InklusivComm™
Did You Know?

Disabilities come in many shapes and forms, but not all of them are always obvious to the onlooker! According to the Invisible Disabilities Association, 74% of people who have disabilities don’t require assistive technologies but still deal with conditions ranging from mild challenges to severe limitations that limit their daily activities. Conditions the rest of us would not be aware of unless they actually told us.

Could it be that your audience is more diverse than you think?

Combined, working-age adults with disabilities and those over the age of 65 make up for about 40% of the entire population, meaning that more than a third of our fellow citizens fall in either category. Despite appearances, this underserved market is NOT a minority. Catering to their needs and expectations can only result in increased revenue growth for your business.

Wouldn’t you agree this is a market worth tapping into?

The cost of a relatively simple accessibility-related lawsuit that gets settled quickly in the United States still averages around $350,000 USD or more… which is at least 10 times more expensive than creating your digital content to be more inclusive in the first place by making digital accessibility an integral part of your design and development process.

Does it really make sense for your business to run such risks?

In 2021, many companies have received multiple ADA-based lawsuits. Often, the first lawsuit is for the website and the second for a mobile app. Additional lawsuits have been filed against the same website, app, or against another related brand in the case of a holding company. In some instances, the same website receives lawsuits from different plaintiffs.

Can you imagine the damage to your brand, if you were caught on the wrong side of a lawsuit?

According to 2021 data from the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the total after-tax disposable income of working-age Americans with disabilities is about $504 billion USD per year, which is on par with other incredibly significant American segments, such as the Black ($501B USD) and Latinx ($582B USD) communities.

Can your business truly afford to neglect the expectations and needs of the population living with various disabilities or impairments?

Findings from the Conference Board of Canada suggest that the share of people with disabilities in the overall Canadian consumer market will rise sharply over the coming years. In 2017, the consumer market for Canadians with physical disabilities made up about $165 billion CAD or 14.3% of the total consumer market in the country. By 2030, this share will reach 21%, with spending rising to $316 billion CAD annually.

Is your business even aware of this untapped market?

Accessibility-related lawsuits are on the rise, and show no signs of slowing down! In 2021 alone, a total of 4,055 lawsuits were filed against American businesses, on the basis of their digital content not being inclusive of people with disabilities, for an average of over 10 lawsuits every single day. Of those businesses, over 500 were sued multiple times.

This was a 15% increase over the 2020 data. Is your own organization facing similar legal risks?