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Home Blog What is Excellent Accessible Customer Service?
Did you know that according to the 2025 CX trends report by Zendesk, 73% of consumers will switch to a competitor after multiple bad experiences and over half of consumers will switch to a competitor after only one bad experience?
Matthew Tudge
May 21, 2025
The importance of delivering excellent customer service can’t be understated, and your business needs to ensure all consumers can access the help they need. Customer service simply must be accessible. However, many teams often fall short which creates unnecessary friction, lost brand loyalty and lost business.
In this blog, we explore what excellent accessible customer service is, core components of accessible support and the actions you can start taking.
Key takeaways: Accessible customer service is great customer service: Support should be designed so everyone can easily get help, complete tasks, and feel respected across every channel, regardless of ability. Accessibility drives real business results: Better accessibility can improve loyalty, strengthen brand trust, reduce support costs, lower legal risk, and open access to underserved markets. Start with practical action steps: Audit current support channels, involve people with disabilities in testing, train teams, and use purpose-built tools to build more inclusive customer experiences.
Accessible customer service is a core standard of excellence for any modern organization. As digital interactions become the default, businesses must ensure that everyone, regardless of ability, can access help, complete tasks, and feel valued throughout the service experience. It meets people where they are, in their language, on their terms, and with the tools they already use. And, when done right, it benefits everyone, not just customers with disabilities.
So what exactly makes customer service both excellent and accessible?
Great accessible service is built from the ground up to meet a wide range of needs. This includes:
Accessibility should be woven into every channel and every step to ensure no customer is left out or forced into a workaround.
Excellent accessible service restores independence. For example, when a blind or low-vision customer can troubleshoot a product using visual AI, or when a deaf customer can resolve an issue through text-first support, it cuts resolution times, boosts customer satisfaction and promotes independence.
The most effective accessible services are powered by the latest technology:
Businesses that implement AI and the latest tech solutions usually see vast improvements in support handle times and increased ROI.
Customer service for people with disabilities means recognizing that a blind customer, a Deaf customer and a customer with ADHD may each hit a different barrier in the same support journey. The goal here should be a service model with enough flexibility that every customer can get help in the way that works for them.
Here’s what that looks like across some of the most common needs.
Blind and low-vision customers rely on screen readers, magnification and voice control, so every support touchpoint needs to work with access technology. Additionally, support that can see, through AI image description or live video assistance, turns a frustrating back-and-forth into a quick fix.
A phone-only support line shuts out many Deaf and hard of hearing customers. Live chat, messaging, email, captioned video and access to sign language interpreting or relay services all give customers a way in. Just as important, customers shouldn’t be forced back onto a call to verify their identity or escalate an issue.
For customers who use keyboard navigation, switch devices or voice control, small touch targets, drag-and-drop interactions and short session timeouts are real obstacles. So are phone menus that need fast keypad input. Generous time limits, full keyboard support and the option to speak to a person without navigating a complex menu all make a measurable difference.
Long, jargon-heavy instructions, time pressure and unpredictable flows can make support stressful or impossible to complete. Plain language, step-by-step guidance, consistent navigation and a written summary of next steps help customers stay in control.
Customers with speech disabilities may communicate more slowly or use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices. Text-based channels give them an alternative to speaking. Agents also need training to stay patient, never rush the customer and never end a call because communication takes longer.
Be My Eyes specializes in visual accessibility, helping blind and low-vision customers get fast, independent support through AI and live video. Together with accessible channels for every other customer, it helps build a service experience that works for the 1.3 billion people living with a disability, and for everyone else too.
According to a 2020 study by Accenture, businesses that actively engage in accessibility achieve, on average, 28% higher revenue, double the net income, and 30% higher profit margins than their counterparts.
Accessible customer service can often have a bigger business impact than simply making it more seamless for users that are disabled.
When you make it easier for everyone to get help, you elevate your entire service experience. Accessible service is excellent service because it delivers value where it matters most: loyalty, reputation, and performance.
43% of customers spend more on brands that they are loyal to – Fundera
Customers stay with brands that understand them. For blind and low-vision customers, that understanding gets tested at the moments that matter most: setting up a new device, checking a bill, reading a product label, or sorting out a problem with an order. When those moments go smoothly, the customer remembers who made it easy.
And the loyalty it builds rarely stops with one person. It often reaches the customer’s networks: family, friends, caregivers and community. Disability affects whole households, and the people around a customer often help shape what they buy and who they recommend. A good experience gets shared across those circles and across the wider blind and low-vision community, where word of mouth carries real weight. For customer experience leaders, this makes accessible service one of the most efficient ways to keep customers.
Around 4 in 5 consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying from it – Edelman
Investing in customer accessibility sends a clear message: Everyone is welcome here. That message carries weight, but only when the experience backs it up. Customers can tell the difference between an accessibility statement in a website footer and a support journey that works when they need it.
Trust is built in the details. When customers can get help on their own, at any hour, through a channel that works for them, they see that the brand’s values are real. Companies seen as inclusive are more trusted, better reviewed and more likely to be recommended. Those signals build on each other over time across review sites, social media and community forums.
Businesses can grow revenues between 4% and 8% above their market when prioritizing better customer service experiences. – Bain & Company
Accessible doesn’t mean expensive.
Inaccessible service is costly in ways that rarely show up on a report as “accessibility”:
Visual support can fix many of these problems at the source. Microsoft’s integration of Be My AI and Service Connect led to:
An estimated 16% of the global population experience a significant disability – World Health Organization
That’s a massive and often underserved customer base. When services are accessible, businesses don’t just do the right thing; they tap into new market segments with real spending power.
2024 saw over 4,000 ADA lawsuits filed in state and federal courts – UsableNet
While accessibility laws vary by region, one thing is clear: non-compliance is costly. In the US, the ADA continues to drive a steady stream of digital accessibility claims. In the EU, the European Accessibility Act has applied since June 2025, setting accessibility requirements for services such as e-commerce, banking, transport and telecoms.
The cost goes well beyond a settlement or a fine. It includes legal fees, rushed fixes against a deadline, leadership time, and the public backlash that can erode trust and damage a brand. Customer service is often overlooked in compliance programs that focus on websites and apps. But support channels are where customers go when something else has failed, so an inaccessible support experience can turn a small issue into a formal complaint.
Building accessibility into customer service from the start costs far less than fixing it under pressure.
Creating an accessible customer service experience doesn’t require starting from scratch but it does require intention, alignment, and the right tools. Whether you’re just getting started or leveling up your efforts, here’s a step-by-step guide to help you build accessible service that drives real impact for your customers and your business.
Begin by reviewing your customer support ecosystem: websites, apps, phone systems, chatbots, and help desks. Ask:
The best way to build accessible experiences? Ask the people who use them.
If building everything in-house feels daunting, you’re not alone. Many companies turn to accessibility-first platforms and third-party tools designed specifically to meet user needs quickly and affordably. Examples include:
Accessible customer service isn’t just about technology, it’s about the people.
Make accessibility a core part of your product and service development.
The Accessible Customer Service Suite is a fully integrated solution built specifically to help businesses connect with blind and low-vision customers. It’s fast to deploy, easy to manage, and designed for real-world results.
Service Directory Boost your accessibility profile with a branded, searchable listing in the Be My Eyes app where over 800,000 blind and low-vision users already look for support.
Service AI Provide scalable, 24/7 support through image-to-text interpretation and an AI chatbot that resolves up to 90% of inquiries without human intervention.
Service Connect Escalate seamlessly to live agents via one-way video and two-way audio calls. Agents see what the user’s camera sees, enabling fast and effective resolutions.
Together, these tools allow you to deliver excellent, accessible customer service for blind and low-vision consumers without overhauling your entire infrastructure.
Industry leaders like Microsoft, Sony, and Hilton are already integrating tools like Be My AI and Service Connect into their customer service experience. Ready to turn your existing customer service into excellent accessible customer service?
Book a FREE demo of Be My Eyes today.
