Key Points in This Article:
- More than 1 in 4 adults in the United States report having a disability, making accessibility a significant factor in how many potential customers can actually use a cannabis brand’s website.
- Accessible websites can expand a business’s addressable audience by 15 to 20%, according to industry research on ADA compliance.
- Roughly 95% of websites fail basic accessibility standards, meaning most cannabis competitors are not prioritizing this either, which creates a real opportunity to stand out.
- Accessibility improvements often overlap directly with SEO best practices, meaning the same work that makes a site more usable also tends to make it easier to find.
- Cannabis businesses face additional accessibility considerations in packaging and in-store experience, not just on their websites.
An Overlooked Opportunity in a Crowded Market
Cannabis branding conversations tend to focus on the obvious: logo design, packaging aesthetics, color palettes, and brand voice. Accessibility rarely comes up, and that’s a missed opportunity. As more cannabis brands compete for the same customers, the businesses willing to think beyond the basics are the ones that stand to differentiate themselves the most.
Accessibility, designing products, packaging, and digital experiences that work for people with disabilities, is one of those areas. It is not a small niche concern. More than 1 in 4 adults in the United States report having a disability of some kind, according to CDC data. That is a substantial portion of any cannabis brand’s potential customer base, and it includes people managing vision impairments, hearing loss, mobility limitations, and cognitive disabilities, among others.
What Accessibility Actually Means for a Cannabis Brand
Accessibility touches more parts of a cannabis business than most people initially realize. It is not only about a website’s code. It shapes the entire customer experience.
Website accessibility. This includes things like proper color contrast so text is readable for people with low vision, alt text on images so screen readers can describe visual content, keyboard navigation for customers who cannot use a mouse, and clear, consistent site structure that makes navigation predictable rather than confusing. These details matter for any website, but they matter especially for cannabis, where customers may already feel some hesitation or unfamiliarity navigating a dispensary’s online menu for the first time.
Packaging and labeling. Physical accessibility matters too. Clear, high-contrast text on packaging, legible font sizes, and thoughtful layout all help customers with vision impairments understand what they are purchasing, including important information like dosage and warnings.
In-store and brand experience. For dispensaries with physical locations, accessibility extends to signage, product displays, and staff training around serving customers with disabilities respectfully and effectively.
The Business Case for Accessibility
Beyond simply being the right thing to do, accessibility carries real business value. Research on ADA-compliant websites suggests that accessible design can expand a business’s addressable audience by 15 to 20%. For a cannabis brand competing in a crowded, increasingly saturated market, that is not a small number. It represents a meaningful segment of potential customers that an inaccessible website is currently failing to reach.
There is also a competitive angle that most cannabis brands have not caught onto yet. Across the web broadly, an estimated 95% of websites fail basic accessibility standards. That statistic holds across most industries, and cannabis is no exception. Most cannabis competitors are not prioritizing accessibility, which means a brand that does gets a genuine point of differentiation, not just a compliance checkbox.
Accessibility and SEO also overlap more than people expect. Many of the same practices that improve accessibility, clear site structure, descriptive alt text, logical navigation, and well-organized content, are the same practices search engines reward. A cannabis brand investing in accessibility is often improving its organic search performance at the same time, which matters enormously given how much cannabis marketing depends on organic visibility rather than paid advertising.
Accessibility Reduces Legal Risk Too
There is a practical risk-management dimension here as well. ADA-related website lawsuits have continued to climb in recent years, and while much of that litigation has historically targeted e-commerce broadly, no industry is immune, including cannabis. Building accessibility into a website from the start is far less costly, in both time and money, than retrofitting a site after a complaint or a legal notice arrives. For an industry already navigating a dense regulatory landscape, reducing exposure to yet another category of legal risk is a meaningful benefit on its own.
Building Accessibility In From the Start
The businesses that handle accessibility most successfully tend to build it in from the beginning rather than treating it as a fix applied after launch. That means considering accessibility during the website design phase, factoring it into packaging design decisions early, and training staff on accessible customer service practices before a location opens rather than after a customer has a poor experience.
This approach also tends to be more cost effective. Comprehensive accessibility remediation on an existing site can take weeks and require substantial rework. Building accessible practices into a project from day one avoids that entirely, and it tends to produce a cleaner, more thoughtful final product across the board, not just on the accessibility front.
A Partner Who Treats Accessibility as a Core Discipline
At D. Foster Marketing, accessibility is not an afterthought we bolt onto a finished website. It is part of how we approach design and development from the very first conversation, across every industry we serve, including cannabis. We believe a brand that works for more people is simply a stronger brand, and we build with that principle in mind from the start.
Ready to build a cannabis brand and website that works for everyone? Contact D. Foster Marketing today for a free clarity call and let’s talk about what accessible, thoughtful design could look like for your business.
Dawn Foster is an unapologetic branding and marketing nerd who is passionate about research, analytics, and great storytelling through words and images. She is focused on helping business owners build and evolve their businesses with the right branding and marketing strategies and tactics. She has helped transform business owners into powerhouses through research, strategic planning, content development, education, and empowerment so that they can achieve success and reach their goals. As a business owner, her goal is to see others win, support her community, and do what she loves.
