Customer Accessibility Management Solutions That Scale With Your Business Whether you operate a small startup or a global enterprise, customer accessibility should be at the core of your business. Every business simply must ensure that customer interactions are accessible to all users. This guide explores what customer accessibility management (CAM) solutions are, why they matter for businesses, key considerations in implementing accessibility, how to choose the right scalable solutions and how the Be My Eyes Customer Accessibility Suite provides flexible, scalable accessibility tools that grow with your business. Contents What is Customer Accessibility Management? The Importance of Customer Accessibility What to Consider When It Comes to Customer Accessibility What to Look For in a Customer Accessibility Solution Be My Eyes: Customer Accessibility Solutions That Scale with Your Business How to Measure the Success of Customer Accessibility Solutions Making Good Business Accessible What is Customer Accessibility Management? Customer accessibility management (or CAM) are the tools, technologies, people and processes that enable all customers access to a company equally. In this context, accessibility means ensuring every customer can interact with your business, whether online, in-store, or through customer service, without obstacles. Solutions can be as straightforward as providing alt text for images on a website or wheelchair ramps in physical locations, or as advanced as AI-driven assistants that describe visual content for blind customers. Modern customer accessibility solutions combine access technology with thoughtful design. Examples include: Screen reader compatibility and high-contrast modes for blind and low-vision customers Captions and transcripts for videos and calls for deaf or hard-of-hearing customers Multiple contact channels (phone, chat, video, text relay) to meet different communication needs Inclusive service practices, such as training agents to support blind, deaf, or neurodiverse customers By adopting these solutions, businesses create interactions that are inclusive, equitable, and usable, laying the foundation for better customer experience (CX) and stronger brand loyalty. The Importance of Customer Accessibility Implementing customer accessibility is of course important ethically and to meet compliance but it’s also a smart business decision. Globally, disabled individuals and their households control enormous spending power (estimated around £6.4 trillion annually, or roughly $8–$9 trillion USD). In the UK alone, the collective spending of disabled consumers (the “Purple Pound”) is about £274 billion per year. Companies that fail to cater to this demographic are effectively turning away a customer segment worth billions. In fact, businesses that do lead in accessibility financially outperform those that don’t. Customer accessibility is also increasingly tied to compliance and risk management. Many countries enforce laws and standards (such as the ADA in the U.S., the European Accessibility Act in the EU, and similar regulations) that require businesses to provide accessible products and services. Non-compliance can result in lawsuits, financial penalties, and reputational damage. Embracing accessibility is about unlocking opportunities: the opportunity to serve more customers, to differentiate your brand, and to create exceptional customer experiences (CX) that everyone can enjoy. What to Consider When It Comes to Customer Accessibility When making a business accessible for customers, leaders should take a holistic view and consider several key factors: Diverse Needs There is no single template for customer accessibility because disabilities vary widely. Ensure you account for various types of disabilities – visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, and more. For example, a banking app might need voiceover support for blind users, text resizing options for low-vision users, keyboard navigation for those with motor impairments, and clear layouts for users with cognitive disabilities. Every Touchpoint Customer accessibility should be embedded across all customer touchpoints. This means digital platforms (websites, mobile apps, e-commerce and social media channels) should follow accessibility best practices (adhering to standards like WCAG 2.1 AA, providing alt text, form labels, captions, etc.). It also means physical locations and products need consideration: e.g., offering ramps or elevators at stores, braille or tactile markings on packaging, and inclusive product design. Customer service interactions are a critical area and often overlooked (we’ll get into this more later). But, as an example, phone menus should be usable by people with hearing or speech difficulties, service desks should know how to assist blind or deaf customers, and so on. An accessibility strategy touches everything from how you design your website to how your support agents answer a call from a blind customer. Policies and Training Consider creating internal policies and guidelines for accessibility. It’s wise to integrate accessibility into your design and development processes from the start, rather than trying to “fix” barriers later. This might involve training your design, product, and customer service teams on accessibility principles. For example, your content creators should know how to write descriptive alt text, and your developers should be versed in coding practices that support access technology. Ensuring leadership support and assigning clear responsibilities (e.g., an accessibility champion or task force) will help sustain these efforts. Access Technology Compatibility When evaluating your digital tools or building new ones, consider compatibility with common access technologies. Screen readers (like JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver), screen magnifiers, speech recognition software, and alternative input devices are lifelines for many users. Test your digital services with these technologies to catch issues. When updating internal or customer-facing software, plan for accommodations – for example, if rolling out a new chat platform, ensure it can be navigated via keyboard only, and that it works with screen readers. Continuous Improvement Accessibility is an ongoing commitment. Customer needs and technologies evolve, and so do standards (for example, new versions of WCAG or new regulations may come). Build a process for ongoing monitoring and maintenance of accessibility. Regular audits, user feedback from disabled people, and updates to fix new issues are essential to keep your experiences accessible over time. Consider accessibility when adding new features or content – every update or campaign should be reviewed for accessibility impact so you don’t inadvertently introduce barriers. After considering these factors, businesses can craft a comprehensive accessibility plan. The key is to be proactive, user-centric and to view accessibility as a core component of quality. What to Look For in a Customer Accessibility Solution If you’re exploring third-party solutions or platforms to help bolster your customer accessibility efforts, it’s important to choose the right ones. Here are some key attributes and features to look for in an accessibility solution for your business: Scalability and Flexibility Ensure the solution can scale with your business growth and adapt to increasing demand. A good solution should work whether you have dozens of customers or millions, and whether your support team is 5 people or 500. It should be capable of handling more volume (e.g., more web pages scanned, more customer support calls answered) without a drop in quality. In practical terms, look for cloud-based or automation-driven solutions that can operate continuously in the background, rather than something that requires constant manual effort. Comprehensive Coverage (Multichannel) The best solutions address accessibility across all relevant channels – web, mobile, and beyond. For digital accessibility tools, that means not just checking web pages but also mobile app interfaces, documents (PDFs, etc.), and multimedia content. For customer service, look for multi-channel support capabilities: for instance, a service platform that can handle voice calls, video calls, chat, and more in accessible ways. This ensures you can meet customers on their preferred channel with equal ease. An example would be a support tool that integrates video call assistance for blind users or text relay for deaf users, so that no customer is left without a way to communicate. Integration with Existing Systems Choose solutions that integrate smoothly with your current business infrastructure. Accessibility shouldn’t exist in a silo; if you have a CRM or a customer support system, an ideal accessibility solution will plug into it rather than forcing an entirely separate workflow. An example here is if you’re adopting an AI assistant to help answer customer questions for blind users, it should tie into your existing knowledge base or chat system. Integration capabilities will make it easier for your team to adopt the tool and for it to become a seamless part of your operations. Compliance and Standards Support Any solution should help you meet recognized accessibility standards and legal requirements. Verify that the vendor follows WCAG guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) – currently 2.1 (and moving to 2.2/3.0) – since those are the benchmark for web/mobile content. The right accessibility solution will actively assist you in reducing legal exposure by addressing issues before they turn into complaints or lawsuits. In short, look for a partner or product that is credible in the accessibility space, perhaps with certifications or clients in regulated industries. In short, look for a partner or product that is credible in the accessibility space, perhaps with certifications or clients in regulated industries. Automation + Human Expertise There’s a lot that AI and automation can do in accessibility, for example, automatically captioning videos or scanning for code errors. But automation alone typically catches only a portion of issues. The ideal solution strikes a balance that leverages AI where it’s effective and fast, but also incorporates human expertise for more nuanced problems. Be wary of any provider claiming 100% automated compliance. Analytics and Insights To truly scale and continuously improve, you need to measure how your accessibility efforts are performing. A strong accessibility solution will provide analytics, dashboards or reporting that let you track things like compliance levels, issue resolution rates, or customer usage. For example, in customer support, you might want data on how many requests from disabled users are handled by AI vs humans, average resolution times, and customer satisfaction scores for those interactions. Analytics help demonstrate ROI and pinpoint where to focus next. Some solutions even quantify the impact, e.g. showing how many issues were fixed proactively, or estimating the legal risk reduced by staying compliant. Support and Training Finally, look for a solution provider that offers robust support, onboarding, and training. Especially if you are implementing new tools (like an accessibility overlay, or an adaptive service platform), your team will benefit from guidance. Many good vendors will help train your staff on best practices and how to use the tools effectively, and will be available for technical support. Since accessibility may be a new area for some of your team, having a partner that can share best-practice guidance and keep you updated on new accessibility developments is invaluable. Be My Eyes: Customer Accessibility Solutions That Scale with Your Business Here at Be My Eyes, we have created one of the most innovative approaches to scalable accessibility in customer service. Our Customer Accessibility Suite, consisting of a trio of solutions (Service Directory, Service AI, and Service Connect), is designed to make customer interactions and support channels fully accessible and efficient for blind and low-vision customers. These tools allow any company, whether a startup or a multinational, to embed accessibility into its customer service infrastructure and grow those capabilities as the business expands. Let’s explore how each component of the suite works and how they collectively scale with your business: Service Directory Be My Eyes Service Directory is essentially a centralized, accessible hub that connects your business directly with over 900,000 blind and low-vision customers. By listing your company’s dedicated support line or service desk in this directory (available through the Be My Eyes app), you become easily discoverable to users who need assistance. Think of it as an accessible customer support phonebook on a global scale. Users can find your support contact info, operating hours, and even specialized services you offer, all in one place. For businesses, being on the Service Directory means “getting found” by more customers in the blind and low-vision community and it opens a direct channel to serve a segment that might otherwise struggle to reach help through standard means. The directory is fully adaptable to your business details (you can customize your company page with info like hours, languages, regions served, etc.), ensuring that as your operations grow or change, your accessible touchpoint stays up to date. Service AI Service AI brings the power of artificial intelligence to accessibility, enabling smarter, faster support for blind and low vision customers. This tool is a part of the Customer Accessibility Suite, and already handles over 3.5 million AI requests each month. Visual image-to-text interpretation is one standout feature; for example, a user can take a photo of a product or document, and the AI will describe it or read it out loud. Service AI can also function as a context-aware chatbot, trained on your company’s information, to answer questions or guide users through tasks. Service AI can resolve user requests up to 3× faster than traditional methods in many cases, and it’s also highly efficient. Businesses using Service AI have been able to typically resolve up to 90% of requests without any human intervention, dramatically reducing the workload on support agents. By automating routine or simple tasks, Service AI frees up your human agents (if you have them) to focus on more complex inquiries. It’s also cost-effective – automating support interactions lowers the cost per contact while maintaining (or improving) customer satisfaction. Importantly, Service AI is tailored to each business; it’s trained on your specific products, services, and FAQs, ensuring that the answers and assistance it provides are accurate and relevant to your customers. Additionally, as your business grows with more products or more customers, Service AI scales by handling a proportional increase in requests (since AI can operate 24/7 with minimal marginal cost). This makes your support not only more accessible but also more agile in responding to spikes in demand. Service Connect The third component of our Customer Accessibility Suite, Service Connect, is a cutting-edge solution that blends AI assistance with live-agent support in a multi-channel service platform. It acknowledges that while AI is powerful, human empathy and interaction are irreplaceable for certain needs. Service Connect allows blind or low-vision customers to initiate support requests that can be intelligently routed to either an AI or a specialist human agent as appropriate. For live support, it provides a one-way video and, two-way audio channel. This means that blind and low-vision customers can show their camera feed (e.g., to point at a device or document they need help with) while speaking to the agent, and the agent can talk back and guide them. The agent, on their end, uses a specialized Be My Eyes Agent app that lets them securely see the customer’s video and provide assistance. This setup is incredibly powerful for troubleshooting visual problems (like “can you tell me if this appliance setting is correct?” or “what does this error message say on my screen?”). Service Connect effectively gives businesses a way to see through the customer’s camera and be their eyes in real time. Additionally, Service Connect offers analytics and dashboards for managers to track call success rates, response times, and other performance metrics. It even integrates with major CX platforms, so you can slot it into your existing customer support ecosystem without starting from scratch. For scaling, this is ideal: as your customer base of blind/low-vision users grows, you can ramp up the number of agents on Service Connect, and the system’s intelligent routing ensures each request is handled by the appropriate resource (AI or human) to maintain efficiency. How to Measure the Success of Customer Accessibility Solutions Customer accessibility initiatives are most effective when they’re tied to measurable outcomes. Without clear metrics, it’s hard to know if your efforts are delivering real improvements for customers, employees, or the business as a whole. Below are some practical ways to measure accessibility success at scale. Customer Satisfaction and Feedback Surveys & Ratings: Use customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT), Net Promoter Scores (NPS), or accessibility-specific questionnaires targeted at disabled customers. Direct Feedback Loops: Invite disabled customers to share feedback through usability studies, focus groups, or in-app surveys. Customer Stories: Track qualitative testimonials, for example, “The new captioning feature allows me to attend webinars I couldn’t before.” These stories highlight the human impact of accessibility. Usage and Engagement Metrics Feature Adoption: Monitor the uptake of accessibility features such as text-to-speech, captions, alt-text descriptions, or accessible support channels. Channel Preferences: If you’ve launched new accessible customer service touchpoints (like Service Connect), track how many customers use them compared to standard channels. Drop-Off Reduction: Look at whether accessible design decreases abandonment (e.g., fewer users leaving mid-checkout due to inaccessible forms). Support Efficiency and Resolution Rates Resolution Speed: Track average handling times for accessibility-related inquiries, comparing before and after accessibility solutions were introduced. AI vs. Human Resolution: Measure what percentage of accessibility support requests are successfully resolved by automation, freeing up agents to handle more complex needs. Escalation Rates: Fewer escalations to senior staff often indicate that frontline agents and systems are equipped to handle accessibility issues effectively. Compliance and Risk Reduction Audit Results: Benchmark your accessibility scores against WCAG guidelines and monitor improvements over time. Legal Exposure: Track reductions in complaints, lawsuits, or compliance-related costs. For many businesses, fewer accessibility-related legal claims are a direct measure of success. Standards Alignment: Document progress toward meeting ADA, Section 508, or European Accessibility Act requirements as part of your compliance roadmap. ROI and Revenue Impact Market Expansion: Measure the revenue generated from customers who were previously underserved due to accessibility barriers. For example, improved web accessibility may drive higher conversions among disabled users. Operational Savings: Automating accessibility support can reduce the cost per contact in customer service. Brand Value: Accessibility improvements can translate into reputational gains. Tracking earned media coverage or social media sentiment can highlight brand growth tied to accessibility leadership. Pro Tip: Combine both quantitative and qualitative measures. Numbers show progress, but stories prove impact. Together, they build the strongest case for accessibility as a long-term investment. Making Good Business Accessible At its core, accessibility is about building a business that welcomes everyone. An accessible business is one that puts people first, removes barriers to participation, and recognizes that inclusion and growth go hand in hand. The most successful companies see accessibility as a long-term investment that pays dividends across every dimension, including stronger customer loyalty, reduced risk, increased market reach, and more resilient operations. When accessibility becomes embedded into strategy, design, and customer service, it transforms from a reactive fix into a proactive growth engine. Ultimately, making your business accessible is making your business better. At Be My Eyes, we’ve built the world’s largest community of blind and low-vision individuals; more than 900,000 users supported by over 9 million sighted volunteers across 180 languages and 150+ countries. Our platform and products are designed not just to check boxes, but to reimagine what inclusive customer service can be. From AI-powered image interpretation to real-time video support, our tools empower brands to provide faster, more efficient service while deepening loyalty. If you’re ready to embrace accessibility, then get in touch with our team today.
