They cannot.
Stats NZ estimates that 1 in 6 New Zealanders is disabled. For some of them, the page you signed off looks very different: text that fades into its background, buttons that do not say what they do, images that say nothing to software that reads pages aloud.
Milder versions of the same barriers reach everyone eventually: the screen in the sun, the phone in one hand, the reading glasses in the car.
Every barrier on an enquiry or application journey is simply a person who wanted to go ahead and could not finish asking.
We reviewed 20 New Zealand non-bank lenders. Accessibility was the only finding with no exceptions: all 20 had confirmed barriers, and many reached the pages where customers enquire or apply.
The common problems are not exotic: bad colour combinations, faint text, unnamed buttons, missing descriptions. Most can be fixed fairly easily.
If you want to know what your public website is quietly costing you, get in touch and I will send you a free one-page report.
