Access Network Equality - Disabled Access

Does your business have a website? If it does it should be accessible to disabled users. There are ethical and commercial reasons for this, but there is also a legal reason: if your website does not offer disabled access, then you could be sued for discrimination.

By having a website that can be accessed by disabled people you open your business up to a whole new market worth £80 billion a year and unlike the able bodied market disabled income is fixed and guaranteed so it’s a recession proof market.

· Disabled consumers are a significant but poorly addressed market worth £80 billion p.a.
· For an average business disabled customers may account for up to 20% of the customer base.
· A survey of disabled consumers’ buying patterns revealed that a staggering proportion, 83%, had to take their custom elsewhere, to a more accessible competitor.

Bullet points are from 2012 Legacy for Disabled People report published by BIS