According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “61 million adults in the United States live with a disability.”
Let that sink in for a minute.
About one in four adults in the United States have some form of disability. Many of these people are your customers or potential customers.
Given the fact that more people develop disabilities as they get older, some people who currently don’t have a disability will develop one in the future.
Now, think about how you created your latest marketing campaign.
Did you take into account these people and their needs when developing this campaign? How about when you designed your website or mobile app?
If the answer to these questions is no, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
If your business does not cater to the needs of disabled customers, those customers might go to a competitor that does.
Ignoring Customers With Disabilities Could Result In Legal Battles
Need more incentive to cater to people with disabilities? In September of 2010, the Department of Justice published the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design. These standards generally cover accessibility to your business in the offline world.
However, while the DOJ has yet to finish setting the rules for website accessibility, companies are already finding out that not having a website or mobile app that is accessible to all customers could be a huge oversight with painful consequences. In other words, if your website or mobile apps are not accessible to disabled customers, your business could be sued.
Keep in mind, disabilities that have an effect on how easy it is for customers to use your website and mobile apps are not limited to those involving the ears and eyes.
As a post on the DYNO Mapper blog points out, cognitive issues, voice difficulties, seizure triggers, limited hand motor skills, involuntary motion, neurological disorders, repetitive motion disorders (RMD), inability to speak, sensitivity to color, or a combination of any of these can make it difficult for customers and prospects to interact with your business. And, this probably is not an all-inclusive list.
Also keep in mind, even people without a permanent disability have accidents or illnesses that can make it difficult to interact with your company online if the website is not designed correctly.
If your competitors make it easier to interact with them when your customers and prospects are temporarily disabled, I wonder who these people will do business with after they heal.
Additional Resources
As mentioned, it is important to serve customers with disabilities both online and offline. While both are of the utmost importance, I plan to focus most of my future disability-related blog posts on the online component only. When I do, I will update this post and include a link below for reference.
Photo credit: Marco Verch on Flickr.
