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Marketing agencies play a key role in presenting their clients to the world, driving traffic, and attracting customers. Yet, when the content marketing agencies create is not accessible to people with disabilities, they risk excluding up to a quarter of the U.S. population. Neglecting accessibility can also expose companies to digital accessibility lawsuits.
Federal and many state laws now require all digital content to be accessible for people with disabilities. Digital accessibility lawsuits increase every year, with many organizations struggling to meet digital accessibility compliance. Many rely on their partner organizations, including their marketing agencies, to help them comply with digital accessibility mandates.
By providing accessible, compliant digital content, agencies can offer their customers increased legal compliance and a larger audience, which can lead to an increase in revenue.
Value of Digital Accessibility
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published a Business Case for Accessibility. It shows that digital accessibility has benefits for SEO, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and risk mitigation.
Risk mitigation
Year over year, the number of digital accessibility lawsuits increases. Multiple lawsuits have targeted many organizations. There were over 4,000 digital accessibility lawsuits in 2023 alone. In most cases, the court requires the organization to make their digital content accessible, and most often to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Taking a proactive approach to making digital content accessible mitigates the risk of costly lawsuits and protects your customers’ reputations.
SEO
Digital accessibility labels and tags help people with disabilities interact with content on the internet. This includes websites and digital documents. Making websites and documents digitally accessible means that assistive technology (like screen readers and connected Braille displays) used by people with disabilities
can interact with the digital content and relay it to the user. But it also means search engines can more easily interact with the content. Digital accessibility features such as image alt text, video transcripts, and headings contribute to accessibility, SEO, and an improved user experience for everyone, not just people with disabilities. Search engines measure user experience, so this has a double benefit for SEO.
CSR
Nearly 90% of consumers feel that corporate social responsibility is important and would purchase a product because the company supported an issue they cared about. Providing access to people with disabilities extends not just to physical locations but also to digital content such as websites, PDFs, and social media. Since the disability market comprises some $490 billion per year it is worth making sure you and your clients aren’t excluding those potential customers.
What needs to be made accessible?
So what needs to be made accessible for full inclusion and attaining the most comprehensive market reach?
Email – All emails should have alt text on images, provide descriptive links that tell the user where the link is going, and use simple language.
Social Media – All of the above goes for social media. If a social media post has ever told you that the image wasn’t available, you can relate to how a person using assistive technology feels left out when there’s no alt text to explain the shared image Also, using #CamelCase (capitalizing the first letter of each word in a hashtag) makes your hashtags more accessible and understandable for everyone, including people using assistive technology.
Webinars – Be sure your online events and webinars are accessible for everyone. Provide live captioning, transcripts for recordings, and ensure that forms and content are all digitally accessible to include everyone.
Websites – Websites are a major issue for digital accessibility. There should be navigable headings, alt text on all images, tooltips for forms, captions for any video content, and a myriad of other digital accessibility features to provide an equivalent experience for assistive technology users of all types.
PDFs – PDFs are one of the most common file types used for marketing and website documentation. They can also be among the most problematic for assistive technology users. All PDFs must also be digitally accessible.
Enhance growth through digital accessibility
Marketing agencies that embrace digital accessibility serve their clients better and create opportunities for growth and differentiation. As accessibility becomes critical to compliance and corporate social responsibility, agencies that proactively integrate accessibility into their services will stand out in a competitive market. They help clients avoid costly legal risks while expanding their reach to a broader audience, including the millions of people with disabilities who rely on accessible content.
Ultimately, the key to successful digital accessibility lies in a continuous commitment to learning and improvement. Agencies must invest in the right tools, train their staff, and test content regularly. By doing so, they can ensure that their clients’ marketing materials meet accessibility standards and create a more inclusive digital landscape for everyone.
Tammy Albee
Tammy Albee | Director of Marketing | Equidox Tammy joined Equidox after four years of experience working at the National Federation of the Blind. She firmly maintains that accessibility is about reaching everyone, regardless of ability, and boosting your market share in the process. "Nobody should be barred from accessing information. It's what drives our modern society."