Digital accessibility, or a11y as often written in shorthand, is incredibly important but still widely misunderstood in the design and development process. While usability impediments persist for people with physical, visual, cognitive, speech and auditory disabilities, designing with accessibility built-in benefits all users. Companies must understand the impacts of neglecting accessibility practices so that they can adjust their methodology and overall culture to deliver the best products and services.
Understanding and following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is one way to make information online more accessible to people with disabilities. Educating your organization on these guidelines and permanent, temporary and situational impairments and how context impacts the extent of disability is critical.
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Inaccessible environments (such as buildings without ramps for wheelchair users) create disadvantages by putting up barriers to inclusion. These types of barriers exist in the digital world as well, such as video content that does not have text or audio alternatives. To be competitive and do the right thing, companies need to prioritize accessibility, not only because customers expect it but also because it expands market share and ROI for your products and services. Accessibility should be a top priority for any organization that wants to be on the cutting edge of business. Consider a few motivations across sectors:
1. Government agencies may be strongly motivated by legal and equity aspects.
2. Commercial businesses may be more persuaded by innovation and market expansion opportunities.
3. Educational and nonprofit organizations may be especially drawn to brand enhancement.
According to W3.orgOpens a new window , when accessibility is part of strategic planning, businesses are better equipped for success in our connected world of commerce, academia, and civic engagement. With that in mind, here are three myths that are continually perpetuated about accessibility and how a company can make its content more accessible to all.
Myth 1: Only a Small Percentage of Users Need Accessible Website or Applications
This is not true. According to the World Health OrganizationOpens a new window , over 1 billion people live with some form of disability globally or about 15% of the population. That number is increasing rapidly due to a rise in chronic health conditions and population aging. The WHO also predicts that almost everyone is likely to experience some form of disability, temporary or permanent, at some point in life. This could look like breaking your arm or losing your hearing as you age, for example.
Among accessibility advocates, there is a saying, “accessibility is essential for some, and useful for all.†Accessibility improvements are essential for equal access, but they also provide options that are useful to everyone, which lead to improvements in general customer experience and loyalty. Accessibility is all about making access to information and functionalities easier for people. For instance, digital accessibility would bring benefits for:
- People using mobile phones, smartwatches and other devices with small screens or different input modes
- Older people with changing abilities due to aging
- People with “temporary disabilities†such as a broken arm or lost glasses
- Users in challenging environmental situations like bright, glaring sunlight or noisy spaces where audio can’t be hear
- Those with a slow internet connection or limited bandwidth, which is common in rural areas and some geographical regions
- Having accessibility features embedded in a product or service will deliver more value in general as it directly improves the overall user experience for everyone. These features help users do tasks more efficiently and effectively every day, regardless of ability.
Myth 2: It Will Take Too Much Time and Money To Make Our Website or Application Accessible
If you attempt to add accessibility as an afterthought, it may require refactoring that is costly and ineffective. Instead, it must be built into the culture of your organization and operation practices. Businesses that incorporate accessibility are more inclusive enterprises, reaching a larger audience with positive and trusted brand messaging that meets legal and social standards.
Everyone should have the same opportunities to interact with the economy and society via the internet in ways that address their needs. With digital accessibility, companies can expand their market share by offering their products to a broader audience.
They can also manage the risk exposure that comes from compliance violations. For example, the National Association of the Deaf won a lawsuitOpens a new window against Netflix in 2012 that established the Americans with Disabilities ActOpens a new window for online businesses. As companies are under greater pressure to meet social justice concerns and investors and stakeholders alike increasingly pay attention to ESG initiatives, incorporating accessible design will benefit more than costs.
Myth 3: Accessibility Is Only Needed at One Step of the Development Process
It’s everyone’s responsibility to think about accessibility early and often in the design and development process to save time, effort, and money on the discovery-delivery cycles. With an agile environment, we create fast, flexible, and customer-first organizations. Breaking silos means that the whole organization needs to collaborate for projects actively to be truly accessible. It won’t work for one person or team to take on accessibility at only one stage of development; it must be present throughout the project’s lifecycle.
Accessibility cannot be an afterthought; it must be embedded as best practices in an organization. Decisions need to be made from the beginning and throughout the project’s lifecycle with accessibility in mind. Otherwise, organizations will just be introducing accessibility debt into their projects. This requires a proper system that includes product owners, researchers, content makers, designers, developers, and QA testers so that accessibility does not take a back seat to the creation of new features.
So, How Can These Best Practices Be Implemented?
At Emergn, where I am an experience design lead, we wanted to tackle this culture shift internally by creating a training process to better educate our global workforce on the importance of accessibility. Our team members crafted several training sessions for our marketing, quality assurance, and design practices, pinpointing their specific needs like design, content, or development so that learnings were tailored to employees’ roles and responsibilities. The process followed four stages:
1. Create a central team to manage the accessibility transformation initiative
2. Execute an empathy program (the training sessions) to drive understanding towards accessibility and motivation to make it part of their daily way of working
3. Make high-quality learning resources available across the organization
4. Look for accessibility champions within agile teams to be advocates for accessibility standards
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Promoting Accessibility Creates Organizational and Social Impact
By implementing these pieces of training and exposing the myths around accessibility, teams will become stronger and better equipped to build great inclusive and accessible products and services. Organizations can initiate a culture transformation by sharing established best practices and tools to support the implementation of accessibility guidelines. When awareness of accessibility is raised continuously as a topic, an organization will become more thoughtful and therefore be positioned to create greater social impact and leverage the business opportunities it provides.
How have you integrated accessibility into your design and development process? Share your experiences on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window ..