Build an Accessibility Budget You Can Explain
The budget meeting is tomorrow. You know attendees need a better way to follow your event, but a promise that captions will “pay for themselves” will not help you defend the numbers.
Bring three things instead: the access you intend to provide, the full cost of providing it, and a measurement plan that separates observations from assumptions.
This is a fictional planning exercise. All prices, hours, attendance figures, and scenarios below are invented inputs for demonstrating the method. They are not InterScribe prices, customer results, or forecasts. The original URL is retained, but this article does not report a customer case study.
Start with the access decision
Write down who needs to participate and what they need to do: follow a speaker, ask a question, understand a translated instruction, or use a reviewed replay. Decide the service with those people and the responsible organizer before calculating a commercial return. A negative financial estimate does not establish that an access need can be ignored.
W3C's accessibility business-case guidance includes tangible and intangible benefits and explains that ROI is only one way to assess an accessibility investment. Use that distinction in your own proposal rather than converting every benefit into speculative revenue. W3C: The Business Case for Digital Accessibility.
Worked example: a two-day conference
Imagine an association planning captions and language support for selected sessions. Its working budget includes software, qualified people where needed, preparation, rehearsal, and follow-up review. It will obtain actual quotes before approving the scope.
| Fictional budget input | Calculation | Planned cost |
|---|---|---|
| Service and equipment allowance | Placeholder quote | $1,200 |
| Language/access specialists | Placeholder quote | $1,800 |
| Preparation and rehearsal | 12 hours × $40 | $480 |
| Live attendee support | 10 hours × $40 | $400 |
| Review of follow-up materials | 8 hours × $40 | $320 |
| Total | Sum of the five lines | $4,200 |
These are incremental costs for this example. Your budget may also require travel, additional rooms, connectivity, devices, taxes, or contingency. Label existing staff time even when it does not create a new invoice: allocating those hours still affects other work.
Separate setup costs from costs that repeat. A reusable invitation template may take less work next time; a live support shift and review of a new recording still need an owner. Do not assume everything becomes cheaper in year two.
Calculate a threshold, not a promised return
Suppose a ticket costs $180 and serving one additional attendee costs $60. The fictional contribution per additional ticket is $120. It would take 35 additional tickets to cover $4,200, if those tickets were genuinely additional because of the access investment and no other costs changed.
That is a break-even assumption, not evidence that 35 people will register.
| Hypothetical additional tickets attributable to the investment | Contribution at $120 each | Net financial result after $4,200 cost |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | $0 | −$4,200 |
| 15 | $1,800 | −$2,400 |
| 35 | $4,200 | $0 |
| 50 | $6,000 | $1,800 |
For the last scenario, financial ROI would be ($6,000 − $4,200) ÷ $4,200, or approximately 43%. That percentage describes an invented scenario, not an expected outcome. Replace every input before using this worksheet in a proposal.
Count contribution rather than gross ticket revenue. Do not add sponsor revenue unless it is actually incremental and supported by an agreement. Do not count staff hours saved as both lower costs and additional benefits. If hours were reassigned rather than paid hours eliminated, report capacity released separately from cash savings.
Keep three evidence columns
The following worksheet prevents a plausible story from becoming an unsupported claim.
| Cost record | Observed outcome | Assumption still to test |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice and agreed scope | Attendees who successfully found the access route | Whether promotion influenced registration |
| Preparation and support hours | Reported barriers, with number of respondents | Whether fewer help requests mean fewer barriers |
| Follow-up review hours | Reviewed materials delivered and used | Whether reuse reduced future preparation |
Before the event, name the owner and source for each measure. Use your registration records for registrations, your accounting records for costs, and a short attendee question for the experience of following a session. An analytics count alone does not tell you whether someone understood the content.
For example, ask: “Were you able to follow the parts of the session you needed?” Offer space to describe where access broke down. Report a result as “18 of 24 respondents,” including the survey population and collection period, rather than implying every attendee answered. These sample counts are illustrative.
Make comparisons honestly
Record the previous event's attendance, prices, program, marketing, and delivery format before comparing years. A better speaker lineup or a new registration campaign could also change attendance. Treat a year-over-year increase as an observation; describe attribution as uncertain unless your evaluation supports it.
Fewer accommodation or help requests are ambiguous. They might mean a smoother experience, or that people could not find the help channel. Pair the count with direct feedback and a test of that channel.
Plan follow-up costs explicitly. A generated transcript still needs review for its intended audience and purpose. Record time spent correcting names, checking critical meaning, and preparing accessible material before claiming that repurposing saved work.
Take one page to the budget meeting
Complete these six lines:
- Access outcome: Who should be able to do what?
- Delivery plan: Which sessions, languages, people, and follow-up materials are covered?
- Full cost: Which figures are quotes, internal estimates, or unknowns?
- Financial scenarios: What changes at low, middle, and high uptake?
- Evidence plan: Who will collect costs, experience feedback, and operational observations?
- Review decision: What would lead you to keep, improve, or change the delivery method?
An honest proposal can say, “We budgeted $4,200 to provide this access, and we will review these outcomes.” It does not need to promise a revenue increase to explain what the investment is for.