The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a wake-up call and business now are considering accessibility of digital products as a priority. In an increasingly and undeniably digital world, it's important to have products that are accessible to everyone.

If you're looking to increase sales and win more business, making your digital products accessible is a great place to start. By ensuring that your websites, apps, and other digital products are accessible to users with disabilities, you can open your business to a whole new customer base.

There are a number of benefits to making your digital products accessible.

According to Forrester, about $10-16 billion in design spending between the US and Canada alone will shift towards tech companies that are prioritizing accessibility.

Benefits of ensuring Accessible Digital Products

• Expand your reach: Providing accessible digital products gives your business an opportunity to tap into the 1-billion market of people with disabilities that has an annual disposable income of $1.2 trillion. Accessibility also helps you increase sales to government or the federal markets.
• Win long term customers: People with disabilities tend to remain loyal to your business if they are able to access your digital products. The report from Business Disability Forum, UK, found that 75% of disabled people and their families have walked away from a service provider because of poor disability awareness at a cost of £1.8bn to UK businesses every month.
• Comply with legal requirements: In many countries, including the United States, Canada, and the European Union, laws require that digital products be accessible to people with disabilities. The BarrierBreak team of accessibility experts provide you support for all your accessibility needs ensuring conformance to WCAG standards and compliance to Section 508, ADA, VPAT Creation
• Improve the user experience: When your digital products are accessible, everyone can use them more easily and effectively. This can lead to better customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Improve search engine optimization: Accessible digital products are often better coded, which can help them rank higher in search engine results. This can lead to more traffic and more sales.

Making your digital products accessible doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming. Incorporate accessibility in your digital products right from the beginning. There are several tools and resources available to help you. And, by taking the time to make your products accessible, you can reap a number of benefits for your business.

If you are looking for an accessibility partner who can help you get started or support you in your accessibility journey, get in touch now!

The 21st Century has witnessed a number of developments, especially in the technology sector. One such development is the growing use of SAAS (Software as a service) products and services. 

SAAS is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is also known as "on-demand software.” Essentially, SAAS is a way of delivering applications as a service over the Internet. Wikipedia

According to a recent study, the global SAAS market is expected to grow from $225.6 billion in 2020 to $436.9 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 12.5%. 

That’s huge! 

Keeping this in mind, it becomes all the more important for companies to focus on accessibility. Inclusive technology will be a key driver to growth for SAAS companies. Software as a Service (SAAS) solutions & Accessibility together will be that enabler that will promote innovation, bridge the digital divide experienced by people with disabilities, and provide the competitive edge to SAAS solutions. 

At BarrierBreak, we believe that creating a limitless future by ensuring technologies are accessible to all! 

Let’s have a look at other companies that is focusing on accessibility in SAAS. 

Salesforce 

Overview: Salesforce unites your marketing, sales, commerce, service, and IT teams from anywhere with Customer 360 — one integrated CRM platform that powers entire suite of connected apps. With Customer 360, you can focus your employees on what’s important right now: stabilizing your business, reopening, and getting back to delivering exceptional customer experiences. 

Accessibility Status: Salesforce’s core values are trust, customer success, innovation, and equality. They believe that by making technology more accessible, they are helping create a future with greater opportunity and equality for all. Disability inclusion is fundamental to this belief, and they recognize that inclusion fuels innovation. 

VM Ware 

Overview: VMware offers a breadth of digital solutions that powers apps, services, and experiences which enable organizations to deliver the best customer service and empower employees. 

Accessibility Status: “Our focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is both important and necessary in our evolution as a business. Our Power of Difference communities are collectively raising our consciousness of the company and helping us build a platform for equitable change.” – Raghu Raghuram, CEO, VMware 

Adobe 

Overview: Since 2012, Adobe has been transitioning to a SAAS-first business model. It has launched several leading SAAS products in the market including Adobe Creative Cloud and highly popular Adobe Experience Platform. Adobe is a perfect fit for independent creative firms, large-sized/mid-sized/small sized marketing companies and B2C businesses. Adobe is arguably the market-leader when it comes to design and marketing. 

Accessibility Status: Adobe is a reputed organization in accessibility and supports the creation of outstanding web experiences by encouraging developers to produce rich, engaging content that is accessible to all. They believe that when people feel respected and included, they can be more creative, innovative and successful. While they have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, one might feel they are moving in the correct direction. 

Atlassian 

Overview: Atlassian is a leading provider of collaboration tools for teams (remote and distributed). It is a pure SAAS company that offers pinpoint solutions for your most critical problems. With a team of more than 7k employees and a strong capability in agile planning and agile product development, it has several products including Jira Software, Jira Align, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket and Confluence. 

Accessibility Status: Atlassian is committed to accessibility. They are accelerating forward with their born accessible products. They’re learning and growing and are committed to making accessibility one of the core pillars of their software development process. They also have VPAT documents of how their products address WCAG 2.1 AA. 

Edcast 

Overview: EdCast offers a unified talent experience platform designed to enable end-to-end employee journeys spanning learning, skilling and career mobility. Its award-winning platform is used internationally by organizations ranging from large Global 2000 companies to small businesses and governments. With Edcast’s platforms, businesses are able to attract, develop and retain a high-performance and future-ready workforce. 

Accessibility Status: EdCast is committed to make the LXP platform accessible to everyone. They continuously work towards improving the accessibility features on their platform to ensure that all users get the most out of the platform. Their goal is to make their platform accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. They even have VPAT documentation of their product. 

Conclusion 

As SAAS is growing at a rapid pace across all the sectors, it has become essential for businesses to adapt accessibility right from the start. It will not only help you comply with laws but also help you extend your customer reach, provide equitable access and enable improved experience for everyone. 

Reach out to our highly specialized team of native accessibility testers to help make your SAAS products accessible. Get in touch at sales@barrierbreak.com.

Download the SAAS Accessibility Toolkit - A guide to implementing accessibility in your SAAS products.

Last year there was a news trending about Domino’s Pizza being sued because of inaccessible website & mobile app and the claim of Domino's to have the case thrown out, arguing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) did not apply to its website because it is not  covered as a "place of public accommodation".  So, understanding ADA is  critical for businesses to understand their obligations and also to meet compliance.

History of ADA

Due to a huge number of people with a disability facing discrimination, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) came into existence to protect individuals with disabilities in America. The law became signed law on July 26, 1990  by American President George H.W. Bush.

What does Americans with Disabilities Act state?

ADA is a civil right law introduced to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities in public sector as well as private places that are open to the general public.

The main focus of this act is to provide equal rights and opportunities to everyone. This will provide equal opportunity to the disability community in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.

ADA is divided into five titles that relates to different areas of public life.

• Title I - Employment: Equal Employment Opportunity for Individuals with Disabilities
• Title II - State and Local Government: Non-discrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services
• Title III - Public Accommodations: Non-discrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations and in Commercial Facilities
• Title IV - Telecommunications: To provide telephone relay service for Individuals with Disabilities
• Title V - Miscellaneous Provisions

The lawsuit against Domino’s was filed under Title III – Public Accommodation. The question that arises is that are websites covered under the ADA?

We are seeing varied opinions from the federal and states courts on whether websites and mobile apps are covered under ADA. But at this point, it would be advisable for businesses to look at the wider obligations under ADA and ensure that their websites and mobile apps are accessible to people with disabilities.

So, it is time to adopt accessibility and adhere to ADA since it will benefit your customers and your employees. Looking at people with disabilities as your customers.

Its time for businesses like Domino’s Pizza to look at the business opportunity of catering to this otherwise ignored audience.

At BarrierBreak, accessibility testing or accessibility audits is performed in order to meet ADA regulations. We assist our customers to ensure your product is accessible to all. Feel free to email us to know more about how you can adhere to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).