When we think of the current situation – with majority of websites and applications having accessibility issues – we can also think about accessibility as a commercial advantage. But first things first – making things accessible is the right thing to do by itself – to not discriminate people should be enough for everybody. But realistically there are some stakeholders that don’t understand or don’t want to understand that yet and can see it as a compliance / legal risk with low to none benefits for their profits. I hope I can maybe change their minds with this short post.
Leading the way with accessible deliveries is for sure commercial advantage
When we look at the history of web and mobile and then compare it with history of digital accessibility we may notice that digital accessibility isn’t something new. At the same time we may notice that standards like Web Content Accessibility Guidelines do need time to catch on advancements in technological development. Obvious case is the WCAG version 2.1 that needed ten years after WCAG 2.0. In that time we got mobile first user base and it was really high time to add additional mobile and cognitive guidelines.
With WCAG 2.2 soon to be released (WCAG 2.2 is scheduled by December 2022, opens in new window), we can notice that release periods will now be shorter and that businesses will have to adapt faster. But with current situation we may detect that even WCAG 2.0 is still a problem to conform to, at least for majority of businesses, so catching up is critical as soon as possible.
To lead with accessibility means to invest in the knowledge and adjust the deliveries. This is not an easy task to do, even on personal level. On company level it’s even more difficult, as it needs the whole organization to understand and accept the best practices.
To lead with accessibility means to invest in the knowledge and adjust the deliveries.
my reflection on how to lead with accessibility.
I think that with current progress on the technological levels we should make it normal to also follow up on the accessibility requirements and even try to overcome them and reach out further.
This kind of progressive accessibility leadership would make sure our deliveries – like web and mobile – will be and stay accessible. With current situations where accessibility is finally getting more attention it will for sure add to our market opportunities, spanning even further than public sector and covering more and more of private sector as well.
This is especially true in the European Union when we think about the accessibility perspective in their strategies like Web Accessibility Directive and recent European accessibility act. I suspect that EU will only add additional segments to be required to deliver accessible product to people as it is only logical to conclude that final goal is that everything is as accessible as possible.
Investing into accessibility means investing in knowledge and reaching out to people with disabilities
I think that becoming an accessibility leader as a company or even as a private person means investing into knowledge and understanding real people – also real people with real disabilities. This means to me that we need to learn more about people perspective and complement it with technical knowledge.
Learning WCAG alone is not enough to make things really accessible. It’s not so difficult to make a digital product conforming to WCAG and inaccessible at the same time. So to be able to make deliveries really accessible we need to understand how people with disabilities use the web. Sometimes it’s very clear what we need to do by only following WCAG. Other times it’s not so easy and can even seem to fix things for some people and break things for others at the same time. That’s why we need to invest more in knowledge and experience and getting outside help from veterans plus communicate and test products with people with disabilities.
I will not go into all the positive benefits of doing so, but I think it is logical that making our products reach up to 25% more users is worth the investments. At the same time it costs almost nothing when we implement accessibility from the start and be proactive about it. Retro-fitting it is always a big burden and may be also the reason why accessibility gets so much negative attention in some circles. When companies treat it as an integral part, from start on, trying to make things simple and test with people with disabilities it may be possible to make accessible products that work for everybody. Then our investments return in better user experiences, better loyalty and better sustainable business.
