Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are getting more attention and that is well deserved. But personally I often find myself missing accessibility as part of the DEI. It is important to acknowledge, embrace, support and accept all racial, sexual, gender, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, absolutely. But if we also forget about people with disabilities, “visible” and “hidden” alike, we are failing at DEI.
I decided to reach out of only writing about web accessibility because we need to also get our minds more open to the whole DEI spectrum. At the same time we should also embrace accessibility and I really believe everybody has a responsibility there. Even if you only send an email or post on your favorite social media, publish a video or a blog. You as a creator of digital content should be aware of the requirements and guidelines that make your content accessible to more people, ideally all.
Textual alternatives, captions, readable font choices, good structure, good color contrasts and other basics really do have an effect. Recently there has also been a positive trend on neurodiversity best practices and clear and simple to understand content can again help much more people than just people with disabilities. Living in a foreign country, still learning language of it I have a personal experience about this. Sure, I can decipher also more advanced texts but it takes a lot of time and energy and I really appreciate when authors embrace diversity and inclusion and make the texts more accessible to me and others.
Everybody should learn the basics of accessibility to improve our digital societies
I’ve written about me wondering about how it is possible that “mainstream” literally ignores accessibility guidelines for decades. And I still can’t get it. Luckily there are others that can help accessibility on a scale. For example big technology providers that embed accessibility features, promote them and slowly make them a default. But this is not enough. Everybody should learn at least basics, so that with time we would all default to making our digital content more accessible.
I understand that sometimes this may seem to block progress. Like for example thinking about how to make hot new technologies accessible to all. But please remember – some services we take for granted today were actually made to help people with disabilities. Inclusive design, universal design, accessibility from start should and can help reaching more people, building brand loyalty and if you really want it – giving back best return of invest.
It’s about the people, by the people and with help of amazing technologies. If we all take our part, just the basics would improve a lot, quickly, for a lot of people.