Paying for Accessibility

So, you’ve made the call: this is the year to really tackle digital accessibility for your product or organization. Whether you’re dipping your foot in for the first time (welcome aboard!) or staring down a daunting laundry list after already getting started, you’re in good company. 

In my work, I’ve had the chance to talk to companies of all shapes and sizes—from Fortune 500s to mid-size retailers to scrappy startups—and the one thing that’s universal? Cash is king. No matter how big your ambitions, your bottom line is the bottom line, and budgets do not stretch endlessly. So, you want to control as much of it as possible. 

Let’s be honest here: accessibility can look expensive. Consultants might downplay it, advocates might dance around it, but you know what your spreadsheet says. When every cent matters—and when it feels like you’re being asked to do more with less—accessibility can seem like a nice-to-have that just doesn’t fit. 

With the new year, fiscal Q1, and a whole host of legal and regulatory requirements on the horizon, there has been no better time to confront this problem. The sooner you begin the sooner the benefits will become clear, and your clients and customers will appreciate you for it. Accessibility isn’t all or nothing, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. Smart leaders know how to find efficiencies, leverage funding, and build for the future. That’s what I want to help you do here. 

In this post, I want to start out by talking about some funding sources you can tap into, then go into techniques that can lower your up-front investment, and finally talk (okay, maybe rant a little) about why I believe accessibility isn’t a liability—it’s one of the smartest investments you can make. 

Tax Benefits

Before we dive in, I want to be abundantly clear. I’m an accessibility guy, not a tax professional. Tax incentives shouldn’t be the only reason you do what you do. At the same time, there’s no sense in gifting even more of your hard-earned cash to Uncle Sam when it could be spent elsewhere. 

Disabled Access Credit 

Small businesses can write off 50% of the expenses they incurred to improve access to their services, like making a website accessible or purchasing assistive technology, up to a maximum of $10,000. To be eligible, the business must have earned no more than $1,000,000 in the current year and employ no more than 30 people. This credit is claimed on Form 8826. 

Work Opportunity Credit 

This tax credit is available to businesses that have hired someone who is a member of a group that is traditionally believed to experience significant challenges when it comes to obtaining gainful employment, like someone who: 

• Has a disability 
• Is a veteran 
• Is an ex-felon 
• Is receiving Supplemental Nutrition or Income from the government 
• Has been unemployed for a while 
• Is a referral from an agency providing vocational rehabilitation 
• Is a youth employee that only works during the summer 

Other requirements apply, and the total amount will not exceed $9,600. The credit is claimed on Form 5884. 

Removal of Architectural and Transportation Barriers 

Yeah, so this one admittedly doesn’t directly pertain to digital accessibility, but I’d be remiss to leave it out on account of the sheer number of people that either don’t know or tend to forget about it. If you incurred expenses to make a physical environment more accessible: you installed a ramp, lowered counters, made modifications to a vehicle, etc, you might be able to claim up to $15,000 in expenses through the architectural barrier removal tax deduction (outlined under U.S. Code § 190). 

State and Municipal Incentives 

I don’t want to list all of them here, because such a resource would quickly become out of date and frankly a nightmare to maintain when you consider the rate that the tax code evolves. In the absence of that, just know they exist and are quite plentiful. 

The best way to get at more information is through your state’s revenue service website, or a quick Google search for something like “California business tax incentives for accessibility.” 

Grants 

Depending on the work you are doing, grants can provide an additional and often overlooked source of funds. They probably won’t subsidize an entire program, but they could be enough to bolster research or get a project over the finish line. Grants are most often awarded by government departments, trusts, or corporations wishing to stimulate the economy or advance a certain cause. 

When it comes to government opportunities, grants.gov is the one-stop shop. The primary research organization to be aware of is NIDILRR (National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research), which encourages eligible entities, “institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, and other organizations and/or agencies” to apply. Here is an updated link to the available grants.

From there, it might be helpful to limit your search to those posted by the ADA National Network, just enter “ADA” in the keywords box. Grants are typically posted between the months of October and April, so it is a good idea to bookmark this page and check back periodically. 

The following are a few grants that are available through third parties: 

• Teach Access: Pays up to $2,000 to faculty at institutions of higher education for introducing digital accessibility concepts into their curriculum 
• Microsoft offers Innovation and AI for Accessibility funding to qualifying “researchers, startups, nonprofits, and assistive technology companies” who are developing products that challenge the current limitations of accessible technology through the use of artificial intelligence. Applicants are awarded with cash, Azure credits, or both. 

Lowering the Up-Front Cost 

Putting tax credits, deductions, and grants aside, there are other techniques to take into account. The fact of the matter is that too many companies spend far more than needed on accessibility. 

It’s not necessarily bad intentions or mismanagement—it’s often because information on how to build an effective, cost-efficient program isn’t easy to find. Yes, there are plenty of webinars, success stories, and case studies out there, but you can’t just copy someone else’s strategy and call it a day. Every company is different—what worked for a Fortune 500 enterprise definitely doesn’t make sense for a local restaurant. What worked for that restaurant won’t work for a budding startup. You get the point. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talked to well-meaning people that bought a big and expensive accessibility platform, just to realize that it didn’t adequately serve their needs. 

Overspending often happens when we recreate solutions that aren’t tailored to the unique goals, users, and resources of our business. The good news? With a smarter approach, you can avoid these pitfalls and spend on what matters so you don’t turn your bottom-line upside down. 

Here are a couple strategies that I have personally seen work wonders. 

Start Small but Strategically 

Picture your typical customer. How do they find you? What do they want? 

If you have the capital, it might make sense to start out with a full audit and then work toward transformation. If you don’t, focus on the areas that matter most to your users and that receive the greatest amount of traffic. 

Train Your Team 

Every good founder knows that the team will make or break the product, every single time. What’s the point of fixing a problem if you don’t learn from it? In the infinite wisdom of Santayana, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” 

Empowering your developers, designers, and content creators to build accessibility into their work reduces reliance on external consultants. 

Use Free or Low-Cost Tools 

There are a ton of free or incredibly cheap tools out there to help you evaluate and improve the state of your digital accessibility. Tools like WAVE and Axe DevTools don’t cost a penny. True, they don’t find everything, but they take care of the low hanging fruit. Get your developers and QA folks to embed these into their workflow. 

Leverage the Community 

The accessibility community is full of generous experts who share best practices, guides, and tutorials–often for free. The community was literally built on this principle. The most popular certifications encourage experts to share what they know as a means of continued education. Take advantage of these resources to educate your team and get actionable advice before paying for consultants. 

Spread Out the Work 

Unless you’re the target of a lawsuit, no one said this stuff needed to be done over-night. Accessibility is best thought of as a continual process anyway, so you can prioritize then spread improvements out over time, aligning the costs with your budget cycles. 

Meet With a Consultant 

Sometimes, the best way to jumpstart your efforts is to bring in an expert. I might be a little biased—this is what I do—but hear me out. In just one conversation, I’ve often helped businesses spot red flags, prioritize effectively, and gain clarity on their next steps. It’s not because I’m better than anyone else; it’s because I’ve seen the same patterns play out again, again, and again. 

A good partner, focused on your needs rather than selling you something, can offer a neutral perspective, help you navigate providers and competitors, and ensure you’re making reliable, informed decisions. 

If you do go this route, look for someone who asks good questions. Someone who prioritizes your needs over selling services. Ask for references, check their track record with similar projects, and ensure they’re knowledgeable about your industry. A good accessibility consultant will guide you, not pressure you, and leave you with actionable and trustworthy insights because they view your wins as their own. If you don’t leave a discovery call having learned something, it’s probably not a good fit. 

Accessibility is a High-Quality Investment 

And it pays off. In the years I’ve spent helping different companies strategically approach and tackle accessibility initiatives, none have gone bankrupt because they started including more users. It just hasn’t happened. But I have seen some come pretty darned close on account of a lawsuit courtesy of the very people who could’ve been paying customers, or the law firms. Both scenarios are not good for different reasons, though the end result is the same. 

In the business world we talk a lot about assets vs. liabilities and what they mean. 

Ask an accountant, and you’ll hear that an asset is something you own while a liability is something you owe. 

Ask a business owner, and they’ll probably tell you that an asset is anything that adds to the value of his/her business while a liability is any expenditure that takes away from it. 

The distinction is subtle, but present. 

Love him or hate him, my favorite definitions come from the controversial Robert Kiyosaki. Say what you will, he keeps it simple. Assets put money in your pocket, liabilities take money out of your pocket. If it’s not making you more money over the long term, it’s not an asset. 

So what’s that have to do with accessibility? 

Everything, in my opinion.  

Though the trend has decreased as public awareness has increased these past couple years, I still regularly talk to leaders who are under the mistaken assumption that digital accessibility is a liability instead of an asset. 

Think about it: when you invest in accessibility, you’re creating pathways for more people to engage with your business. You’re expanding your market reach—inviting customers who would’ve otherwise been left out. That’s more revenue, more loyalty, and more word-of-mouth marketing. Now more than ever, the internet is where business happens. It’s your storefront, your service desk, your billboard, and your customer experience all rolled into one.

Treating accessibility as anything less than mission-critical is not just short-sighted, it’s bad math. 

To further cement our point, let’s flip the script. 

Considering the odds of ignoring or skimping out on accessibility? Talk about a liability waiting to implode. You’re closing doors on your potential customers while opening doors for lawsuits, which don’t just drain your pockets—they drain time, energy, and brand reputation, too. Liability doesn’t just “cost” money. It steals it. It kicks the can down the road until someone invariably hands you the bill. And spoiler alert: that bill is probably going to be bigger, because you are now playing on the defense. 

“But what if I don’t get sued,” they say. 

Say you don’t. Congratulations on dodging that bullet! 

Are you breaking regional, national, or international laws that could put the rest of your operations at risk? 

Are you passing up top talent? Now more than ever, forward-thinkers want to work with companies that get it, companies that are innovating and challenging the status quo.

To avoid accessibility is to send a signal that certain people are not as valued, which is not conducive to attracting and retaining A-players. 

Are you risking your reputation? Digital accessibility is becoming a baseline expectation. When businesses fail to plan for it, users take notice.

If there’s one thing I’ve observed about the internet lately it’s that people love to complain. Make it difficult for someone to pay their electric bill, book a flight to see family, complete a homework assignment, buy that gadget their favorite YouTuber has been raving about, whatever. See how long it takes for them to lose it. You wouldn’t be the first to accept that challenge. Seriously though, social media posts have an impressive way of getting around. You might avoid the courtroom, you won’t escape public opinion. One bad headline, one viral post, and “all press is good press” turns into a PR nightmare. 

Betting on “but we probably won’t get sued” is like refusing to insure your house because it hasn’t burned down yet. On the other hand, investing in accessibility is like buying an asset at a discount: the upfront cost might look intimidating if you don’t factor in the ROI, but the payoff is exponential. More users. More sales. Fewer liabilities. Fewer lawsuits. Better PR. Smarter positioning.  

Ultimately, you’re left with a compounding asset. Once accessibility is built solidly into processes—once it becomes a mindset—it starts paying dividends over and over again in unintended ways. Every new feature, every product release, every piece of content serves as a way to reach more and more people. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. But seriously, I think it’s high time to reframe the modern perception. 

Looking to Learn More?

If you’re interested in learning more about digital accessibility, you can sign up for our monthly industry update, check out our Getting Started with Accessibility starter kit, or drop us a quick note and the QualityLogic team can share ideas on what we’ve experienced!