10 ways to boost your customer experience

Digital accessibility and e-inclusion: a driver for growth, not an obligation

The European Accessibility Act comes into force for commercial organisations on 28 June 2025. This means everyone—including those with disabilities or digital vulnerabilities—should be able to use and access your digital platforms, apps, and content easily. Unfortunately, not enough organisations recognise the urgency of digital accessibility and e-inclusion. While digital accessibility is crucial—not just for society, but also for your competitive edge.

How should your organisation approach this? And how can you ensure your products and services are accessible to all?

Your takeaway for 2025

By making your digital products accessible to the digitally vulnerable or people living with disabilities, you not only reach a wider audience but also improve the user experience for everyone, drive innovation, and boost your brand’s reputation.

Time to get serious about digital accessibility

It's high time that organisations tackle digital accessibility. It's not just about complying with legal requirements—it's also about social responsibility, which brings many business benefits.

Accessibility pays off:

You reach a broader audience: Globally, 1.3 billion people (16%) face internet issues due to disabilities. In Europe, it's 101 million people (27%). In the Netherlands, approximately 1 in 8 people have a long-term disability. In Belgium, around 25.6% of the population, or roughly 2.97 million people, live with a disability (though this figure includes a broad range of severity levels). That's a significant group that businesses cannot afford to ignore.
You delight your audience with a better user experience: Accessibility criteria like consistent navigation and intuitive interactions boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.

You drive innovation: Inclusive design leads to new technologies and solutions that benefit everyone—think of the electric toothbrush, originally developed for people with motor impairments.
You enhance brand reputation: Companies that embrace digital accessibility strengthen their brand reputation and create an inclusive environment for both employees and customers.

Next steps for 2025

Making progress is more important than getting everything perfect right away. Start with a pragmatic approach to accessibility. Make step-by-step improvements and build on yesterday's successes. You can make a big impact easily in three areas:

Design for real people, not personas: Conduct user tests with real people using simple language.
Service design: Address technical debts and design for stress scenarios rather than ideal conditions.
Change management: Work off overdue technical issues and design for real situations instead of ideal conditions.

"How can organisations tackle the challenges of digital vulnerability that are affecting nearly half the population? The answer lies in the principle of e-inclusion: designing for real people, not just personas."

David De Block, Public Services Director

Dive deeper into e-inclusion

In his talk at the BAM Marketing Congress, David De Block (Public Services Director at iO) talks about what it means to leave no one behind digitally.

At iO, we offer a personalised accessibility roadmap, including audits, technical analysis, training, and ongoing monitoring.