Software teams have spent years treating accessibility like technical debt—something to address in the backlog when there’s time, budget and organizational will.
That approach has failed.
Despite growing regulatory pressure from legislation like the European Accessibility Act and a steady drumbeat of ADA lawsuits, only 54 percent of organizations self-report meeting WCAG 2.2 standards; however, even worse, 95 percent of home pages have WCAG 2.2 errors. The disconnect between good intentions and meaningful outcomes reveals a structural problem: accessibility needs dedicated product ownership, not just engineering checklists.
Enter the Accessibility Product Manager.
This isn’t a rebranding of your accessibility specialist or a fancy title for the person who runs automated scans before release. An Accessibility Product Manager operates at the intersection of business strategy, user experience, and technical implementation. They sit in planning meetings. They shape roadmaps. They ensure that real feedback from people with disabilities influences product decisions from concept through deployment. Most importantly, they treat accessibility as a feature—not a compliance exercise. Accessibility is an innovation creator to build excellent products that improve the experience for everyone.
The Business Case Beyond Compliance
The business case for this role extends beyond mere risk mitigation. Companies leading on disability inclusion criteria realize 1.6 times more revenue, 2.6 times more net income, and twice the economic profit compared to their peers, according to Accenture. The global population of people with disabilities and their support networks commands an estimated $13 trillion in annual disposable income, according to the Return on Disability Group. These aren’t niche users. They’re customers who reward companies that invest in their experience with fierce loyalty.
Yet, organizations continue to stumble because they’ve distributed accessibility responsibility across teams without giving anyone real authority over outcomes. Most of the time, developers write code with accessibility in mind. Designers employ inclusive principles when they have time. QA teams run accessibility checks when they’re not under deadline pressure. Applause’s research shows that while 80 percent of organizations now have a person or group responsible for accessibility—up from 52 percent in 2022—68 percent still lack the expertise and resources to test independently on an ongoing basis. Everyone owns it, which means no one owns it. An Accessibility Product Manager changes this dynamic by creating clear accountability and integrating accessibility into the product development lifecycle from day one.
Accessibility Features Become Mainstream Expectations
The “curb-cut effect” demonstrates why this matters for everyone, not just users with disabilities. In the 1970s, disability advocates fought for lowered curbs to accommodate wheelchair users. What followed surprised everyone: parents with strollers, delivery workers with hand trucks, travelers with rolling luggage, and joggers all benefited. The same pattern plays out in software. Features designed for accessibility often become mainstream expectations.
Consider real-time captioning. Originally developed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, captions now appear everywhere. Seventy percent of Gen Z turn on captions when watching media content, regardless of hearing ability, according to a Preply survey. Dialogue enhancement features that use AI to isolate and clarify speech above background noise—technology built with accessibility in mind—now appeal to anyone watching television in a noisy environment or struggling to hear mumbled dialogue. These aren’t accommodations anymore. They’re competitive advantages that opened new markets.
An Accessibility Product Manager recognizes these as strategic opportunities and champions them internally. They ask different questions in planning sessions: How might a blind user navigate this workflow? What happens when someone with motor limitations tries to complete this task? Can a user with cognitive differences understand these instructions without assistance? These questions don’t slow down development—they prevent costly retrofits and expand the addressable market.
The role also addresses a fundamental limitation of current approaches. Automated accessibility tools can identify between 20 and 40 percent of potential issues. Many problems simply aren’t machine-detectable, and AI—while improving—still cannot substitute for real human perspectives. An Accessibility Product Manager builds relationships with users with disabilities and ensures testing involves real assistive technology users in real-world conditions.
Where This Role Belongs in Your Organization
Organizations serious about this role must resist the temptation to bury it in quality assurance or treat it as a subset of compliance. The Accessibility Product Manager reports to product leadership because accessibility decisions affect strategy, positioning, and revenue. They participate in executive planning because accessibility roadmaps require cross-functional alignment.
The shift already underway in forward-thinking organizations treats accessibility as a personalization feature rather than a special accommodation. When accessibility planning looks like any other personalized user experience, the false dichotomy between accessible and mainstream dissolves.
Development teams implementing this approach find that accessibility expertise becomes distributed rather than concentrated. The Accessibility Product Manager doesn’t do all the accessibility work—they ensure everyone understands their role in creating inclusive products for all users to enjoy. Engineers write accessible code because requirements specify accessibility outcomes from the start. Designers embrace inclusive principles because user research includes people with diverse abilities.
The regulatory environment will continue to press organizations toward accessibility. Enforcement of the European Accessibility Act began in June 2025, and disability advocacy groups have intensified campaigns highlighting non-compliant organizations. Legal and compliance risks help justify investment.
But the real opportunity lies elsewhere. Organizations that treat accessibility as a source of innovation rather than a compliance burden will outcompete those stuck in remediation mode. They’ll capture market share among users underserved by inaccessible products. They’ll develop features that benefit all users by solving problems for users with specific needs first.
The Accessibility Product Manager makes this transformation possible by giving accessibility the strategic attention it deserves. It’s the missing piece that explains why so many companies invest in accessibility without seeing meaningful results.
The companies that create this role now will build the inclusive products that define the next decade of software development. Everyone else will spend those years playing catch-up.
