Anne Bovelett, an accessibility strategist, argues that making websites accessible is both an ethical duty and a measurable business advantage. On the Jukebox Podcast she explained how accessibility improvements can lift organic traffic, keyword visibility, authority, conversions and revenue — while cutting support costs and improving customer dignity.
Why accessibility fell behind
The web once relied on semantic HTML, which naturally worked with assistive technologies. Over time, design frameworks and JavaScript-heavy patterns favored divs and spans, pushing semantic elements out of common use and adding complexity to making components accessible. Combined with time pressures and well-meaning shortcuts, many sites became difficult or impossible for assistive tech to parse. Because most people don’t see others’ browsing struggles, accessibility problems often remain invisible until someone reports them — and reports are rare.
The data that changes the conversation
Hard numbers persuade businesses. Anne points to a large Semrush and accessibilitychecker.org study of 10,000 websites that found:
– 70% of sites were non-compliant with accessibility standards.
– Sites with higher accessibility scores enjoyed an average 23% boost in organic traffic.
– They ranked for 27% more organic keywords on average.
– Some compliant sites showed up to a 90% increase in authority scores.
Search engines and AI prioritize clear, machine-readable content. If assistive tech, crawlers, or AI tools can’t read a page because of hidden or poorly rendered content, that page’s discoverability and rankings suffer.
How accessibility and SEO reinforce each other
Accessible sites use clearer structure and semantics — headings, descriptive links, proper buttons and ARIA where needed — which helps search engines interpret and index content. Poor practices like vague link text (“click here”) undermine both user navigation and SEO: link lists that rely on assistive tech are useless without descriptive text, and automated agents can’t infer target content reliably.
The real cost to e-commerce
Research such as the Click-Away Pound highlights tangible revenue lost to inaccessible online shopping. Anne cites figures showing:
– Around £11.75 billion in lost purchases in 2016 due to inaccessible e-commerce (UK).
– This rose to roughly £17 billion by 2019.
– 75% of disabled customers would pay more for a product from a site that’s easy to use than struggle with an inaccessible alternative.
Small percentage gains matter. Using a calculator Anne built to model lost sales, a large Swiss supermarket chain could see an estimated 0.94% revenue increase from accessibility improvements — translating to hundreds of millions of Swiss francs given large turnovers. Across any sizable business, even fractions of a percent add up.
Beyond revenue: support reduction and user dignity
Accessible design reduces friction and support demand by enabling customers to self-serve. Anne describes projects where accessibility-focused redesigns produced meaningful drops in support requests. More than cost savings, accessibility preserves people’s autonomy: customers with disabilities or temporary impairments value being able to complete tasks independently and are more loyal to services that respect that.
Practical improvements that move the needle
– Use descriptive link and button text instead of “click here.”
– Prefer native semantic HTML (buttons, headings, anchors) over divs/spans that need extra scripting.
– Add structured data so search engines and AI can better understand your content.
– Provide captions and transcripts for video and avoid background audio that masks speech.
– Treat overlays and one-size widgets skeptically: accessibility is a process and cultural change, not a single technical patch.
The role of an accessibility strategist
Many organizations lack a coordinated role to align accessibility across leadership, design, development and content. Responsibilities often fall to overstretched individuals or become checkbox exercises. A strategist who speaks both business and technical languages can:
– Translate accessibility into measurable outcomes (traffic, conversions, support savings).
– Coordinate cross-team workflows so issues are caught early.
– Persuade execs with economic as well as ethical arguments.
Why business-first arguments work
While moral reasons matter, economic evidence often changes budgets and priorities faster. Concrete metrics — traffic lifts, keyword gains, lower support costs, recovered revenue — help leaders see accessibility as a strategic investment with clear ROI.
Who benefits
Accessibility helps more than people with classic disabilities: older users, those with cognitive differences, people with temporary injuries, users on low bandwidth or unusual devices, and anyone who values quick, low-friction experiences. Making sites accessible broadens market reach and fosters loyalty.
Where to learn more
Anne shares resources and writing about accessibility strategy at annebovelett.eu and is active on LinkedIn and X (Twitter). She encourages data-driven, practical conversations that link compliance to measurable business impact.
Summary
Accessible websites are good ethics and good business: they improve SEO and discovery, increase conversions and revenue, cut support costs, and restore dignity for users. Research and real-world examples show accessibility work pays off; organizations benefit most when they appoint strategic roles and build cross-functional processes rather than relying on lone champions or checklists. For practical next steps, focus on semantic markup, meaningful link text, structured data, media captions, and embedding accessibility into product workflows. Contact Anne at annebovelett.eu or via LinkedIn/X for strategy-focused resources and guidance.