Budgeting for Accessibility

When beginning to budget for accessibility, keep these larger principles in mind:

• Align your budget with your values
  Use your budget to reflect your organization’s mission and priorities. Treat accessibility as a core value, not an afterthought, and ensure that your financial planning supports it.
• Frame accessibility costs as integral to your operations
  Don’t view accessibility expenses as separate from the cost of doing business; instead, include them as an essential part of your daily operations and regular budgeting. Similarly, include accessibility expenses in your budgets for grant proposals as essential expenses.
• Remember your responsibilities
  Remember that under federal, state and local laws, your organization has responsibilities to provide physical, programmatic and communications access. Budgeting for these also ensures that you are in compliance

Knowing which accessibility needs to anticipate will help you in your budgeting process. These guidelines are useful steps to follow:

• Conduct an access audit or self-assessment
  Work with expert individuals or organizations to conduct an accessibility audit. You might also conduct your own self-assessment (using a tool such as the Arts and Culture Accessibility Self-Assessment) to better understand what your organization already offers, then to determine areas for improvement. This auditing process should review the accessibility of your physical spaces, programs and events, access services, digital accessibility, communications, policies, etc. Learn more in the Self-Evaluation and Transition Plans page of the Hub.
• Gather feedback
  In assessing your organization’s accessibility, solicit feedback from people with various disabilities, such as user/experts, community members with disabilities, and disability organizations to identify barriers, needs, and concerns. This can be done through event surveys, focus groups, user/expert visits, etc. Reach out to communities that may not currently engage with your organization to better understand what may be getting in the way. Keep a record of access requests and any reported grievances (learn more in the Grievance Procedure page of the Hub) to ensure they inform your access work and priorities moving forward. Be sure to compensate those who provide feedback for their time and expertise.

The next step in effective accessibility budgeting is to determine your organization’s priorities, using the approaches below:

• Review needs identified
  Once you have a better understanding of what you are committed to providing and improving on as an organization, create an accessibility plan or transition plan (see the Self-Evaluation and Transition Plans page for more information). Remember that many accessibility improvements do not have costs associated with them, and may simply require reallocations of staff time, changes in mindset and approach, or policy reviews.
• Estimate costs
  For each identified need that has a cost associated with it, reach out to experts, vendors, or service providers to get a rough estimate of costs. These could include one-time or recurring costs such as:
  • Capital repairs or upgrades such as installing new ramps, accessible restrooms, elevators or lifts, switch-operated doors, etc.
  • Assistive technology and equipment provided by your organization such as assistive listening systems and/or devices, headsets for audio description, microphones, etc.
  • Training and consulting costs, such as accessibility training for staff, access consulting or audits, compensation for user/experts, etc.
  • Access services including sign language interpretation, captioning, audio description, etc. Estimate costs for planned services (such as ASL-interpreted performances, captioning for videos, etc.) and budget for additional individual requests that may come in from patrons. (Visit the Hub page on Providing Services and Fulfilling Requests to better understand your responsibilities and learn best practices.)
  • Accessible materials such as braille materials, tactile maps, etc.
  • Time and preparation including staff time for coordination, rehearsal or preparation time for access service providers, etc.
  • Unexpected costs or repairs including replacing faulty devices or damaged materials, unusually high requests for accommodations, etc.
  • Staff accommodations to perform their jobs, including assistive technology, software, space modifications, etc.
• Determine priorities
  Many factors can contribute to organizational decision-making around how to prioritize accessibility investments, including community demand and feedback, frequency of requests, alignment with mission and vision, and other strategic priorities and projects of your organization.

Once you’ve thoroughly evaluated your organization’s accessibility needs and priorities, then you can work on building your budget, using the considerations below:

• Create program, department, and organizational budgets
  Remember that budgeting for accessibility should include designated line items for accessibility across departments and programs, ensuring that access is not siloed but integrated into all aspects of organizational planning and spending.
• Determine timelines
  Determine which accessibility costs are ongoing (such as access services, maintenance, etc.) and which are one-time. For one-time or project-specific costs (such as equipment, physical space improvements, consultation, etc.), prioritize them into short term, medium term, long term goals. This will help you understand the steps that need to be taken, as well as whether they should be included in the next year’s budget or in a longer-term financial or fundraising plan.
• Identify sources of funding
  These could include general operating funds (current budget or reserves), fundraising (specific grants or targeted campaigns), increased revenue (from greater accessibility attracting more patrons), and in-kind donations or partnerships. Remember, accessibility costs that are part of your regular programming should be part of your organization’s regular costs of doing business, and as such, should be included in any grant proposal budget.

Finally, an essential part of budgeting is reviewing actual expenses and adjusting future plans. Keep these guidelines in mind as you do so:

• Track and review accessibility spending
  At the end of each year, compare your actual spending on accessibility to the budgeted amount. Did you spend as planned? Were there any unanticipated costs?
• Refine and expand your access budget
  Use your year-end review to refine your accessibility budget for the next year. Incorporate any new accessibility needs that were identified, or expand the line items for ongoing services. Don’t be discouraged by the need for ongoing adjustments. Continuously monitor and adjust your budget based on what you learn from tracking actual expenses. Over time, this process will allow you to develop a robust, sustainable approach to accessibility.