1 in 4 Americans Have a Disability: Is Your Website Leaving Them Behind?

When most people think about web design, they think about colors, layouts, and maybe load times. But there is a massive group of internet users who face challenges that most designers and business owners never even consider. According to the CDC, more than 1 in 4 adults in the United States live with some type of disability. Their 2022 data found that 28.7% of U.S. adults, over 70 million people, reported having a disability.

That is not a niche audience. That is your customers, your coworkers, and your neighbors. And if your website is not built with them in mind, you are leaving a huge number of people out.

The Scale of the Problem

Globally, about 1.3 billion people (16% of the world's population) live with a disability that affects how they interact with the internet, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States alone, more than 84 million disabled internet users rely on accessible websites to shop, learn, work, and connect with others.

The types of disabilities that affect web usage are varied. According to AudioEye's accessibility statistics, the most common disability types among U.S. adults include cognition (13.9%), mobility (12.2%), independent living (7.7%), hearing (6.2%), and vision (5.5%), based on 2022 CDC data. Each of these can change how a person interacts with a screen, keyboard, mouse, or other input device.

What Happens When Websites Are Not Accessible

Here is where it gets real. According to research compiled by AllAccessible, 73% of disabled users will abandon a website if it is difficult to use or navigate. Think about that for a second. Nearly three out of four potential customers just leave. They do not complain, they do not ask for help, they just bounce. And they probably will not come back.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, Americans with disabilities are about three times as likely as those without a disability to say they never go online (15% vs. 5%). The digital divide is already stacked against them. The last thing they need is a website that makes things even harder.

Common Barriers People Face Online

So what does an inaccessible website actually look like from a user's perspective? Here are some of the most common issues:

Low color contrast. Text that blends into the background is hard for anyone to read, but for someone with low vision or color blindness, it can be impossible. The WebAIM Million 2025 report found low contrast text on 79.1% of the top one million websites. That is the single most common accessibility failure on the web.

Missing alt text. When images do not have descriptive alternative text, screen reader users have no idea what they are looking at. It could be a product photo, a chart, or an important infographic, and it is just... blank.

Keyboard navigation issues. Many people with motor disabilities rely on keyboards or specialized devices instead of a mouse. If your website cannot be fully navigated with a keyboard alone, those users are stuck.

Missing captions and transcripts. Video and audio content without captions shuts out people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This also impacts anyone watching in a noisy environment or without headphones.

It Is Not Just About Compliance

Yes, there are legal requirements (the ADA, WCAG guidelines, Section 508 for government sites). But accessible design is also just good design. When you improve color contrast, add alt text, and make your site keyboard-navigable, you make it better for everyone. That includes people on mobile devices, older adults, users with slow internet connections, and even people who are just having a hard time reading small gray text on a white background.

Accessibility is not a checkbox. It is a mindset. And it starts with understanding that your audience is more diverse than you probably think.

Where to Start

If you are not sure whether your website meets accessibility standards, start with the basics. Check your color contrast ratios using a tool like our Accessibility Color Contrast Checker. The WCAG 2.1 standard requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. These are straightforward numbers you can test in seconds.

From there, run a broader audit using free tools like WAVE by WebAIM. Fix the biggest issues first and work your way through. You do not have to solve everything overnight, but you do have to start.