There are a lot of things business owners assume are expenses. Website upgrades. SEO improvements. Technical fixes.
Accessibility is often lumped into that category—something complicated, expensive, or only relevant to large corporations. But here’s the part most people don’t know: The federal government will often help pay for it. And in many cases, the return isn’t just compliance. It’s better rankings, better usability, and more customers.
The Federal Tax Credit Most Businesses Don’t Know About
There’s a provision in the IRS code called the Disabled Access Credit (Section 44).
If your business has:
- Under $1 million in annual revenue, OR
- 30 or fewer full-time employees
…you likely qualify.
The credit covers 50% of eligible expenses between $250 and $10,250, up to $5,000 per year.
This is not a deduction. It’s a credit, meaning it reduces what you owe dollar for dollar. And yes—website accessibility improvements qualify.
What That Actually Looks Like
Here’s the math in real numbers:
If you invest $3,000 in accessibility:
- First $250 excluded
- Remaining $2,750 eligible
- Credit = $1,375 back
If you invest $6,000:
- Credit = $2,875 back
If you invest $10,250 or more:
- Credit caps at $5,000
You claim it using IRS Form 8826 when filing taxes. Your CPA can handle it easily—though many aren’t aware of it unless you bring it up.
What Counts as Website Accessibility Work?
This is where it gets interesting, because many of these items overlap directly with SEO best practices.
Eligible improvements include:
- Alt text for images
- Screen reader compatibility
- Color contrast corrections
- Keyboard navigation
- Video captions
- Accessibility audits
- WCAG compliance work
- Accessibility monitoring tools
In other words, a lot of the same technical improvements we’re already recommending to clients for performance and usability.
Why Accessibility Helps SEO (More Than People Realize)
There’s a misconception that accessibility is separate from SEO. In reality, they overlap heavily.
Accessible sites tend to have:
- Cleaner HTML structure
- Better heading hierarchy
- Improved internal linking
- Clearer navigation
- Faster load and rendering performance
All of those help search engines understand your site.
Studies have shown accessibility improvements can increase organic traffic by around 12% on average. That aligns with what I’ve seen in practice—sites become easier to crawl, easier to interpret, and easier to rank.
Google’s job is to serve good user experiences. Accessible sites are simply better user experiences.
The AI Search Angle (This Is the Big One)
This is the part most people haven’t connected yet.
AI search tools—ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity—read websites in a way that’s very similar to screen readers.
They rely on:
- Structured headings
- Semantic markup
- Clear content hierarchy
- Logical navigation
If your site is messy, unstructured, or hard to parse, AI systems struggle to understand it. And if AI can’t understand your site, it won’t recommend you.
Accessibility improvements don’t just help users—they help machines interpret your authority. That matters more every month.
Accessibility Expands Your Market
One in four Americans lives with some form of disability.
That’s not a niche audience.
That’s a significant percentage of potential customers.
And accessibility improvements don’t just help those users:
- Captions help people watching videos silently
- Clear navigation helps everyone
- Better contrast improves readability on mobile
- Larger click targets help users on touch devices
Designing for accessibility improves usability for everyone.
The Legal Reality
This is the part most businesses only hear about after the fact. ADA website lawsuits have increased dramatically over the past few years, and small businesses are not immune.
Many cases settle quickly—not because businesses did anything malicious, but because defending the case costs more than fixing the issue. Accessibility reduces that risk significantly.
What Accessibility Actually Involves Today
A few years ago, accessibility felt overwhelming.
Today, it’s much more manageable.
A typical process includes:
- Running an accessibility scan
- Fixing technical issues
- Implementing adjustments and tools
- Monitoring going forward
Most modern tools can identify hundreds of potential issues automatically and guide the fixes.
It’s not about perfection.
It’s about meaningful compliance and continuous improvement.
The ROI Conversation
When you look at accessibility purely as a cost, it feels optional.
When you look at it holistically, it’s one of the easiest business cases to justify:
- Tax credit offsets much of the cost
- SEO improvements increase traffic
- AI visibility improves discoverability
- Legal exposure decreases
- User experience improves
It’s rare to find an investment that checks that many boxes at once.
What I Recommend Businesses Do Right Now
If this is new to you, here’s the practical path:
- Confirm you qualify for the tax credit
- Run an accessibility scan
- Talk to your CPA about Form 8826
- Estimate ROI based on traffic and leads
- Implement improvements and monitor
None of this has to be overwhelming when approached methodically.
Final Thought
I talk a lot about strategy first.
Accessibility is one of those areas where strategy pays off quickly—not just in rankings, but in usability, compliance, and customer experience.
And when the government is willing to help pay for it, that makes the decision even easier.
If you want to see what accessibility improvements would look like for your specific site, we can run a scan and walk through it together.
Your rankings—and your users—will thank you.