Executive Summary
The digital experience has become central to every industry, and customers want seamless, optimized interactions with brands they trust. For many businesses and their partners, meeting the needs of a global customer base is challenging. Often, they lack the internal knowledge, infrastructure, and strategy to deliver an ideal experience to all customers. The result is that millions of people who are blind or have low vision encounter digital spaces that remain difficult or impossible to use.
Businesses may overlook accessibility considerations for disabled users, not out of disregard, but because it’s a challenging area to get right. Yet, this is a key market demographic that deserves the same effortless experience as other customers. There are millions of people worldwide living with blindness and low vision. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 2.2 billion people worldwide live with near or distance vision impairment.
These staggering numbers represent a vast and often overlooked audience navigating a digital world built primarily for sighted users. And this population is only growing: by 2050, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) projects a sharp rise in global vision loss. For these customers, a lack of accessibility creates challenges to technical adoption and impacts loyalty.
The opportunity for businesses to earn lasting trust and loyalty from this underserved market is both urgent and immense. By prioritizing digital accessibility, organizations can unlock increased revenue, stronger customer loyalty, enhanced brand reputation, legal protection, and a distinct competitive edge.
This white paper provides insights into the challenges surrounding digital accessibility, including:
- Barriers to rolling out assistive technology (AT) and technical adoption
- How the digital divide impacts loyalty and customer retention
- The strategic brand benefits of turning accessibility into a differentiator.
This paper is designed for acquisition partners, executive stakeholders, and integration teams looking to strengthen their brand, reach untapped markets, and drive business growth by embracing accessibility as a strategic advantage.