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Get Report2026
Accessibility Advantage Report
The Gap Between Compliance Goals and Organizational Readiness
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Executive Summary
Businesses increasingly recognize the need for accessibility compliance, but many lack the systems, expertise, and structure to achieve it. This report explores how organizations turning compliance intent into capability are improving both protection and performance.
Digital accessibility has reached a tipping point. Regulations are tightening, lawsuits are rising, and customers expect accessible experiences. Yet most organizations are not equipped to achieve full accessibility compliance.
The 2026 Accessibility Advantage Report examines why so many businesses recognize the legal and reputational importance of accessibility but struggle to deliver it consistently. Conducted by AudioEye, the report surveyed more than 400 business leaders, including C-suite executives, VPs, and directors, to understand how accessibility fits into their digital strategy, what challenges persist, and how the most successful teams are driving measurable results.
Nearly six in ten business leaders (59%) say their organization would be at legal risk if audited today, and more than half (52%) have already faced accessibility-related lawsuits or threats. According to AudioEye’s 2025 Digital Accessibility Index, the average web page still contains 297 accessibility issues, which is clear evidence that compliance gaps remain pervasive even among organizations investing in accessibility.
Many accessibility programs still rely on reactive processes instead of sustainable systems, causing progress to stall at partial compliance. As a result, companies expose themselves to unnecessary legal risk and lose opportunities to improve user experience and brand trust.
This gap signals a pivotal moment: compliance remains the primary motivator, but the organizations making real progress are those building the expertise, accountability, and operational systems to support continuous accessibility. In doing so, they’re transforming accessibility from a legal obligation into a measurable business advantage.
A Defining Shift — and the Challenges That Come With It
Most accessibility programs begin with the goal of meeting compliance standards. But as organizations make progress, they start to recognize that compliant websites lead to better experiences for customers and growth in business outcomes.
Still, structural challenges persist. Tight budgets, limited expertise, and disconnected systems prevent many teams from achieving consistent results. Accessibility remains too often treated as a one-time project instead of an ongoing practice embedded into design, development, and content workflows.
This report explores both sides of that reality: the momentum that’s building and the barriers that remain. Three core insights emerged:
1. Compliance remains the foundation but leaders are turning it into a business advantage.
Organizations that invest in accessibility early are already seeing measurable benefits, including improved usability, stronger brand trust, and growth.
2. Good intentions aren’t enough.
More than half of business leaders say they “actively champion accessibility,” yet the same percentage cite low budgets and limited expertise as barriers. Many programs stall because accessibility isn’t built into daily workflows or shared across departments.
3. Ownership without capability creates illusion, not impact.
Nearly half of organizations manage accessibility in-house, yet most admit they lack the specialized skills to sustain progress.
Across these findings, a common thread emerges: businesses care about accessibility but remain constrained by systems that weren’t designed to sustain and scale as their websites evolve. As global regulations tighten and customer expectations rise, the organizations that succeed will be those that confront these structural barriers, building the expertise, infrastructure, and culture to make accessibility sustainable.
Accessibility begins as compliance, but it endures because it drives growth. Businesses that bridge the gap between legal obligation and strategic opportunity will not only reduce risk but also deliver better experiences, stronger brands, and measurable business advantage.
From Compliance to Competitive Advantage
For most organizations, the accessibility journey starts with risk management.
Nearly six in ten business leaders (59%) say their company would be at legal risk if audited today, and more than half (52%) have already faced accessibility-related lawsuits or threats. According to AudioEye’s 2025 Digital Accessibility Index (DAI), which analyzed more than 15,000 websites, the average web page still contains 297 accessibility issues, which is clear evidence that the odds of non-compliance remain high even for well-intentioned organizations.
With new global standards such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) already in place, 65% of leaders say that a clear legal mandate would accelerate efforts, showing that compliance remains the spark that ignites accessibility efforts.
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But what happens next is far more interesting.
Once organizations begin investing in accessibility, they quickly realize the benefits go far beyond compliance and risk mitigation. Over half of leaders (58%) now cite accessibility as a business growth opportunity. Accessibility improvements lead to better user experiences, stronger brand trust, and measurable business outcomes.
61%
believe accessibility gives their brand a competitive edge
42%
report increased website traffic
35%
believe accessibility improves site navigation and overall user experience
These findings highlight a pivotal shift: accessibility is evolving from a compliance checkbox to a business growth driver. When organizations focus on accessibility as part of customer experience, they see tangible returns across key marketing performance indicators.
In essence, accessibility is no longer just about avoiding lawsuits; it’s about unlocking audiences. Roughly one in four adults lives with a disability, and as the population ages, that number is rising. Accessible digital experiences don’t only serve those users. They make sites faster, more intuitive, and more usable for everyone.
The organizations that lead in accessibility recognize it as a performance multiplier. It improves discoverability through better site structure and cleaner code, reduces friction in the buyers journey, and strengthens brand loyalty by demonstrating inclusion in action.
Compliance may open the door, but sustained accessibility keeps you competitive. The most successful organizations view accessibility as both protection and opportunity: it safeguards the brand while expanding reach, trust, and revenue potential.
Opportunity
Turning compliance into a competitive advantage starts with understanding how inaccessible your site is, and the impact that may have on all users.
1. Benchmark Your Risk
Establish a clear, data-driven picture of your current accessibility health. Identify high-risk issues and understand how they impact user experience and legal exposure. AudioEye’s Site Scanner can help teams baseline accessibility across digital properties.
2. Embed Accessibility in Growth Strategy.
Integrate accessibility into product design, content strategy, and brand initiatives from the start. The organizations seeing the strongest ROI are those that treat accessibility as a catalyst for innovation, not a cost of compliance.
Part 2: The “Yet” Problem
When Good Intentions Fall Short
Turning compliance into a competitive advantage starts with understanding how inaccessible your site is, and the impact that may have on all users.
52%
say they “actively champion accessibility"
yet 58%
of those respondents report low accessibility budgets.
44%
manage accessibility entirely in-house,
yet 64%
of those respondents admit they lack internal expertise.
62%
believe customers have abandoned transactions due to accessibility issues,
yet 50%
say uncertainty around ROI is preventing broader accessibility investment.
These contradictions reveal a deeper truth: accessibility isn’t failing because organizations don’t care. It’s failing because the systems that support it weren’t built for the people doing the work. Developers, designers, and content creators are already managing heavy workloads and tight deadlines. When accessibility isn’t integrated into their everyday tools and processes, it becomes an added layer of complexity with extra steps, extra time, and extra cost.
Accessibility is often treated as a project to complete rather than a practice to maintain. Many organizations pursue compliance milestones or quick fixes without building the systems and skills to sustain progress. The result is patchwork accessibility, programs that appear compliant on paper but fail users in practice.
To make lasting progress, accessibility must move from an aspiration to an operational habit. That means giving teams what they need to implement, maintain, and measure accessibility efficiently: better tools, simpler processes, and clearer accountability across departments.
And here’s the reality: until people have the tools and workflows that let them succeed alongside their other priorities — not in competition with them — accessibility will always be the thing that comes after the “yet.”
The “Yet” Problem underscores the gap between intent and execution — a gap that adds friction and lost time for the very teams trying to make accessibility real. Goodwill alone doesn’t deliver progress; systems do. To turn intent into impact, organizations must align their strategy with the practical realities of implementation, making accessibility easier to design, build, and track across every digital touchpoint.
Opportunity:
To close the “Yet” gap, organizations need to elevate accessibility from a compliance cost to a growth opportunity to secure adequate budget and internal resources. Start by quantifying impact and show that accessibility improvements drive traffic, reduce abandonment, and expand total addressable market.
1. Build a Business Case for Accessibility Investment
Demonstrate how building accessible experiences improves the user experience and can have a positive business impact.
2. Invest in Capability.
Build internal fluency in accessibility across design, development, and content teams. Invest in learning resources and certifications that upskill employees and create shared accountability. (AudioEye Learning provides one example of how organizations can accelerate that journey at scale.)
Part 3: The In-House Illusion
When “Owning Accessibility” Holds Companies Back
Even when leaders have the right intent and better tools, progress often stalls for another reason: the belief that accessibility must be managed entirely in-house. It’s a logical goal. After all, ownership implies control, accountability, and cultural commitment. But AudioEye’s 2026 survey data reveals a different reality: owning accessibility and being capable of delivering it are not the same thing.
We call this disconnect as ‘The In-House Illusion,’ or the belief that managing accessibility internally equates to meaningful progress. In practice, most teams discover that their ownership ambitions and needs outpace their expertise, bandwidth and infrastructure.
According to our findings:
44%
of organizations manage accessibility entirely in-house
36%
use a hybrid approach
Only 9%
rely fully on external partners
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Yet half of respondents (50%) admit their teams lack internal accessibility expertise, and 43% cite competing priorities as a major barrier. The result: what appears to be ownership on paper often amounts to stalled progress in reality. Only 47% of organizations describe their programs as “proactive,” while the rest operate reactively or meet only the bare legal minimum.
This illusion persists because many organizations equate ownership with control, and control with efficiency. In reality, accessibility is a specialized, evolving discipline. Designers may understand visual hierarchy but not semantic structure for assistive technologies. Developers may prioritize speed over inclusive code. Marketers may craft content optimized for SEO but not for screen readers. Without cross-functional expertise and external guidance, well-intentioned teams end up doing more work for less impact and struggle to scale.
True ownership doesn’t mean doing everything yourself. It means knowing where to partner, automate, and delegate. Mature organizations recognize that progress depends on balance: internal accountability paired with trusted partners who can extend capacity, bring specialized knowledge, and sustain momentum over time.
The organizations that advance fastest rethink ownership altogether. They treat accessibility as a system to orchestrate, not a silo to control. Mature programs often blend automation with expert reviews and internal champions with external partners.
They recognize that progress depends on the right balance, not the illusion of self-sufficiency.
Opportunity
To move beyond the In-House Illusion, organizations can:
Audit Capability, Not Just Commitment.
Assess whether your team has the time, skills, and tools to sustain accessibility at scale. Identify gaps early and treat them as business priorities.
Adopt a Hybrid Model.
Combine internal accountability with trusted partners who provide specialized expertise and continuous monitoring. External collaboration doesn’t dilute ownership — it strengthens it.
Conclusion: The Path Forward
Turning Compliance into Opportunity
For many organizations, digital accessibility remains an area of low visibility. Something they acknowledge matters but haven’t yet connected to business outcomes. Hopefully, these findings help raise awareness of just how pivotal accessibility has become to modern digital strategy.
Teams are juggling too many priorities. Developers, designers, and content creators want to do the right thing, but they’re stretched thin, moving fast, shipping constantly, and working within systems that were never designed to make accessibility easy. The result is a cycle of good intentions undone by practical constraints.
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Until organizations rethink how accessibility fits into their workflows, and until they make it easier for employees to incorporate accessibility, it will continue to be deprioritized as the task that comes after the “yet.”
But the solution is within reach.
The companies leading the way are the ones that have recognized accessibility for what it truly is: an investment that drives growth, performance, and innovation. They’re not simply checking boxes; they’re building scalable systems of accountability that make accessibility part of everyday work.
They’re learning that it doesn’t have to (and in many cases shouldn’t) be done alone.
The most mature programs blend internal ownership with expert partnership, pairing automation and continuous monitoring with human insight and specialized guidance. This hybrid approach helps teams move faster, close expertise gaps, and stay ahead of new standards, all while achieving stronger compliance and protection at a fraction of the cost of managing accessibility entirely in-house.
The future of accessibility as both a compliance solution and a business driver belongs to the organizations that make it sustainable. Those that invest in the right mix of people, processes, and partners will not only meet compliance requirements, they’ll lead their industries in usability, customer experience, and brand trust.
Where AudioEye fits
The findings of this report make one thing clear: accessibility progress depends on more than intent. It requires systems, expertise, and accountability that empower teams to act confidently and consistently. That’s where AudioEye fits.
AudioEye helps organizations bridge the gap between awareness and enablement. Our hybrid approach combines automation, expert reviews, custom fixes, and developer tools to help teams identify, resolve, and prevent accessibility issues at scale.
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Two colleagues working at a computer helping customers achieve and maintain website accessibility.
Just as important, we focus on building internal capability. AudioEye enables your team to measure progress, track impact, and embed accessibility into everyday workflows — turning it from a compliance obligation into a source of competitive advantage.
Whether you’re taking your first step or scaling an existing program, AudioEye provides the tools, insights, and partnership to make accessibility sustainable — and to make inclusion part of how your business grows.
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