eSSENTIAL Accessibility and Level Access Finalize Merger

by Tim Springer, CEOIt’s official! I’m overjoyed to share the news: the eSSENTIAL Accessibility (eA) and Level Access merger is complete. This combination marks a significant inflection point in the advancement of digital accessibility. When these two companies were founded years ago, digital accessibility was a niche, highly specialized field. Over the years, the market has expanded, and today, more organizations than ever before recognize accessibility is a requirement. Combining our unique approaches, technology, and talent will enable us to define the future of accessibility. We will provide the premier end-to-end solution that organizations need to implement accessibility programs that will scale with them over time.

Mainstream adoption

Over the past few years, digital accessibility has come to be seen as a base requirement for all digital programs. What’s driving this uptick? Four key forces:

• Regulatory Environment—Globally, we’ve seen an ever-expanding set of regulations requiring digital accessibility. Over the next few years, we expect updated regulation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the implementation of the European Union’s Accessibility Act requirements.
• Enforcement—The number of lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, and regulatory enforcement have all drastically increased. It’s a civil right to ensure people with disabilities can interact online. Those civil rights are actively being defended.
• Market Requirements—A constellation of laws, regulations, and market forces have aligned to require accessibility for all technology products sold on the market.
• DEI & A—Accessibility is seen as a fundamental component of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), to which we’ve seen accessibility added. At its foundation, making a digital experience accessible is all about ensuring it’s inclusive for every user. As more brands prioritize DEI, they’ve begun to adopt accessibility through the lens of inclusion.

The combination of these forces has driven accessibility into the mainstream. It’s been made table stakes for any modern digital assets. It’s woven into the Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments of modern, forward-thinking organizations. Accessibility is going mainstream. And we’re passionate, poised, and ready to meet the needs of this increased market interest.

Better together

Together, with a united purpose, we will accelerate our pace of innovation, create powerful new offerings, and significantly expand our roster. Our team has the deepest and most experienced bench of accessibility experts in the industry. That ensures we can deliver to our customers elegant technical solutions and refined services to support and strengthen their individual accessibility programs, enabling them to better serve their end users. Simply put, we are better together. What’s most thrilling is that this merger enables eA and Level Access to double down on a long-standing shared sense of purpose—to ensure everyone can live and work in an increasingly digital world. Our job is to push adoption of accessibility further. To help organizations achieve equity in access to technology solutions. To make the digital world work equally for all. And with the talent and capabilities of these combined companies, we have an incredibly exciting future ahead!