Accessibility isn’t just a checklist—it’s core to product quality, market reach, legal risk management, and brand trust. Making SaaS usable for people with disabilities improves usability for everyone, reduces churn, and opens doors to enterprise and public-sector deals that mandate accessible software.
The business case
- Larger addressable market
- Roughly 1 in 6 people live with a disability; building inclusive products broadens adoption across users with permanent, temporary, and situational limitations.
- Enterprise and public-sector readiness
- Many procurements require conformance to standards (e.g., WCAG 2.2 AA) and accessibility documentation (e.g., VPAT/ACR), making accessibility a revenue enabler rather than a cost.
- Reduced support and churn
- Clear structure, keyboard operability, and readable content lower user error and support tickets, improving retention across all users.
- Legal and reputational risk
- Accessibility gaps can trigger complaints and litigation; proactive conformance and transparent roadmaps mitigate exposure and signal responsibility.
What great accessibility looks like in SaaS
- Perceivable, operable, understandable, robust
- Semantic HTML, proper landmarks and headings, labels tied to inputs, sufficient color contrast, resizable text, captions/transcripts, and clear focus indicators.
- Keyboard-first and assistive-tech friendly
- Full keyboard navigation, logical tab order, visible focus, skip links, and ARIA used sparingly and correctly to complement—not replace—native semantics.
- Error-tolerant forms and flows
- Clear instructions, inline validation with accessible messaging, persistent error summaries, and undo/confirm patterns for destructive actions.
- Motion and cognitive considerations
- Reduced motion modes, predictable navigation, plain language, chunked content, and options to disable auto-refresh or looping animations.
- Responsive and resilient layouts
- Works across zoom levels (up to 200%+), high contrast modes, screen sizes, and input methods; avoids text embedded in images.
- Localization and cultural accessibility
- Supports right-to-left (RTL) layouts, locale-aware formats, and basic reading level variants; avoids idioms that don’t translate well.
Engineering and design foundations
- Design system with accessibility baked in
- Tokenized colors with contrast guarantees, accessible components (buttons, modals, menus, tabs, toasts, tables), and usage docs with do/don’t examples.
- Semantic-first development
- Prefer native elements; ensure name/role/value are programmatically determinable; manage focus explicitly in modals and dynamic updates (aria-live).
- Media and docs
- Captions and transcripts for audio/video, audio descriptions where needed, keyboard-accessible players, and accessible PDFs or HTML alternatives.
- Performance as accessibility
- Fast load, minimal layout shift, and offline/low-bandwidth fallbacks benefit screen readers and cognitive accessibility.
Testing and validation
- Shift-left checks
- Figma/UX linting for color contrast and focus states; component-level a11y unit tests and Storybook accessibility checks.
- Automated + manual testing
- Linters (axe, eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y), CI checks for WCAG rules, and scheduled manual audits with screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) and keyboard-only passes.
- Real user feedback
- Test with users of assistive technologies; maintain an accessibility issue label and SLA; offer an easy “Report an accessibility issue” path.
- Documentation and proof
- Maintain a VPAT/ACR, publish an accessibility statement with scope and roadmap, and track conformance across versions.
Product and content practices
- Clear, consistent navigation
- Persistent headers, breadcrumbs, and descriptive link text; avoid “Click here” anchors—use meaningful labels.
- Inclusive content
- Plain language, alt text that conveys intent, meaningful headings, and predictable UI copy; avoid relying solely on color for meaning.
- Notifications and status
- Announce dynamic changes via aria-live regions; provide non-audio cues; allow users to review missed alerts.
- Data-dense views
- Accessible tables with headers, scopes, summaries; keyboard-accessible filters and pagination; export options for alternative analysis.
AI and accessibility
- Assistive creation
- Use AI to draft alt text, captions, transcripts, and simpler reading-level versions—with human review for accuracy and tone.
- Personalization
- Per-user accessibility preferences (font size, line spacing, contrast, motion, language) saved across devices; AI suggests enabling options based on behavior.
- Guardrails
- Ensure AI-generated content meets contrast/readability and avoids biased or non-inclusive language; keep humans in the loop for critical content.
Governance and operations
- Ownership and accountability
- Name an accessibility lead; set OKRs (e.g., WCAG 2.2 AA coverage for top journeys); include accessibility in Definition of Done.
- Training and culture
- Regular training for designers, engineers, PMs, and writers; add accessibility reviews to design crit and code review checklists.
- Procurement and vendor management
- Evaluate third-party components and SDKs for accessibility; require VPATs; avoid adopting inaccessible dependencies.
- Continuous improvement
- Monitor telemetry for keyboard usage, zoom, and high-contrast preferences (with consent); prioritize defects affecting critical flows.
Measuring impact
- Conformance and quality
- % of critical flows meeting WCAG 2.2 AA, automated violation trend, and manual audit pass rates.
- User experience
- Task completion and time-on-task for keyboard and screen-reader users; accessibility CSAT and issue resolution time.
- Business outcomes
- Enterprise deal velocity where accessibility is a requirement, public-sector wins, support ticket reduction, and retention improvements.
- Operational maturity
- VPAT/ACR freshness, accessibility coverage in design system, training completion, and a11y bug SLA adherence.
60–90 day accessibility acceleration plan
- Days 0–30: Baseline and priorities
- Audit top 5 user journeys; fix high-severity issues (focus traps, missing labels, contrast). Publish an accessibility statement and bug-report channel.
- Days 31–60: Systematize
- Ship accessible core components in the design system; add CI linting and Storybook a11y tests; document patterns for forms, modals, tables, and navigation.
- Days 61–90: Scale and prove
- Conduct a screen-reader/keyboard audit; close gaps; update VPAT/ACR; train teams; add user preferences (contrast, motion, font size); start quarterly audits.
Common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)
- Treating accessibility as a one-off fix
- Fix: bake into design system, CI, and Definition of Done; schedule recurring audits.
- Overusing ARIA to patch poor HTML
- Fix: prefer native elements; add ARIA only when necessary and valid.
- Ignoring keyboard and focus management
- Fix: test keyboard-only; manage focus in modals/menus; provide visible focus outlines.
- Color-only signaling and low contrast
- Fix: add patterns/icons/labels; enforce contrast tokens and automated checks.
- Inaccessible third-party widgets
- Fix: choose accessible libraries; wrap or replace non-compliant widgets; include in vendor assessments.
Executive takeaways
- Accessibility is product excellence: it expands market reach, reduces risk, and improves usability for everyone.
- Institutionalize accessibility with a design system, CI checks, and ownership; prioritize critical flows and keep a living VPAT and public statement.
- Invest in inclusive content, keyboard-first UX, assistive-tech testing, and user preferences; measure conformance and business impact to make accessibility a durable competitive advantage.