What’s the Difference Between Us and Enterprise Accessibility Companies?

I was on a Zoom call today with a prospective client (digital marketing agency acting on behalf of their client) and the agent asked a great question: what’s the difference between Accessible.org and one of the enterprise digital accessibility companies?

Depending on the company (e.g., Level Access, Deque, TPGI, etc.), there are several differences between the enterprise companies and Accessible.org. Generally:

• Our minimum client floor is $200 vs. $15,000 to start
• We offer services à la carte vs. a bundled package
• We don’t have sales demos (unless you want one)
• We don’t have kickoff calls or a team assigned to your account
• Our pricing is listed on the website and you can get quotes over email
• You can get an estimate or quote over email without a call
• Legal expertise with Accessible.org, uncertain legal experts otherwise

It’s not like we know exactly how each individual company operates, but if you take Average Enterprise Company vs. Accessible.org, here’s what you can expect:

Support

As far as quality and support, we’re second to no one. If our clients need assistance, we’re there for them. Here’s an example from this week:

One of our clients subcontracted PDF remediation work to us. We delivered the documents and they were fully WCAG 2.1 AA / PDF UA conformant. The client of the subcontractor was a state government and the state government wanted some of the content structured a certain way (e.g., paragraph instead of a list). We field the client’s request on Sunday and the documents turned around by Monday morning. No extra charge.

There’s no dedicated team to each client with us, mostly because there doesn’t need to be. If you clients need help, we’ll provide it. We have technical support hours and support for general requests.

Quality

In terms of quality, Accessible.org contractors have been carefully selected by myself so that we ensure clients only get the highest quality of services and deliverables. Our contractors truly are technical experts. Some have impressive certification and others do not, but either way, they’re all world-class level experts who can audit and remediate professionally.

Moreover, we have teams of curated professionals within our network should any work swell beyond our capacity.

When it comes to enterprise companies, there are service professionals on staff, but the bulk of work is usually sourced to farm teams in India, Argentina, and/or Pakistan. There are talented accessibility auditors all across the world, but audit quality can very easily suffer when an industrial approach is taken to farming audits.

Multiple levels of quality assurance (QA) must be involved and you have to hire people who genuinely care about accessibility and are obsessive about results themselves.

In a nutshell, not only is there not a dropoff with Accessible.org quality, I’d be willing to bet money we have the best quality audits or are at least tied for the best (audits can only be perfect — it’s not like you can identify more than 100% of issues).

Flexibility

Accessible.org services are at the client’s option. There’s no bundling, packages, or subscriptions unless the client wants one. Here’s a classic comparison example:

Enterprise Company A requires that you purchase an annual subscription which includes an audit, validation, dedicated support, legal expertise, and platform access with a suite of tools (which is basically just different scan options). The cost is $20,000 annually.

Accessible.org offers:

• audit for $100 – $250 per page or screen
• technical support hours ($195/hour) for validation)
• Accessibility Tracker platform for plans starting at $0 and $19
  • the Tracker platform is audit-based, not scan-based

Speed

We move really fast. Our audits usually take two weeks or less and we easily finish most projects within 2-4 months. Of course, project timeline is largely dependent on how fast the client’s team progresses, but we’re always ready to go and we like to finish projects ASAP.

Enterprise companies are generally more plotting, especially with a known annual subscription available for projects to soak into.

Pricing

The total price of your project will likely be half the cost or more lower with Accessible.org.

Legal Expertise

The general claim of legal expertise without naming said experts is always suspect. The reality is most accessibility companies don’t have an actual attorney on staff who helps with lawsuits and compliance. Instead, it’s just a client or account manager who plays the part or acts as a liaison between the client and a contractor attorney, providing general advice.

In contrast, I am an attorney who actually specializes in digital accessibility and compliance. And compliance not just with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but also Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and other laws and regulations.

Make no mistake, you’re not receiving a defense attorney either way (with Accessible.org or enterprise), but at least with Accessible.org you really do have direct access to legal expertise.

There are very few people who actually research and study the law. I do.

You can see this knowledge come through in a lot of the content on Accessible.org.

Conclusion

For clients that desire extensive project setup (e.g., kickoff calls, team introductions), dedicated account teams, weekly meetings, and a slower pace, enterprise accessibility companies have those built-in features.

Otherwise, Accessible.org is either in parallel or superior in all other aspects.

Read more on how Accessibility Tracker stacks up against industry accessibility platforms from Level Access, Deque, TPGI, and others.

Related Posts

• 20% of People Don’t Have a Disability That Impacts Web Use
• Why ChatGPT Ranked Accessible.org as the 4th, Then Best Overall Digital Accessibility Company
• 3 Industry Rocking WCAG Conformance Secrets Big Accessibility Companies Won’t Tell You
• We’re a U.S. Based Digital Accessibility Company That Prioritizes Client Privacy