If only a single person or a few persons in the organization think of accessibility, then they have a lot to do, they must be included in the processes, deliveries, kick-off meetings and so on.
Ideally should whole organization be at least aware of the importance of accessibility and reuse common patterns and dogmas as often as possible.
I am not referring only to technical accessibility – it is just a part of the whole concept.
Some short ideas that could help to really bake in accessibility into organization;
- When looking for new employees we should make sure we inform them about our internal values and one of them must be accessibility. If we are looking for creative people that will actually have hands-on tasks, then it is smart to flag the conceptual or technical accessibility experiences as a positive factor but not exclude people that had no previous experience and promise to build their competencies systematically,
- New employee on-boarding – besides all other things it should also include a short accessibility fact check at least. Is the new employee aware of the benefits and values of accessibility and are there any experiences from before or should we invest more time into awareness…
- Mapping and grading accessibility experience over whole organization that should know about it and use it for their tasks and then making a improvements plan with action points – like internal courses, empathy workshops, live testing sessions and so on.
- Assigning executives to be role-models and promoters of accessibility – leading by example is the best leading – and at the same time not just talk but also show – dedicate budget and organize strategic task-force for continuous accessibility improvements etc.
I will post additional thoughts when I investigate a bit more on this matter as it is crucial for any organization to embed accessibility into it’s core and toward the edges. The only way to overcome compliance focused accessibility and focus more on the users of the products that will benefit from it and awareness of the win-win situation it can establish.
