9.4ROI Calculation Framework

Cost of NOT Being Accessible

Cost Category	Typical Range	Frequency
ADA lawsuit settlement	$10K-$500K	Per incident
Legal defense fees	$50K-$200K	Per lawsuit
Emergency remediation	$100K-$500K	Reactive, rushed
Lost revenue from excluded users	5-15% of potential revenue	Ongoing
Brand damage	Unquantifiable	Per public incident

Cost of Being Accessible

Investment	Typical Range	Frequency
Automated testing in CI	$0 (open-source tools)	One-time setup
Developer accessibility training	$5K-$20K	Annual
Quarterly manual audits	$10K-$30K	Quarterly
Annual user testing with disabled users	$15K-$40K	Annual
Ongoing remediation (part of sprint work)	5-10% of development time	Ongoing

The Math

For a company with $10M in online revenue:

Cost of proactive accessibility program:  ~$100K/year
Potential revenue from excluded users:     $500K-$1.5M/year
Legal risk mitigation:                     $50K-$500K/year avoided
SEO traffic improvement:                   $200K-$500K/year

Net ROI: 3x-10x return on accessibility investment