UserWay

Market position

The company positions itself as a leading global digital accessibility provider, citing installation on more than one million websites and recognition in Gartner's 2023 Accessibility Market Guide as a top technology vendor. It estimated the web accessibility market at $27 billion at the time of its 2022 IPO. It is now part of Level Access, a digital accessibility provider founded in 1997 that describes itself as the leading provider in the category; UserWay's automated remediation complements Level Access's platform, expert services and training.

Emphasis on rapid, low-effort deployment — one line of code, no source-code changes, coverage across major CMS platforms — with automated AI remediation applied at every page load rather than manual hand-coding, backed by human-in-the-loop review and administrator visibility into the accessibility layer. The company also spans the full stack from free widget to audits, scanning, VPATs, document accessibility and fully managed compliance services, including an empathy lab staffed by accessibility experts with disabilities and, for enterprise and public sector managed compliance customers, a $1 million guarantee and testing by blind staff.

Technology

AI-powered automated remediation technology (ART) applied at page load, reinforced by data from the existing install base and human-in-the-loop processes that give site administrators access to the machine-generated accessibility layer, covering image descriptions, navigation functions, pop-up behavior, form labels, vague and broken link states and page structure. Additional components include a source-code-level scanner and monitor with Jira integrations, an ARIA/accessibility editor with integrated screen reader for non-technical users, the research-based UserWay Dyslexia Font, and document accessibility tooling for Microsoft Office and PDF. The company states its technology is ISO 27001 certified and supports GDPR compliance without collecting or storing site visitor data.

Go-to-market

Self-serve, low-friction adoption via a free accessibility widget and free trials installed with a single code snippet across major CMS platforms and plain HTML/CSS/JS sites, combined with a sales-led motion for mid-market and enterprise buyers featuring demos, 15-minute discovery calls with accessibility experts and managed service engagements. Demand generation includes a free accessibility checker, educational content through UserWay University, published research such as its 2021 report on the economic impact of e-commerce inaccessibility, and celebrity awareness campaigns featuring Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri, and Dr. Orna Guralnik.

Small and medium businesses (under 1,000 employees), enterprises (over 1,000 employees), agencies and web developers, non-profits, and public sector/government buyers. Named users cited by the company and press include Payoneer, Fujitsu, The Motley Fool, Kodak, CHEQ, Beyond Meat, Fiverr, ICEE, DaVita, Mount Sinai, Thermo Fisher Scientific, eBay, Coca-Cola, Disney and Walmart.

Geography

Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, with Israeli roots and a TASE listing; the company opened an office in Warsaw, Poland in March 2022 after relocating Ukrainian team members and their families following the start of the war in Ukraine. Its solutions address accessibility regulations in the US, Canada, the EU, the UK, Israel and other jurisdictions referencing WCAG.

History

Founded September 2016; widget v1.0 released January 2017 and v2.0 in September 2017; audit services added September 2018; the UserWay Dyslexia Font, AI-powered widget v3.0 and scanning/monitoring launched in 2020, the year Dr. Lionel Wolberger joined as COO after 21 years at Cisco and UserWay University and the ARIA Editor launched. In 2021 the company appointed a Director of Accessibility, Wolberger was named co-chair of the W3C WAI-Adapt Task Force, the Susan Bennett campaign launched, and the company published e-commerce inaccessibility research and filed a draft IPO prospectus. In January 2022 UserWay completed an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under ticker UWAY at a company value of NIS 120 million, raising roughly NIS 30 million from institutional investors; the shares rose 50% on the first day. Also in 2022 it launched the Accessibility Editor and widget v4.0, relocated Ukrainian staff and opened a Warsaw office, appointed Yael Har Even as chairwoman of the board, and acquired WeCo Solutions for Microsoft Office and PDF document accessibility. In 2023 it launched UserWay Managed Accessibility and UserWay for MS PowerPoint, was cited in Gartner's Accessibility Market Guide, and agreed to be acquired by Level Access; the acquisition closed in March 2024.

Risks & controversies

In 2024 a class action lawsuit was filed against UserWay alleging that several of its claims were exaggerated, that its widgets did not ensure compliance and in some cases made websites harder to use for people with disabilities. The Financial Times reported in April 2024 that websites using UserWay and other accessibility widget vendors remain far from compliant with accessibility regulations, with some retaining basic accessibility errors, and the Level Access deal was noted as occurring amid ongoing controversy over accessibility overlays. Financially, the company was loss-making, reporting a $1.5 million net loss in the first half of 2023 after a $4.6 million loss in the prior-year period.