Nearly 46 million Americans live with a disability, according to Northeast ADA Center statistics. Yet, most ecommerce sites still aren’t as accessible as they should be: Ecommerce makes up 78% of web accessibility lawsuits — higher than any other industry — according to data from Audioeye, a digital accessibility solution.
As more brands focus on integrating AI into their commerce experiences, digital accessibility should also be prioritized. It’s not only important from an ADA compliance standpoint, but it can drive growth and help brands deliver truly inclusive commerce.
Many companies still treat accessibility as a technical or compliance project, rather than a business priority.
People with disabilities make up nearly 14% of the U.S. population and nearly 16% of the global population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That’s a large base of potential customers whose needs are potentially being ignored.
Ecommerce is often a prime target for digital accessibility lawsuits because brands’ websites typically include dynamic, interactive elements such as galleries, carousels, and checkout workflows.
Web accessibility affects the entire customer experience, and it influences key business metrics, such as:
Accessibility barriers (e.g., multimedia content without captions, pop-ups that interfere with screen readers, and difficult-to-navigate mobile interfaces) cause friction, present conversion risks, and make this huge segment of shoppers feel like an afterthought.
Many may not even bother to come back: 83% of people in the U.K. with disabilities limit their shopping to sites they know are accessible, according to “The Click-Away Pound Report.” Rather than buy a product for less money from a website that lacks accessibility, 86% of shoppers choose to pay more for a product from a website they know is accessible.
Shoppers are paying attention. They won’t hesitate to take their business elsewhere if a brand doesn’t prioritize their unique lived experience.
In 2025, plaintiffs filed more than 5,100 accessibility lawsuits, with ecommerce accounting for nearly 80% — or nearly 4,000 — of them, according to web accessibility solution accessiBe. These lawsuits provide insight into where most brands go wrong with web accessibility.
The most frequent accessibility issues cited in these lawsuits include:
Keyboard navigation issues: Such as inaccessible dropdown menus or clickable elements that only work well with a mouse.
Screen reader incompatibility issues: Such as buttons, content, and forms that read incorrectly.
Vague button and link descriptions: Such as “click here” without additional descriptive or guiding information.
Product alt text that’s missing image descriptions for visually impaired users.
If brands don’t want to face legal risks for shirking ADA compliance, they need to develop a more accessibility-minded commerce strategy, especially as AI becomes a core part of commerce experiences.
Brands are beginning to develop AI visibility strategies to surface their content in generative AI (GenAI) platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, which shoppers increasingly use for product discovery, according to Salsify’s “2026 Consumer Research” report.
They’re also using the technology to automate and optimize different parts of the shopper journey, whether it’s personalized recommendations, conversational shopping assistants, or post-purchase communications.
As AI becomes their copilot for delivering better shopping experiences, brands must also prioritize web accessibility.
The irony is that many of the same content practices that boost AI visibility are also good for web accessibility, including:
Well-structured product data
Descriptive metadata
Image descriptions
Consistent taxonomy that improves web navigation
Semantic markup that supports screen readers
AI product alt text also presents an opportunity — and a risk — for brands. Companies are increasingly using AI-generated product descriptions and alt text. However, these outputs require good governance to ensure they actually aid accessibility, not hinder it.
Brands need to have a process and rules around how they’ll use AI product alt text and other AI-generated content. They’ll need to decide when to keep a human in the loop to minimize risks such as inaccurate product descriptions or transferring information that isn’t fully compatible with screen readers or other assistive technologies. Using human reviewers — not AI — for final approval is one way brands can avoid these risks. This will improve the quality of AI-generated outputs while allowing brands to still benefit from AI-driven automation.
Groupe SEB USA, a leading manufacturer, has used this approach to reduce product alt text creation from hours to minutes. The company uses Salsify Intelligence Suite, an AI-powered solution, to create alt text for its product images. From there, a Salsify workflow automatically triggers a task for its product team to review and approve the language.
Groupe SEB no longer performs this process manually to meet ADA compliance regulations. It can use AI to do it at scale, delivering high-quality AI product alt text in five minutes for up to 100 images — compared to at least two hours previously.
Accessibility shouldn’t just be an annual check-the-box compliance exercise. It must be an integral part of every brand’s commerce strategy in 2026.
Brands should regularly audit their customer experience to find accessibility gaps and proactively address them. They should include users with disabilities in any usability tests they perform and should make accessibility governance a core part of AI governance.
These are just starting points that can help brands better serve customers, be more mindful of their lived experience, and deliver inclusive commerce that drives growth.
Bottom-line question — is your digital accessibility helping or hurting? Explore this case study to learn new ways to drive operational efficiency.