Understanding the scope and impact of disability.
đź“Š Data that matters
The big picture
Disability is common, diverse, and part of the human experience. These statistics help us understand who we're designing for—and why accessibility matters.
1.3B
People worldwide with disabilities
16%
Of the global population
61M
Adults with disabilities in the U.S.
26%
Of U.S. adults (1 in 4)
United States disability statistics
Disability types among U.S. adults
| Disability type | Percentage | Number |
|---|---|---|
| Mobility (serious difficulty walking) | 13.7% | ~35.2 million |
| Cognition (serious difficulty concentrating/remembering) | 10.8% | ~27.7 million |
| Hearing (deaf or serious difficulty hearing) | 5.9% | ~15.1 million |
| Vision (blind or serious difficulty seeing) | 4.6% | ~11.8 million |
| Independent living (difficulty with errands alone) | 6.8% | ~17.4 million |
| Self-care (difficulty dressing or bathing) | 3.7% | ~9.5 million |
Source: CDC, 2023
Disability increases with age
| Age group | Percentage with disability |
|---|---|
| 18-44 | 14% |
| 45-64 | 27% |
| 65-74 | 38% |
| 75+ | 55% |
As the population ages, the percentage of people with disabilities will increase. Building accessible now is building for the future.
Higher education statistics
19%
Of undergraduates report a disability
12%
Of graduate students report a disability
<40%
Of students with disabilities register for services
Thousands
of UA students register with the Disability Resource Center
Most common disabilities in higher ed
- Mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, PTSD)
- Learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia)
- ADHD
- Chronic health conditions
- Autism spectrum
- Physical/mobility
- Hearing
- Vision
Outcomes gap
Students with disabilities face significant barriers:
- 34% lower 6-year graduation rate compared to peers without disabilities
- 20% more likely to withdraw in the first year
- Higher rates of academic probation
Accessible education isn't just nice—it's necessary for equitable outcomes.
Digital accessibility statistics
96%
Of home pages have WCAG failures
56
Average errors per home page
71%
Of disabled users leave inaccessible sites
4,605
Digital accessibility lawsuits filed in 2023
Most common web accessibility issues
| Issue | % of home pages affected |
|---|---|
| Low contrast text | 83.9% |
| Missing alt text | 53.1% |
| Missing form labels | 51% |
| Empty links | 46.3% |
| Empty buttons | 30.6% |
| Missing document language | 13.5% |
Source: The WebAIM Million, 2026 report (home pages tested in February 2026)
Economic impact
$13T
Global spending power of people with disabilities + friends/family
$490B
U.S. disposable income of people with disabilities
$6.9B
Annual lost revenue to inaccessible UK retail sites
Employment statistics
- 21% employment rate for people with disabilities (vs. 65% without)
- $25,000 lower median earnings for employed people with disabilities
- Companies with disability inclusion initiatives are 2x more likely to have higher shareholder returns
Assistive technology usage
Screen reader users
Primary desktop or laptop screen reader:
- JAWS: 55.0% (Windows, commercial)
- NVDA: 32.9% (Windows, free)
- VoiceOver: 6.5% (Mac, built-in)
- ZoomText/Fusion: 2.1% (Windows, commercial)
- Narrator: 0.4% as a primary screen reader, but commonly used by 36.1% (Windows, built-in)
70.3% of respondents use more than one desktop or laptop screen reader. On phones and tablets, 72.2% commonly use VoiceOver (iOS) and 29.5% TalkBack (Android).
Source: WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey #11, July–August 2026, 1,780 respondents. Read our summary of the survey.
Browser usage among screen reader users
Browser used most often with a primary screen reader:
- Chrome: 52.3%
- Edge: 23.6%
- Firefox: 15.9%
- Safari: 4.8%
Other assistive technologies
- Screen magnification: Used by many of the roughly 11.8 million Americans who have serious difficulty seeing (see the table above)
- Speech recognition: Growing rapidly, especially Dragon NaturallySpeaking
- Switch devices: Used by people with severe motor impairments
- Alternative keyboards: One-handed, large key, braille
Legal landscape
Web accessibility lawsuits (U.S.)
All figures are from UsableNet, which counts digital accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court under the ADA and in state courts. 2018–2022 are from its 2022 Year End Report (PDF), and 2023 is from its 2023 report. Other trackers count differently, so their totals are not comparable.
| Year | Number of lawsuits |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 2,314 |
| 2019 | 2,890 |
| 2020 | 3,503 |
| 2021 | 4,011 |
| 2022 | 4,061 |
| 2023 | 4,605 |
Higher education settlements
Notable settlements with universities:
- UC Berkeley: Required to caption all public videos
- MIT, Harvard: Lawsuits over video captioning
- Various state universities: DOJ investigations
Key takeaways
What do these numbers tell us?
- Disability is common: 1 in 4 people—not an edge case
- The web is largely inaccessible: 96% of sites have failures
- There's a huge business opportunity: $13 trillion in spending power
- Legal risk is real: Lawsuits continue to increase
- Students need accessible education: 19% of undergrads have disabilities
- Disability increases with age: Build for your future self