loading . . . Accessibility specialists - Consultants or In-house? Currently, when it comes to being an accessibility specialist - particularly in Europe -, you mostly have two options:
* either join a Consulting company, where you'll most of the time be running compliance audits,
* or be a freelancer.
Rarely will you find companies that will hire Accessibility specialists within their ranks.
Why? Simply because, Accessibility is not something currently seen as that people should or must do. They only see it as a hindrance, something that will slow them down in their business.
Indeed, companies still do not consider how important it is for their websites and applications to be accessible for ALL users, including people with disabilities.
They don't see the fact that those people need this access as much as the rest of the population, for the same reasons as anyone, as well as sometimes, because it'd be their only way to access the information, the product or the service.
And I hate using this argument, but they don't see either the fact that it would increase their market shares, their revenue, their brand.
In addition, the European law is only slowly evolving such that, to date:
* only private companies with over 250 million revenue
* and more recently, companies selling products and services online for a specific range of domains1 will be required to make their websites and applications accessible.
This last obligation just came out in June 2025. And for now, what almost all companies have done in preparation for this law, was to publish an accessibility statement - because it's one of the requirements of this law. Barely any actually started on the accessibility of their website.
* these laws do not cover a big chunk of the sites and applications existing on the web.
Although that's not the initial topic of this post, there is a link: because there are still a lot of companies which websites and applications are not covered by the law, accessibility is not seen as a necessity, nor as something mandatory.
When European Companies had to comply with the GDPR law, it was ALL companies at once, so they did recognise it as mandatory and as a necessity for users (or at least that's what they are saying).
Because they recognised quickly this was a technical domain they knew nothing about and this was something that would last in the long run, they were very quick to hire experts on the subject for many, within less than a year.
For accessibility, they turn to consulting companies or independent accessibility specialists.
Indeed, if you wish to make a website or application accessible, you need the people building it to be, at the minimum, trained for it (and yes, all teams will need to be trained!), as well as, people specialised in the topic.
Let's say your company trains their teams on accessibility. It's a good start: they will be able to apply what they learned to their day to day jobs. But, as accessibility is not their domain of expertise (development or design or project/program management is their expertise), you will also need to ensure that what they produced is indeed accessible. Also, there will, for sure, be cases where they will be stuck, not being sure of how to build the component they are designing/developing so it is indeed accessible. Not just compliant! Accessible, as in usable for users with disabilities as well as for all other users.
It is key to remember that Accessibility is not a one off it's a continuity. Your websites or applications evolve on a daily basis, with constant updates releases, regular partial or full revamping or replatforming. At the same time as your website or application will change, you must ensure all those changes remain accessible.
Having a Accessibility consultant working with your teams will help your teams work on their accessibility... for the time of his/her mission, at the least.
This consultant may not be working full time within your company, only 2 or 3 days of the week. This means that the rest of the week, your employees do not have anyone to refer to for questions or help.
Also what happens when their mission is over? (because time of missions are limited and consulting companies don't like to keep one consultant working for one company for too long)
Of course, you could always get another consultant to replace the first one, but this implies periods of time where there won't be a specialist to assist your teams.
Also, with every new consultant, you'll have to get them acquainted with your team, your product/website/application, your processes, etc. This takes time. Time during which the consultant will have difficulties providing the appropriate help to your teams.
In my opinion, working with consultants should really be a matter of punctual missions on specific topics.
For example to run the annual audit of your website and help update your accessibility statement, or to help on a specific subject in Accessibility where they may have a defined speciality, like for example to advise on the strategy of making a Design System accessible, or on Data Visualisation, or on MathML...
In addition, it would be much more interesting for the specialised accessibility consultant! Indeed, as an accessibility consultant, you want to be able to provide a service that won't be always the same. Your mind wants something picking your interest, your curiosity, that feeds your need to resolve complex maters.
Of course through all these arguments, I prone the fact that companies should hire in-house accessibility specialists that will be able to support your teams in the long term, knowing full well the processes, strategies, intricacies, politics, and website/product/application of the company.
## Footnotes
1. Domains are:
* E-commerce and online services
* Banking services
* Air travel and other passenger transport (excluding government-run transport)
* Media streaming and telephony
* Computers and mobile devices (devices and softwares)
* Shops and restaurants (point of sales services, self-service devices, kiosks) ↩ Retour au texte 1
https://wonkythoughts.blogspot.com/2026/04/accessibility-specialists-consultants.html?m=1
