Should You Hire Staff or Buy Accessibility Software?
An illustrative cost and staffing model for evaluating accessibility workflows
Compare the software fee with staffing, review, manual repair, and publication costs before calculating savings or ROI.
Staffing, workloads, and timelines below are hypothetical planning assumptions, not measured customer results. Software fees do not include your institution's review or unresolved manual work, and the defined allowance may not cover the assumed corpus.
The Quick Answer
Compare Build and Buy Against Your Requirements
Why? Hiring and setup can consume a substantial part of your planning window. Assess your applicable date, corpus, and review capacity before deciding to:
- Post job openings (4-8 weeks)
- Interview and hire (6-12 weeks)
- Onboard and train (4-8 weeks)
- Measure the corpus and manual remediation effort before setting a completion date
Hypothetical hiring ramp-up: 14-28 weeks before remediation starts. Compare this with your institution's actual milestone.
Build (Hire Staff) if:
- You have 12+ months before deadline
- You need <5 courses remediated per year
- You have complex institutional requirements
- You have >$200K/year budget
Buy (Software) if:
- Applicable accessibility milestone is approaching
- You have 10+ courses to remediate
- You have STEM content (LaTeX)
- You want predictable costs
Illustrative Cost Model (3 Years)
Scroll horizontally if needed to view every column.
| Cost Category | Build (2 FTEs) | Buy (Aelira) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| YEAR 1 | |||
| Assumed salaries (2 × $65K) | $130,000 | – | – |
| Benefits (30%) | $39,000 | – | – |
| Recruitment costs | $8,000 | – | – |
| Training & onboarding | $6,000 | – | – |
| Equipment & software | $6,000 | – | – |
| Management overhead (10% of preceding staffing costs) | $18,900 | – | – |
| Software licensing | – | $17,988 | – |
| Year 1 Total | $207,900 | $17,988 | $189,912 |
| YEAR 2 | |||
| Assumed recurring salaries + benefits + overhead | $194,675 | – | – |
| Software licensing | – | $17,988 | – |
| Year 2 Total | $194,675 | $17,988 | $176,687 |
| YEAR 3 | |||
| Year 2 recurring assumption × 1.03 (rounded) | $200,515 | – | – |
| Software licensing | – | $17,988 | – |
| Year 3 Total | $200,515 | $17,988 | $182,527 |
| 3-YEAR TOTAL | $603,090 | $53,964 | $549,126 |
| Illustrative cost difference: $549,126 over 3 years before software-assisted review, manual repair, and other institutional costs. This is not a savings or ROI estimate. | |||
Hidden Costs of Building NOT Included Above
- Turnover risk: Model recruiting, training, and continuity costs using your own staffing assumptions
- PTO coverage: Who does the work when staff are on vacation/sick leave?
- Skill gaps: LaTeX conversion requires specialized knowledge
- Tool maintenance: Adobe Acrobat Pro, screen readers, testing tools
- QA overhead: Who reviews their work for quality?
Time-to-Value Comparison
Build: 20-36 Weeks
Job Posting & Recruitment
Post job, screen resumes, conduct interviews, make offers
Notice Period
Wait for new hire to finish current job (2-4 weeks typical)
Onboarding & Training
Learn your systems, LMS, processes, tools, WCAG standards
First Results
Begin manual remediation; measure effort on representative courses
⏰ Problem: A long hiring ramp-up can reduce the time available for testing, manual fixes, and publication.
Buy: Illustrative Pilot Setup
Sign Up
Agree access, configuration, scope, and quote
Upload Files
Drag-and-drop or bulk CLI upload
Processing
Run supported workflows; record available saved candidates and unresolved findings
Review & Approve
Staff review saved outputs and measure remaining manual work before approval
Pilot goal: Measure processing, review, manual repair, and publication time on your own files
When Building (Hiring Staff) Makes Sense
There ARE scenarios where hiring staff is the right choice. Here's when:
1. Very Large Institution (R1 Research University)
- 50,000+ students, 5,000+ courses
- Ongoing accessibility work (not one-time remediation)
- Need dedicated accessibility center
- Budget for 5+ FTE accessibility team
Even here, buy software for bulk processing + hire staff for strategy/oversight
2. Unique Institutional Requirements
- Classified/sensitive content (can't upload to cloud)
- Extremely custom workflows (not supported by vendors)
- Legacy systems with no API access
Rare cases. Most universities don't fall into this category.
3. Long Timeline (No Urgent Deadline)
- 18+ months before compliance deadline
- Proactive accessibility program (not reactive)
- Low volume (<5 courses/year needing remediation)
Applicability depends on your institution's timeline and implementation capacity
Final Recommendation
The Hybrid Approach (Best of Both Worlds)
Step 1: Pilot Aelira on a representative corpus and measure supported partial fixes and review effort
Step 2: Hire 1 part-time accessibility coordinator (10-20 hrs/week)
Their role: Review AI fixes, handle edge cases, train faculty, report to leadership
Total Cost: ~$25K/year (software + part-time coordinator)
vs. $208K/year for 2 FTEs
Run the Numbers on Your Own Situation
Join the pilot program and we'll walk your build vs. buy analysis through with real figures from your institution.
Join a bounded pilot to test supported workflows against your institution's obligations.
Related Resources
Comparisons are based on publicly available information as of August 2026 and reflect Aelira's views. Competitor features and pricing change over time; verify current details with each vendor. This page was authored by Aelira.