The Cost of Compliance: A Correlational Study of Institutional Expenditures and Web Accessibility at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Institutional websites provide an important pathway to higher education. For historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), their accessibility connects educational inclusion with recruitment and enrollment. This quantitative, nonexperimental, correlational study examined institutional expenditure and detected web accessibility barriers at 20 small, private HBCUs. IPEDS finance data for fiscal year 2024 were paired with accessibility assessments using WebAIM’s WAVE tool conducted in early 2026. Total core expenses per full-time equivalent (FTE) student were compared with error density, defined as detected errors divided by scanned page elements. The primary correlation was negative and not statistically significant, r (18) = −.237, p = .314, 95% CI [−.615, .229]. Correlations involving institutional support, academic support, and tuition dependence were also nonsignificant. The results did not establish that resources are irrelevant or that institutional priorities caused the observed variation. The cohort size, broad expenditure measures, and partial coverage of automated testing limit interpretation. Descriptive institutional profiles illustrated different combinations of expenditure and detected accessibility issues. Supplementary gross tuition scenarios applied alternative disability assumptions to fall headcount and annual published tuition and fees. Exposure was approximately $130.8 million at 38% and $62.0 million at 18%. These amounts describe tuition associated with assumed populations, not observed losses, forecasts, or counts of excluded applicants. The study supports coordinated institutional attention to accessibility across compliance, mission, and enrollment strategy, while leaving the causes of performance differences open to further research.