation methods
- Adaptation for diverse audiences (age, gender, education, disability)
- Good color contrast choices
- Clear, easy-to-distinguish hierarchy in site structure
- Clear, easy-to-distinguish hierarchy in content
- Easy-to-understand content
At this point, you might ask: "But that's good practice for everyone! What does it have to do with web accessibility?" Exactly—that's the point. Accessibility isn't "just" for people with disabilities; it's for everyone. Accessibility actually enables everyone to browse the web easily and comfortably. The ability to make certain adjustments to fit the user, rather than forcing the user to fit the interface, benefits all visitors. How many times have you browsed at night and, tired, increased font size (usually with CTRL + "+" or your scroll wheel)?
Now let's return to the original question: Why do we build websites in the first place? Look at the image below:
Now that we've identified the reasons for building a website, let me explain what makes accessibility worthwhile. Your job is to check whether each of the reasons below supports and advances your original goals for the site.
Brand Reputation
Here's an important business principle: you do business with people, not companies. A business that shows awareness and sensitivity to its customers, that can and wants to tailor its products and services to meet their needs—however diverse—is perceived by the public as better, more trustworthy, and more reliable. Such a business earns trust in every circumstance. Improving your public image is invaluable.
Better UX
Creating an interface for people with disabilities forces designers to address issues that often seem trivial. For example: marking required fields. Sounds silly? Maybe. When you don't mark required fields, standard users who click "submit" without filling them will get error messages. For them, this is just a minor annoyance. But for a blind user who doesn't know what a required field is, they have to figure out why the form didn't submit, where the error occurred, and how to fix it. That's just a taste of a small problem. UX professionals who consider accessibility issues avoid these problems altogether. In doing so, they actually create massive improvement in user experience for everyone.
Better Design
When a designer maintains color contrast ratios as defined in web accessibility standards (which we'll explore later), they ensure text is more readable. They preserve the message for everyone, including those with color blindness. They understand their responsibility to communicate content and message to every visitor. The clearer the message, the more visitors—from every background—can engage with it. Consider these two images: which is clearer?
Such designs are more common than we'd like to admit.
Clearer Content
Content is arguably the most important element of your website. Every visitor arrives with a specific goal: they want to find information, solve a problem, or discover something new. The better written and clearer your content, the easier it is for visitors to find what they're looking for. It's these small details that matter.
Better Code, Cleaner Code, More Organized Code
When code is written with accessibility in mind, it becomes cleaner, more organized, and easier to understand—for search engines and everyone else. Accessibility requires developers to maintain proper standards and structure. Clear hierarchy between different site areas creates order and makes the code readable. Additionally, there's a language for accessibility called "WAI-ARIA" or simply "ARIA rules." ARIA rules define relationships between elements and clarify their roles when standard HTML alone isn't sufficient. For example, if I create a button from a DIV using JavaScript, I can use ARIA to tell assistive technologies and search engines it's actually a button.
Organic Search Rankings
When your code is clean, standards-compliant, and clear, it naturally improves your organic SEO performance. Think about it—search engines are essentially "blind." They have tremendous power to analyze and understand your site structure and functionality. But if you use a DIV as a button without proper ARIA labels, you're forcing search engines to work harder. With ARIA, you're directly telling search engines what something is, making your site more understandable and friendly—not just to assistive technologies, but to search engines themselves.
More Visitors
Research by Microsoft showed that approximately 25% of the population has some form of disability, in varying degrees of severity. When you don't make your website accessible, you're essentially limiting yourself to only 75% of potential visitors instead of 100%. The immediate question: "They're not my target audience, so why bother?" Here's my simple answer: "Instead of asking why, ask yourself how to make them your target audience. There are two kinds of business people in the world: those who see difficulty in an opportunity, and those who see the opportunity in difficulty. Which one are you?"
Don't forget that people with disabilities have families, friends, and entire communities. When you exclude them, you also exclude everyone around them—a choice that's not healthy for a business looking to grow and thrive. Remember, your website serves your business, not the other way around.
In other words, there's an entirely new audience waiting for you.
Longer Time on Site
Because we've invested in a comfortable, user-friendly interface, clear design that highlights your message, and well-written, easy-to-understand content, visitors will find it more pleasant to stay longer on your site. This extended engagement improves your search engine rankings and gradually increases your visibility over time.
Better Paid Advertising Performance
Thanks to improved interface usability, readable design, clear content, organized code, higher traffic, and longer time on site, your paid advertising results will naturally be better. You'll get more value from every dollar spent on ads.
Lower Maintenance Costs
Well-written code is easier to improve and maintain. If you want to develop new features or improve existing ones in the future, you'll do it more quickly and efficiently, with fewer unnecessary expenses.
And if you want to run paid advertising campaigns, your website is already optimized for it, much like a race car built for high speeds.
Most Importantly—Improved Conversion Rates
Conversion rate refers to the ratio between the number of site visitors and those who take the desired action. That action could be reading an article, filling out a contact form, purchasing a product, or spreading an idea to a specific audience. When your website is tailored to your visitors, you increase the likelihood they'll complete the action you want them to take. Consider all the reasons we've listed above—together, they create an environment where conversions naturally increase.