How top brands are failing at digital basics
Just weeks before the European Accessibility Act (EAA) compliance deadline, a new benchmark has revealed that the world’s leading companies remain digitally unprepared, with only 2.8% meeting top-tier accessibility standards.
The findings, published by independent benchmarking firm AAAnow, evaluated the digital performance of the 500 global companies that make up the Valuable 500 collective, a group of businesses committed to disability inclusion at the leadership level.
The results are stark: only 14 companies earned an A or B grade in digital accessibility readiness.
“Good intentions alone aren’t enough,” said Lawrence Shaw, CEO of AAAnow. “Organisations are simply not positioned to meet their accessibility goals. We need to shift to a proactive, executive-led model rooted in risk management, not technical checkpoints.”
The research, built on 3.7 trillion data points and two decades of modeling, estimates the average organization would require over 7,400 hours to achieve baseline EAA compliance using traditional methods—an unsustainable burden for many.
By contrast, the firm argues that a risk-based, AI-supported model could reduce that time and effort by up to 80%, avoiding as much as $250 million in global costs.
The implications go beyond cost-efficiency. According to AAAnow’s ongoing analysis, fewer than 6% of global businesses currently meet even the most basic accessibility standards, despite years of investment in digital transformation.
The Scorecard doesn’t just assess accessibility—it provides a wider lens across privacy, user experience, and environmental impact. Designed for C-suite visibility, it aims to replace 40-page technical audits with simple risk-based dashboards.
“Compliance isn’t a web team problem. It’s a procurement, HR, and leadership issue,” said Shaw. “Executives need a one-minute view of exposure and progress, not a wall of technical jargon.”
The report recommends three urgent actions for executive teams:
For many companies, digital inclusion has been sidelined by fragmented ownership and slow-moving processes.
“At its core, this isn’t about fixing websites—it’s about knowing when your organization is actually ready to scale digital efforts without exposing itself to risk,” said Shaw.
As the EAA deadline looms, foundational readiness is no longer optional. For CFOs and CIOs alike, it’s time to move digital compliance out of the basement and into the boardroom.