Digital accessibility: a legal duty, an inclusive opportunity

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”

— Tim Berners-Lee

Executive summary

Digital accessibility is establishing itself as a legal obligation, a competitive advantage and an ethical responsibility for companies that build digital products.

Ensuring accessibility doesn’t just avoid legal penalties; it improves the user experience, broadens the product’s reach and strengthens brand reputation. Designing inclusively from the start, meeting WCAG standards, testing with diverse users and documenting properly are key practices for getting there.

In addition, artificial intelligence is emerging as an ally for personalizing experiences, detecting barriers and offering new ways to interact, such as voice navigation or automatically generated descriptions.

Digital accessibility isn’t an extra: it’s a right. And it’s also an opportunity to build fairer, more efficient and more sustainable products for everyone.

A ruling that sets a global trend

In a ruling by a federal court in Minnesota (USA), websites were held to be “places of public accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). What does this mean? That companies are legally required to make sure their sites are accessible to everyone, including people with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor disabilities.

This precedent isn’t an isolated case. In Europe, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires compliance with mandatory standards by June 28, 2025. In Latin America, several national regulations are moving to align with international criteria such as the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

Why digital accessibility isn’t optional

Designing accessible products doesn’t just avoid lawsuits and penalties. It also improves the user experience, broadens the product’s reach and strengthens brand reputation. What’s more, it:

• Helps SEO rankings (clear structure, correct tags, clean navigation).
• Reduces the abandonment rate.
• Increases loyalty by offering inclusive, understandable experiences.
• Improves speed and efficiency of use, especially in contexts with temporary or situational limitations (for example, bright sunlight or background noise).

Accessibility benefits far more people than we tend to imagine. It isn’t only about people with permanent disabilities, but also older people, people with temporary injuries and even anyone using a product in less-than-ideal conditions.

How to get started? Concrete actions for your team

1. Inclusive design from the start

Build accessibility principles into wireframes and prototypes. Tools such as the Include plugin for Figma let you document key elements like heading hierarchy, focus order and alt text. That way, the handoff to development is clearer and fewer accessibility criteria get lost along the way.

2. Alignment with the WCAG

Make sure your site meets WCAG standards such as:

• Adequate color contrast
• Keyboard navigation
• Alt text on images
• Captions on video
• Correctly labeled forms

In addition, organize content hierarchically with semantic HTML tags such as <main>, <article>, <nav>, <header> and headings <h1> to <h6> to improve both accessibility and SEO.

3. Testing with real users

Involving people with disabilities in usability testing uncovers real barriers that an automated audit doesn’t always reveal. It’s also an excellent opportunity to check whether the language, flows and interactions are intuitive and understandable.

4. More inclusive research

• Diverse recruitment: Consider different ages, levels of digital access, disabilities and neurodivergent profiles.
• Accessible tools: Make sure interviews and tests can be carried out with screen readers or interpreters.
• Universal design: Simplify flows, avoid unnecessary jargon and offer content in multiple formats.

5. Unbiased analysis

Break down the results by segment to spot possible accessibility gaps. And, very importantly, don’t interpret difficulties as user errors, but as opportunities to improve the design.

AI + digital accessibility: a powerful duo

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we design digital products. It can be a great ally to:

• Automatically describe images for screen readers.
• Detect low visual contrast or confusing hierarchies.
• Summarize complex texts to improve comprehension.
• Offer voice navigation or audio reading of content.
• Personalize the experience to the user’s preferences.

AI also makes it possible to simulate navigation with barriers, to anticipate problems that might go unnoticed in traditional testing.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What happens if my site isn’t accessible? You could face legal penalties, especially if you’re in regulated sectors such as banking, healthcare, education or e-commerce. You’ll also lose potential users and brand credibility.

Are automated tools enough? No. Although tools like accessiBe, WAVE or Axe are useful, they need to be complemented by manual evaluations and validation with real users.

Which standards should I follow? WCAG 2.1 is the most widely recognized worldwide.

Does accessibility improve SEO? Yes. A well-structured site, with clear tags, logical navigation and understandable content, tends to rank better in search engines.

In short:

Digital accessibility isn’t just a trend or a design “extra.” It’s a legal, social and strategic responsibility. From design and development to testing and continuous improvement, creating inclusive experiences is key to more human, sustainable and successful products.

An inclusive web is a web for everyone.

Contact our experts: If you want to know where to start or how to audit your current product, we can help.

Discover our solutions: Explore how our capabilities in development, UX design, AI, data, cloud and DevOps can strengthen your company.