Accessibility: the overlooked growth lever in the age of AI

The rules of digital delivery have been rewritten. AI now shapes how digital experiences are designed, built and shipped. Portfolios are expanding. Websites, apps, documents and interfaces multiply faster than teams can manually govern. Every touchpoint now carries operational weight; each can introduce friction, risk or failure.

 

At scale, digital accessibility is a dependency. When it fails, it fails late – after sign-off, after build, right before launch, or worse, when it disrupts a user’s experience.

 

Campaigns pause. Costs spike. Momentum stalls.

 

Tightening regulations raise the stakes. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) now attaches concrete consequences to inaccessible delivery, from fines to products pulled from market and, in some cases, the loss of the right to trade in the EU.

 

The risk is no longer hypothetical. It’s operational.

 

In Level Access’s recent State of Digital Accessibility Report, based on insights from more than 1,600 professionals across the US, the UK and Europe, nearly two-thirds of respondents believe their business may face legal action related to accessibility in the next 12 months.

 

That expectation reflects what teams are already experiencing as accessibility issues surface inside delivery cycles.

 

“Accessibility cannot be understood as peripheral to delivery. It’s central to how delivery succeeds – or fails.”

 

Accessible digital experiences: the new growth lever

 

Given this context, many digital experience leaders may still view accessibility as a compliance issue. In reality, it’s also a pathway to stronger delivery and audience growth.

 

In fact, when approached proactively, accessibility not only keeps releases on track but also opens new markets. The UK’s disability community represents £274 billion in annual spending power – value that flows to organisations that ship accessible, usable experiences, consistently and at scale.

 

Our data reflects broad awareness of this connection between accessibility and performance:

• 89 per cent of professionals surveyed say digital accessibility is a competitive advantage
• 90 per cent say it contributes to improved customer satisfaction
• 75 per cent say it contributes to improved revenue

Clearly, accessibility creates value, but only when treated as part of how work gets done, not something addressed after delivery is already at risk.

 

If teams want to unlock growth, what’s stopping them from building accessibility in from the start?

 

Why digital accessibility breaks down

 

Accessibility programmes rarely fail for lack of commitment. They fail because they’re still being run on models built for a slower digital world.

 

Older approaches assumed accessibility could be checked periodically, in batches, or at the end of a release. But that logic collapses under the realities of continuous delivery.

 

This mismatch gives way to friction, and the same three gaps keep emerging. Teams struggle to find the accessibility risks that matter most, fix issues efficiently and prove progress to stakeholders.

 

It’s why the top reason professionals believe their organisation is at risk of accessibility-related legal action isn’t lack of understanding, but lack of process.

 

Proactive accessibility as a delivery accelerator

 

This is the moment where delivery models diverge. Organisations either embed accessibility into their workflows or remain locked in reactive mode.

 

One path locks organisations into a costly cycle of reactivity. Developers absorb regressions. Designers rework patterns already signed off. Content teams pause campaigns. Marketing leaders miss launch windows. Every issue becomes a blocker and a delay. 

 

The other path breaks that cycle.

 

When accessibility is approached proactively, it becomes an efficiency engine. Issues are surfaced before launch. Fixes are made in context. Campaigns land, and convert. Time-to-market becomes a strength, not a variable. 

 

For brands, awareness improves. SEO and UX strengthen. And content becomes discoverable in an AI-driven digital world where accessibility increasingly determines what gets found and surfaced in large language models (LLMs) and answer engines. 

 

This is maturity in motion. But it demands a new operating model.

 

Hybrid Intelligence: the key to operationalised accessibility 

 

“Hybrid Intelligence isn’t just an accessibility upgrade; it’s a growth strategy,” says Russ Webb, Vice President, Europe, Level Access. “The organisations that operationalise accessibility now will be the ones that compete and win in the next wave of digital experience.”  

 

The appetite for change is unmistakable. Our research indicates that leaders know the old models can’t keep pace with modern delivery. For example, more than four in five organisations now say they’re incorporating AI into their accessibility strategies, actively seeking AI capabilities when choosing solutions. 

 

Here’s the catch – AI adoption is not synonymous with efficiency. It’s compelling for what it promises: speed, scale, relief from manual burden. But on its own, AI isn’t enough. Without human oversight and an operating model to guide it, AI increases velocity, but not direction.

 

Hybrid Intelligence closes that gap by combining AI, platform automation and human expertise into a single continuous system.

 

As a feature moves from design to build to publishing, AI does the continuous work: scanning designs, code and content, comparing them against known failure patterns and surfacing risk as it appears.

 

A centralised accessibility platform turns those signals into action. It routes issues into the tools teams already use, sets up quality gates, tracks ownership and carries context from stage to stage so nothing gets lost between design, development and release.

 

Human experts define the accessibility standards to pursue, deciding what matters in real-world use and encoding judgment into the system. When AI flags an issue, humans assess impact, set priorities and direct the fix. When edge cases appear, experts resolve them and feed that learning back into the model.

 

At the point of delivery, risk has already been surfaced, routed, and resolved – because AI handled the scale, the platform kept it in flow and human expertise applied judgment.

 

This hybrid, continuous approach is the approach to shift accessibility from a post-release check-box to a built-in part of delivery enabling speed, scale and accountability.

 

The future of digital experience is accessible by default

 

The digital landscape is rapidly evolving. In that context, operationalised, proactive accessibility is now a key capability of high-performing businesses.

 

Accessible digital experiences aren’t defined by how fast teams ship or the level of polish on an interface. They’re defined by who can use the products and services you build, consistently and without friction.

 

The next wave of digital leaders will build accessible experiences for every user, by default, as the new baseline for modern delivery.

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To understand how leading organisations are turning digital accessibility into business growth, access your copy of The Seventh Annual State of Digital Accessibility Report.