There are over 8.5 million disabled people in the UK, and the Disability Discrimination Act places legal obligations on companies to treat them in the same way as the ablebodied. This equal treatment and service provision extends to products and services provided by electronic means, and is currently receiving considerable focus. In addition, many other users have special needs and preferences for web access, such as those using speech recognition software while driving, for example.

As well as being a legal obligation, identifying and amending your web sites to make them accessible need not necessarily be difficult or expensive. In addition the ROI for those improving their accessibility has been estimated at between 800 to 1,200%.