Digital Accessibility - A Win-Win for Humans and Businesses
SFDBA is launching its Accessibility Awareness Initiative, a bold step toward fostering digital inclusion while helping businesses expand their reach in the disability community.
A Win-Win situation
✔️ For Businesses -> Opportunity to expand their audience by over 25% (considering that 1 in 4 Americans has a disability) and engage a loyal customer base representing $13 trillion of annual disposable income.
✔ ️ For the Disability Community -> Equal access to online resources and tools that support their careers, self-employment, education and well-being.
For SFDBA, accessibility has always been a priority
SFDBA helps individuals with disabilities achieve independence and economic self-sufficiency through small business ownership and entrepreneurship, so no need to explain that accessibility is fundamental to its operations of training and assisting future entrepreneurs and new business owners regardless of their disabilities. Since its inception, the Alliance has been using an AI-powered solution from accessiBe to monitor its web compliance with accessibility standards and enable its constituents to access its online information and resources. SFDBA has also joined AccessiBe's Nonprofit Partnership Program to leverage marketing collaborations, amplifying its voice and reaching a wider audience. As part of this collaboration, Peter DeHaas, SFDBA Founder & Executive Director, was featured in AccessiBe’s Spotlight Series which is available on Youtube and where he discusses the programs and outcomes of the Alliance. “We are proud to be part of this community of 600 nonprofits that promote accessibility” said DeHaas “and to join the global effort towards a more inclusive digital landscape.”
For Businesses, Accessibility is a Growth Strategy
The main goal of the SFDBA Accessibility Awareness initiative is to educate business owners about the value of creating inclusive digital experiences and provide them with practical steps to enhance their accessibility efforts. If one can capture the need and obligation to be inclusive as a human and empathetic thing to do, they often do not realize how much it can augment an audience, drive customer engagement, and increase brand loyalty. Thankfully we have industry leaders deploying Accessibility Initiatives like Walmart and Waymo, but SFDBA wants to send the message to small business and non-profit institutions that Accessibility can be achieved with affordable solutions and quick return on investment. The effort of improving a website with a simpler navigation and content also has beneficial side effects like the engagement of multi-lingual audiences and a better SEO ranking. Besides, targeted campaigns among local businesses of the Bay Area, the SFDBA next public advocacy event will be a panel discussion during Small Business Week 2025 hosted at the San Francisco Public Library on May 8th bringing together experts, business leaders and members of the disability community to discuss Accessibility as a human-centric and business-focused initiative.
Audit your website to see where your business stands
Recognizing the challenges that small businesses and nonprofits face in navigating accessibility requirements, SFDBA has taken the first step of offering a Free Website Accessibility Audit which allows to assess the compliance of a web domain in a few seconds and identify potential barriers such as poor contrast, lack of captions, complex navigation and content structure. "Providing a free accessibility audit is a major milestone toward engaging small businesses and nonprofits in the movement for digital inclusion while expanding their market reach.," said DeHaas. Organizations can use the detailed report generated by the audit to correct their website manually or can acquire tools like the AccessWidget from AccessiBe to do the correction and continuous monitoring. Non-profit organizations can usually benefit from discounts and even free subscriptions if their business is disability-centric. Ultimately, the decision depends on the organization's specific needs, budget, and long-term accessibility goals. A hybrid approach, where an off-the-shelf tool is used for quick wins and basic compliance while an in-house team handles complex issues, might also be an option worth considering.
The time to act is now
Take the first step toward inclusivity with a free Audit that you can launch from our website HERE.
Empower everyone to engage with your brand—regardless of their abilities
Together, let’s build a digital world that works for all
