A Milestone for Inclusion: Forrester's First Digital Accessibility Wave Report Names Level Access a Leader

I’m thrilled to share that Level Access was recognized as a Leader in the first-ever Forrester Wave?: Digital Accessibility Platforms, Q4 2023 report. In fact, we ranked highest in the current offering category and received the highest scores possible in the Platform, Roadmap, Partner Ecosystem, and Supporting Services and Offerings criteria, as well as the Pricing Flexibility and Transparency criteria.

I can’t help but reflect on how incredibly far we’ve come, not just as a company, but as an industry. Over 25 years ago, we founded Level Access in a dorm room with a single mission: to help all people, regardless of ability, use technology to experience the fullness of life. I was young—I didn’t have an MBA or any formal business experience—and the digital accessibility space was young, too. ?

It had been less than a decade since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, and the first version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) hadn’t been published yet. But the internet was rapidly expanding, opening up a world of opportunity, and I firmly believed that everyone had a right to participate in this new digital reality. ?

Since then, digital technology has only become more integral to day-to-day life—and digital accessibility is now a mainstream priority for organizations across the public and private sectors. Level Access, now an international company, is part of a fast-growing industry meeting organizations’ digital accessibility needs. ?

The release of the Forrester Wave: Digital Accessibility Platforms report underscores this evolution. This marquee report from Forrester is a milestone for our industry. It’s even more proof that digital accessibility is no longer just an important topic for those within the disability community—or those, like me, who witness the barriers that friends and family members with disabilities face online. Business leaders are recognizing the fact that every person deserves equal access to digital information, products, services, and opportunities. In Forrester's words, “Digital accessibility is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a priority for enterprise businesses.” ?

Level Access’s ranking as a Leader confirms for us that we’re making good on our founding mission. We’ve built a comprehensive, effective, and sustainable solution that empowers organizations of all sizes to not only remove accessibility barriers from their digital experiences, but also embed accessibility into their day-to-day workflows—making accessibility a regular part of their operations.??

The Forrester report explicitly recognizes the need for tools and services that support a proactive, integrated approach to digital accessibility. The report notes that fixing accessibility issues after the fact “may help an organization achieve a minimum level of compliance with accessibility standards, but because it doesn’t include designing for accessibility in the first place, it won’t result in easy-to-use experiences for the markets those guidelines are intended to help.”?

It’s deeply encouraging that a leading analyst firm shares our belief that digital accessibility can no longer be an afterthought. It needs to become a way of working.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, digital accessibility will only become a more urgent priority for organizations and the people they serve. Forrester’s alignment with the core philosophy guiding our product roadmap makes me confident that we haven’t just equipped organizations with the resources they need to empower all users today—we'll also provide the tools required to build a more equitable, inclusive, and accessible future. ?

Access the complete Forrester Wave: Digital Accessibility Platforms, Q4 2023 report to learn more about how Level Access ranks across Forrester’s criteria, and how we stack up as a Leader in the evaluation. ?