How Web Agencies Can Sell Accessibility Services to Clients

# How Web Agencies Can Sell Accessibility Services to Clients

Most web agencies are leaving significant revenue on the table by not offering accessibility services. The demand is there: legal enforcement is accelerating, new regulations are expanding the scope of who must comply, and the vast majority of websites still fail basic WCAG requirements. Businesses need help, and they are increasingly willing to pay for it. The agency that positions itself as the solution wins recurring contracts, deeper client relationships, and a competitive advantage that commodity web shops cannot replicate.

This guide is a practical playbook for agency owners and managers who want to turn accessibility services for agencies into a profitable, scalable service line. We cover how to pitch it, how to package it, how to price it, and how to operationalize it across your team.

Why Accessibility Is a Revenue Opportunity You Cannot Ignore

If your agency builds, maintains, or hosts websites for clients, accessibility is not a nice-to-have add-on. It is a core service gap that your competitors are starting to fill. Here is why the opportunity is growing faster than most agencies realize.

Legal Pressure Is Intensifying

The number of ADA website accessibility lawsuits filed in the United States has grown dramatically over the past several years, with thousands of cases filed annually at the federal level alone. When you factor in state-level filings and pre-litigation demand letters, the total volume is even higher. Serial plaintiffs and specialized law firms systematically scan the internet for violations and file claims at scale. Your clients are targets whether they know it or not.

The regulatory environment outside the United States is expanding as well. The European Accessibility Act became enforceable in June 2025, extending accessibility requirements to private-sector e-commerce, banking, and digital services across the entire EU. Any client selling to European customers now has a legal obligation to meet accessibility standards.

For a deeper look at the US litigation landscape, see our guide on ADA website lawsuits.

The Market Is Massively Underserved

The overwhelming majority of websites still fail basic WCAG 2.1 Level AA criteria. Common violations like missing alt text, insufficient color contrast, broken keyboard navigation, and unlabeled form fields are present on most sites across every industry. This is not a niche problem affecting a handful of clients. It is a universal gap in nearly every website your agency has ever built or maintained.

That gap represents billable work. Every client website in your portfolio likely needs an accessibility audit, remediation work, and ongoing monitoring. Multiply that across your entire client base and the revenue potential becomes substantial.

Recurring Revenue Changes the Economics

One-time website builds create a feast-or-famine revenue cycle. Accessibility services break that pattern. Websites change constantly  Enew content, new features, plugin updates, design refreshes  Eand every change can introduce new accessibility barriers. Clients need ongoing monitoring and periodic remediation, which means monthly retainers, not one-time invoices. For agencies looking to build predictable recurring revenue, accessibility monitoring is one of the most natural and defensible service offerings available.

How to Pitch Accessibility to Clients Who Do Not Know They Need It

The biggest obstacle to selling accessibility services is not pricing or packaging. It is awareness. Most of your clients have never thought about web accessibility. They do not know they are at legal risk, they do not know they are losing potential customers, and they do not know there are regulations that specifically apply to their websites. Your job in the sales conversation is to close that awareness gap.

Lead With Risk, Not Compliance Jargon

Do not open the conversation with "WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance." Your clients do not know what that means and they will tune out. Instead, lead with language they understand immediately:

• "Your website could be the target of a lawsuit." Explain that ADA website lawsuits are filed at scale by specialized law firms that use automated tools to identify violations. Their business does not need to have a dissatisfied customer  Eit only needs to be found by one of these firms.
• "You may be losing customers without knowing it." People with disabilities represent a significant portion of the population. When a website is inaccessible, those users leave and buy from a competitor. The revenue loss is invisible because those users never convert  Ethey simply bounce.
• "There is a new European law that may apply to you." If your client sells products or services to EU customers, the European Accessibility Act creates an enforceable legal obligation. Penalties are determined at the national level and can be substantial.

Handle the Most Common Objections

You will encounter the same objections repeatedly. Prepare for them.

"We have never been sued, so we must be fine."

Explain that the absence of a lawsuit does not mean the absence of risk. Thousands of new accessibility claims are filed every year, and the plaintiffs' firms are expanding their scope continuously. A clean track record today says nothing about exposure tomorrow.

"We do not have disabled customers."

This objection reflects a misunderstanding of how disability works. Many disabilities are invisible  Elow vision, cognitive impairments, motor limitations, hearing loss. Users with these conditions do visit your client's website. If the site is inaccessible, they leave silently. The client never knows they lost the sale.

"Can't we just add an overlay widget?"

Overlay products have been widely criticized by accessibility professionals and disability advocacy organizations. Multiple businesses have been sued while using overlays on their websites. Overlays do not fix underlying code-level problems, and they can interfere with the assistive technology that users already rely on. The only reliable path to compliance is fixing the actual website code and content.

"We do not have budget for this right now."

Frame the cost against the alternative. Defending an ADA lawsuit typically costs tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and settlements, plus the cost of rushed remediation under court-ordered deadlines. Proactive accessibility work done on a manageable schedule is a fraction of that cost. Position your service as risk mitigation, not an expense.

Run a Live Scan During the Sales Call

Nothing sells accessibility services faster than showing a client their own violations. During the sales conversation, run a scan on their website using A11yScope's free scanner and share the results in real time. When a client sees a report listing dozens or hundreds of specific WCAG violations on their own site  Ewith severity ratings, affected elements, and references to legal standards  Ethe conversation shifts from "do we need this?" to "how soon can you start?"

This is the single most effective sales tactic for accessibility services. It makes the abstract problem concrete and personal.

Packaging Accessibility Services: Audit, Remediation, and Monitoring

The key to selling accessibility profitably is packaging. Do not sell accessibility as a vague line item. Structure it into clear, defined service tiers that clients can understand and that create a natural path from one-time engagement to ongoing retainer.

Tier 1: Accessibility Audit (One-Time)

This is your entry point. Offer a comprehensive WCAG 2.1 Level AA audit that combines automated scanning with manual review. The deliverable is a detailed report documenting every violation found, its severity, the affected pages and elements, and specific remediation guidance.

What to include:

• Automated scan of the full site using a tool like A11yScope
• Manual testing of key user flows with keyboard and screen reader
• Prioritized violation report organized by severity
• Executive summary written for non-technical stakeholders
• White-label PDF report branded with your agency's logo

Pricing guidance: Audit pricing depends on site size and complexity. Small business sites with under 50 pages typically support audit fees in the range of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Larger sites with hundreds of pages, complex forms, and custom interactive components warrant higher pricing that reflects the manual testing effort involved.

The audit is a loss leader in the best sense: it generates a list of problems that leads directly to remediation work.

Tier 2: Remediation (Project-Based)

Once the audit identifies the violations, the client needs them fixed. Remediation is where the substantial project revenue lives. Scope the remediation as a fixed-price or time-and-materials project depending on the complexity.

What to include:

• Code-level fixes for all critical and serious violations
• Content updates (alt text, heading structure, form labels)
• Color contrast adjustments coordinated with the client's design team
• Keyboard navigation and focus management improvements
• Post-remediation verification scan confirming violations are resolved

Structure the remediation in phases if the violation count is high. Start with critical and serious issues in Phase 1, address moderate issues in Phase 2, and handle minor issues and enhancements in Phase 3. Phased remediation is easier for clients to approve because each phase has a defined scope and budget.

Tier 3: Ongoing Monitoring (Monthly Retainer)

This is where recurring revenue comes in. After remediation, the client's site is compliant  Ebut it will not stay that way without monitoring. Every code deployment, content update, and third-party widget change can introduce regressions.

What to include:

• Weekly automated scans covering all pages
• Monthly accessibility status report delivered to the client
• Regression alerts when new violations are detected
• Quarterly manual spot-checks of key user flows
• Priority remediation support for new issues (billed separately or included in retainer)

Pricing guidance: Monthly monitoring retainers should reflect the value of continuous risk mitigation. For small business clients, retainers in the low hundreds per month are typical. For larger clients with complex sites, retainers scale up based on page count and the level of remediation support included.

The Bundle Play

The most effective packaging combines all three tiers into a single annual engagement: audit in month one, remediation in months two through four, and monitoring from month five onward. This gives the client a clear timeline, a defined outcome, and a reason to stay on retainer. It gives your agency predictable revenue and a deeper client relationship.

Using Scanning Tools to Demonstrate Value and Deliver Results

Accessibility scanning tools are the foundation of a scalable accessibility service. They allow your agency to audit sites efficiently, generate professional reports, and monitor clients continuously without requiring every team member to be an accessibility expert.

What to Look for in an Agency Scanning Tool

Not all scanners are built for agency workflows. The features that matter most for agencies are:

• Multi-site management. You need to scan and monitor all of your client sites from a single dashboard, not manage separate accounts for each one.
• White-label reporting. Client-facing reports should carry your agency's branding, not the tool vendor's. White-label PDF reports let you present scan results as your own deliverable.
• Scheduled scanning. Automated weekly scans should run without anyone on your team remembering to trigger them. The tool should alert you when new violations appear.
• Historical tracking. Being able to show a client that their violation count dropped from 200 to 12 over the course of your engagement is a powerful retention tool. Trend data demonstrates the value of your ongoing service.
• WCAG criterion mapping. Every violation should reference the specific WCAG success criterion it violates. This adds credibility to your reports and connects findings to the legal standards your clients care about.

White-Label Reports as a Sales and Retention Tool

A well-designed accessibility report is more than a technical document. It is a client communication tool. Use white-label reports in two ways:

During sales: Run a scan on a prospect's website and deliver a branded report showing their current violations. This positions your agency as the expert and creates urgency. The report becomes the proposal's supporting evidence.

During engagement: Deliver monthly or quarterly reports showing progress over time. Clients who see their violation count decreasing and their compliance posture improving are clients who renew their retainers. Reports that show trend lines and improvement create tangible proof that your agency's work is delivering results.

Operationalizing Accessibility Across Your Agency

Selling accessibility is one thing. Delivering it consistently and profitably requires changes to your team's workflow, skills, and quality assurance processes.

Train Your Team on Accessibility Fundamentals

You do not need every developer on your team to become a WCAG expert. But every developer, designer, and content creator needs to understand the fundamentals well enough to avoid introducing the most common violations in their daily work.

For developers:

• Proper use of semantic HTML elements
• How and when to add alt text, ARIA labels, and roles
• Keyboard navigation requirements and focus management
• Color contrast requirements and how to verify them
• How to test with a screen reader at a basic level

For designers:

• Minimum contrast ratios for text and interactive elements
• Focus indicator design requirements
• Touch target sizing for mobile
• How to annotate designs with accessibility specifications

For content editors:

• Writing effective alt text for images
• Maintaining heading hierarchy in CMS content
• Providing captions and transcripts for media content
• Using descriptive link text instead of "click here"

A few hours of focused training per role pays dividends immediately by reducing the number of violations introduced during production work, which in turn reduces remediation costs on every project.

Add Accessibility to Your Development Workflow

Accessibility should not be a separate phase bolted onto the end of a project. Integrate it into your existing process:

• Design review: Include an accessibility check in your design QA process. Verify contrast ratios, focus states, heading hierarchy, and form label placement before development begins.
• Development standards: Add accessibility requirements to your code review checklist. No pull request should merge without semantic HTML verification, keyboard navigation testing, and alt text presence on images.
• Pre-launch QA: Run an automated accessibility scan as part of your pre-launch checklist. Treat critical and serious violations as launch blockers, the same way you treat broken layouts or 500 errors.
• Post-launch monitoring: Set up automated weekly scans immediately after launch. This catches regressions introduced by content updates and third-party changes that happen outside your development cycles.

Build an Accessibility QA Checklist

Create a standardized checklist that your QA team runs on every project. At minimum, it should cover:

• [ ] All images have appropriate alt text (descriptive or empty for decorative)
• [ ] All form inputs have associated labels
• [ ] Color contrast meets WCAG AA ratios (4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large text)
• [ ] All interactive elements are reachable and operable via keyboard
• [ ] Focus order follows a logical reading sequence
• [ ] Page has a proper heading hierarchy (one H1, sequential nesting)
• [ ] HTML lang attribute is set on the document
• [ ] Custom components have appropriate ARIA roles and properties
• [ ] Error messages are programmatically associated with form fields
• [ ] No content auto-plays without user control
• [ ] Automated scan returns zero critical and serious violations

This checklist becomes part of your project delivery standard. Over time, it becomes second nature to your team, and the volume of accessibility issues that make it to production drops significantly.

Positioning Accessibility as a Competitive Advantage

Accessibility services do more than generate revenue. They differentiate your agency in a crowded market. When a prospective client is evaluating three agencies for a website redesign and your agency is the only one that includes accessibility in its proposal, you stand out. You are demonstrating deeper expertise, broader awareness, and a commitment to building websites that actually work for all users.

Use accessibility in your positioning:

• In proposals: Include a section on accessibility compliance in every website proposal, even if the client did not ask for it. Frame it as a standard part of professional web development.
• In case studies: Document the accessibility improvements you deliver for clients. Show before-and-after violation counts. Describe the legal risk you helped them avoid.
• In your marketing: Publish content about web accessibility. Speak at conferences about it. Become the agency in your market that is known for building accessible websites.

The agencies that establish this positioning now will have a significant head start as accessibility requirements continue to expand and client awareness grows.

Get Started With A11yScope's Agency Plan

If you are ready to add accessibility services to your agency's offerings, you need a tool built for the way agencies work. A11yScope's Agency plan gives you everything you need to audit, monitor, and report on accessibility across your entire client portfolio:

• 10 sites included  Emonitor your full client roster from a single dashboard
• White-label PDF reports  Edeliver professional, agency-branded accessibility reports to clients
• Weekly automated scans  Ecatch regressions before your clients or their lawyers do
• Historical trend tracking  Eshow clients measurable improvement over time
• WCAG 2.1 Level AA coverage  Escan against the standard that courts and regulators use
• $149 per month  Ea cost you can recover from a single client retainer

Start by running a free scan on one of your client sites with A11yScope's free scanner to see the opportunity firsthand. Then package the results into your first accessibility proposal. The demand is there. The legal pressure is real. The recurring revenue model works. The agencies that move on this now will be the ones that profit from it for years to come.