What is digital accessibility really good for? Facts and Figures

Who benefits from digital accessibility?

Digital accessibility affects far more people than many assume:

• 1.3 billion people worldwide, around 16% of the global population, live with a significant disability, according to the World Health Organization.

• 90 million people in the EU aged 16 and over have a disability – around one in four adults, according to Eurostat figures published by the Council of the EU.

• 26% of adults aged 16 to 65 in the countries taking part in the latest OECD Survey of Adult Skills read at the lowest level or below.

On top of that come many older people and people with temporary impairments, such as a broken arm. Accessible websites also help anyone using a phone in bright sunlight or watching a video without sound.

How accessible is the web today?

The short answer: not very. The WebAIM Million 2026, an annual analysis of the home pages of the top one million websites, shows that the situation has even got worse:

• 95.9% of home pages had detectable WCAG failures, up from 94.8% in 2025.

• 56.1 errors per home page on average, up from 51.

• 83.9% of home pages had text with low contrast.

• 53.1% of home pages had images without alt text.

• 51% of home pages had form fields without labels.

Online shops are no exception. A test by Aktion Mensch from June 2025 found that only 20 of the 65 most-visited online shops in Germany could be used entirely with a keyboard.

The good news: most of these errors are well known and can be fixed. Our guides on alt text and accessible forms show how.

What accessibility brings businesses

Accessibility is not only an ethical and legal question. It also pays off. In a study by Capterra from July 2024 with 2,748 respondents in 11 countries:

• 74% believed their company had already lost customers because of missing accessibility features.

• 80% said accessibility had a high or very high priority in their company.

• 53% of companies with accessibility features reported better customer loyalty.

• 39% saw improved SEO performance and a larger audience.

• 39% reported better social media performance.

The economic potential is considerable. In the UK alone, the charity Scope estimated the spending power of disabled people and their households – the so-called purple pound – at £274 billion a year in 2019. Businesses with inaccessible websites leave much of this potential untapped. Our article on the cost of an inaccessible website looks at this in more detail.

Where German companies stand

The Capterra study also looked at Germany in detail. 79% of the German companies surveyed offered at least some accessibility features on their websites. The most common were:

• adjustable text size, zoom or highlighting (50%)

• captions and transcripts for videos (49%)

• text-to-speech (42%)

• screen reader compatibility, descriptive links and keyboard navigation (40% each)

• colour and contrast adjustments (39%)

• alt text for images and removing blinking elements (32% each)

The figures show that many companies have started, but few have implemented accessibility consistently. Alt text, one of the most basic requirements, was only offered by about a third.

At the time of the survey, a year before the European Accessibility Act came into force, only 36% of websites already met its requirements. 42% had a plan that had not yet been implemented, and 14% had no plans at all.

Accessibility is now a legal requirement

Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) has required many digital products and services in the EU to be accessible, for example online shops, banking services, e-books and passenger transport services. In Germany, it was implemented through the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG). The technical basis is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the European standard EN 301 549.

Public sector websites in the EU have had to be accessible for several years already. Companies that do not comply risk complaints, warnings from competitors and fines. How companies are doing more than a year after the deadline is covered in our article one year of the EAA.

The most common challenges

Why is digital accessibility still not standard? Companies most often name these hurdles:

• Technical complexity: Older websites and systems were not built with accessibility in mind. Retrofitting them takes time.

• Lack of awareness: Many teams do not know how people with disabilities use the web, which barriers exist and which ones they create themselves.

• Unclear return on investment: The costs are visible immediately, while the benefits – more customers, better SEO, fewer legal risks – show over time.

• Ongoing effort: Every new page, image or form can create new barriers. Accessibility is not a one-off project.

How to get started

These steps help you make your website accessible and keep it that way:

1. Check whether you are affected: Find out which of your products and services fall under the EAA and the national laws in your markets.

2. Test your website: An automated test shows typical errors quickly. A manual audit covers what tools cannot judge.

3. Fix the most important barriers: Start with frequent errors such as missing alt text, low contrast and unlabelled forms.

4. Adapt your processes: Make accessibility part of design, development and content creation from the start.

5. Publish an accessibility statement: Describe how accessible your website is and how users can report barriers. Our article on the accessibility statement explains what it must contain.

6. Monitor continuously: Regular checks make sure new content does not create new barriers.

AI can help with many of these steps, for example with generating alt text or simplifying texts. It does not replace human review, though. Our article on plain language with AI shows where the limits are.

How Eye-Able supports companies

Eye-Able combines testing, remediation and support for users in one platform. Eye-Able Audit & Report checks websites against the WCAG and documents the results. Eye-Able Assist lets visitors adjust the display to their needs, for example font size and contrast. Eye-Able Plain Language and Eye-Able Translation make content easier to understand and available in other languages. The AI assistant Ally supports teams in fixing errors.

Conclusion

The figures speak for themselves: millions of people depend on accessible websites, yet almost every website still has barriers. At the same time, accessibility pays off – through more customers, better customer loyalty and better visibility in search engines. Since the European Accessibility Act came into force, it has also become a legal requirement for many companies. Now is the right time to get started.

Curious how accessible your own website is? Our free accessibility check gives you a first overview in less than 2 minutes.

FAQ: digital accessibility facts and figures

How many people benefit from digital accessibility?

According to the WHO, around 1.3 billion people worldwide live with a significant disability. In the EU, around 90 million people aged 16 and over have a disability. Many older people and people with temporary impairments also benefit from accessible websites.

How accessible are websites today?

Not very. According to the WebAIM Million 2026, 95.9% of the top one million home pages had detectable WCAG failures, with an average of 56.1 errors per page. The most common problems were low contrast, missing alt text and unlabelled form fields.

Does digital accessibility pay off for businesses?

Yes. In a Capterra study from 2024, 74% of respondents believed their company had lost customers due to missing accessibility features. Companies with accessibility features reported better customer loyalty (53%) and improved SEO (39%).

Is digital accessibility mandatory?

For many companies, yes. Since 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act has required many digital products and services in the EU to be accessible, including online shops and banking services. Public sector websites have had to be accessible for longer.

What are the most common accessibility errors?

According to the WebAIM Million 2026, the most common errors include low contrast, missing alt text for images and unlabelled form fields. The same few types of errors have topped the list for years – and many of them can be fixed with little effort.