Chief accessibility officer

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The chief accessibility officer (CAO) is a C-suite executive position within an organization. The role exists in organizations to improve accessibility for people with physical or mental disabilities.^[1]

Key responsibilities of the CAO include ensuring the organization provides accessible products, services and employment for people with disabilities. An organization with a CAO may choose to extend accessibility efforts beyond compliance and assert accessibility as a core business value. Organizations that have adopted a CAO include IBM (2014) and Microsoft (2010) along with the Swedish Public Employment Service (2020).

According to JJ Hanley of JJ's List, the CAO is "somebody who is simultaneously intimately familiar with the company’s product or service offerings and how consumers experience those offerings".^[2] The name was first introduced as a position in 2014.