The costs & ROI metrics to consider in web accessibility | PurpleByte

Picture this: You've just launched your dream website, which looks fantastic. But are you reaching everyone who wants to use it? I'm talking about Sarah, who relies on a screen reader to shop online, or Michael, who can only navigate websites using his keyboard due to motor disabilities. These are real people who might be your next loyal customers, but only if they can access your site.

I know what you're thinking: "Web accessibility sounds important, but how do I measure its actual impact on my business?"

Don't worry, I've been there too and many business owners have similar thoughts. While it seems abstract at first, there are concrete ways to track how accessibility improvements affect your bottom line.

In this guide, I will walk you what costs and return-on-investment metrics you should consider when implementing web accessibility. There may be some costs or ROI that are not relevant to you, so feel free to ignore them.

Whether you're a small business owner or a corporate decision-maker, you'll find practical ways to measure and maximise your accessibility investment.

Table of contents

1. Direct Financial Benefits (Revenue Increase and Cost Reduction)
2. Key Performance Indicators
3. Cost Breakdown Analysis (Implementation Costs and Return Metrics)
4. Before & After Scenarios (Technical Performance and User Engagement)
5. Conversion Improvements (Sales Metric and Lead Generation)
6. Implementation Strategy (Planning Phase and Execution Framework)
7. Monitoring & Optimisation (Tracking Tools and Continuous Improvements)
8. Additional Metrics & Resources

1. Direct financial benefits

Revenue increase

• Market reach metrics: Track total unique visitors and new user growth after implementing accessibility features. Compare against previous periods.
• Conversion tracking: Measure the percentage of visitors completing purchases or form submissions. Monitor changes in conversion rates month over month.
• Customer retention rates: Calculate the percentage of customers who return to make repeat purchases within 3-6 months.
• Mobile and voice traffic: Monitor the volume of traffic and sales coming from mobile devices and voice search queries.

Cost reduction

• Maintenance costs: Track monthly development hours spent on fixes and updates. Compare these hours before and after implementing accessibility standards.
• Legal expenses: Monitor annual spending on legal consultations and compliance reviews. Document any accessibility-related complaints or legal issues.
• Customer support volume: Measure the number of support tickets and average resolution time each month. Compare these metrics across different periods.
• Content management efficiency: Record the time spent on content updates and maintenance tasks. Track how long it takes to publish new content across platforms.

2. Key performance indicators

• Conversion rate: Track the percentage of users who complete key actions like purchases, sign-ups, or downloads on your site.
• Bounce rate: Measure the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page.
• Time on site: Monitor the average duration users spend engaging with your website content.
• Customer satisfaction: Conduct regular user surveys to gather feedback on site usability and overall experience.
• Market share: Track your total market share and compare it against competitors in your industry.

3. Cost breakdown analysis

Implementation costs

• Audit and assessment expenses: Track spending on initial website evaluations, including consultant fees and testing tools.
• Development costs: Monitor hours and contractor fees spent on technical fixes. Include costs for new features, code updates and content changes.
• Training expenses: Record spending on team training programs, documentation creation, and accessibility guidelines development.
• Testing costs: Track expenses for user testing sessions, validation tools and external auditor fees.
• Maintenance spending: Document monthly or quarterly costs for ongoing accessibility checks, updates and periodic audits.

Return metrics

• Revenue tracking: Monitor monthly revenue changes across all user segments, including those using assistive technologies. Compare year-over-year growth after accessibility implementation.
• Cost reduction monitoring: Track maintenance hours, customer support volume, and legal compliance expenses before and after accessibility improvements.
• ROI Timeline measurements: Document implementation costs against monthly revenue changes and cost savings to determine break-even point.
• Long-term value indicators: Measure customer retention rates, brand sentiment and market share growth, particularly in disability communities.

4. Before and after scenarios

Technical performance

• Page load speed: Track average page load times across different devices and connections before and after implementing accessible code. Use tools like >Google PageSpeed Insights(Opens in a new window) to measure and compare.
• Server resources: Monitor server CPU usage, bandwidth consumption and hosting costs monthly to identify changes after accessibility improvements.
• Error tracking: Record the number and types of technical errors reported through your error logging system and user feedback channels.
• Mobile performance: Measure mobile-specific metrics like Core Web Vitals and responsive design breakpoint performance across different screen sizes.

User engagement

• Session duration: Track average time users spend on your site through Google Analytics, comparing periods before and after accessibility improvements. Focus especially on users with assistive technologies.
• Pages per visit: Monitor the number of pages viewed per session across different user segments, including those using screen readers or keyboard navigation.
• Social sharing: Measure content sharing rates through social media tracking tools, paying particular attention to shares within disability-focused communities and forums.
• Return visitor rates: Use analytics to track the percentage of users who return to your site within 30 days.

5. Conversion improvements

Sales Metrics

• Cart abandonment tracking: Monitor your checkout funnel analytics before and after accessibility improvements.
• Average order value monitoring: Track purchase amounts across different user segments, including those using screen readers or keyboard navigation, through enhanced ecommerce analytics.
• Customer lifetime value measurement: Calculate and compare the total spending of customers over time.

Lead generation

• Form completion rates: Track the percentage of users who start vs. complete forms, segmented by form type and user device/technology. Compare rates before and after accessibility updates.
• Newsletter signup tracking: Monitor total signup attempts, successful completions, and abandonment points in your newsletter subscription process across different user segments.
• Contact request monitoring: Measure the number of contact form submissions and analyse where users drop off in the contact process using form analytics tools.
• Quote request analysis: Record conversion rates for quote forms, including time to completion and error rates during submission.

6. Implementation strategy

Planning phase

• Assessment and scope definition: Conduct a thorough web accessibility audit to identify accessibility gaps and determine which WCAG standards to implement.
• Resource allocation: Determine budget, assign team members and identify if external expertise is needed.
• Timeline development: Create realistic project milestones with buffer time for testing and refinement. This could take 3-6 months for initial implementation.
• Success metric establishment: Before starting work, define specific KPIs (e.g. conversion rates, user satisfaction scores, compliance levels).

Execution framework

• Priority setting: Focus on critical accessibility barriers affecting the most users or posing legal risks. Start with essential features like navigation, forms, alt texts and checkout processes.
• Phase-based implementation: Break the project into manageable chunks (3-4 month phases) to avoid overwhelming resources and allow for learning. Start with high-impact, low-effort changes such as implementing alt texts.
• Progress tracking: Use project management tools to monitor accessibility task completion against the timeline while regularly checking in to address obstacles and maintain momentum.
• Impact measurement: Compare pre and post-implementation metrics (conversion rates, user satisfaction, error rates) to quantify improvements and justify further investment.

7. Monitoring and optimisation

Tracking tools

• Analytics setup: Implement the analytics tool of your choice to track site performance
• User feedback systems: Deploy surveys, feedback forms and user testing sessions specifically designed to gather input from users with disabilities about their experience.
• Accessibility monitoring: Use automated tools like WAVE(Opens in a new window) and aXe<(Opens in a new window) to regularly scan your website for accessibility issues and compliance with WCAG guidelines.
• Performance measurement: Set up dashboards to track key metrics like conversion rates, bounce rates and session duration for users with assistive technologies.

Continuous improvement

• Regular audits: Schedule quarterly/half-yearly/annual accessibility audits using automated tools and manual testing to catch new issues early and maintain WCAG compliance (we have accessibility re-audit service to help with that).
• Update processes: Establish clear workflows for content creators and developers to follow accessibility guidelines when adding new site features or content.
• User testing: Conduct periodic testing sessions with disabled users to gather real-world feedback and identify practical improvements that automated tools might miss.
• Compliance monitoring: Keep track of changing accessibility standards and regulations to ensure your website stays compliant and ahead of legal requirements.

8. Additional metrics and resources

To quantify the impact of web accessibility on your website, use our web accessibility impact calculator below:

This website also offers additional resources including:

• the business case for web accessibility
• the accessibility facts and statistics post, which highlights real-world numbers on accessibility and the market. Did you know that people with disabilities and their families control an estimated $13 trillion in global spending power? And inaccessible websites lose $6.9 billion to competitors annually?

You can also download the accessibility checklist to start making your website more accessible.

Conclusion and next steps

Web accessibility is not just a compliance checkbox. It's a strategic investment that delivers measurable returns across your business, as mentioned in this post.

Companies that embrace accessibility find it becomes a cornerstone of their reputation, leading to stronger customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth in both disabled and non-disabled communities. Investing in accessibility today prepares your business for sustainable growth and success in an inclusive digital marketplace.

I recommend working with qualified accessibility consultants for both automated and manual testing to ensure nothing is overlooked. Even if you don’t choose PurpleByte, work with credible ones rather than generic web/digital professionals like developers and UX experts. While important, their main expertise, which is also crucial in the digital space, is not primarily accessibility unless specifically stated.

Remember, web accessibility is a continuous journey, not a final destination. Start small, measure your progress, and build on your successes over time.