Web Accessibility Directive (WAD) made feedback mechanism a must for public sector websites and mobile applications in the European Union. With such mechanisms users can flag accessibility issues and, if needed, request information in an accessible format.
Current reality – few use feedback mechanisms – because they don’t know about it
Having the possibility is not enough.
People need to know about it and people need to use it.
As WAD is approaching it’s fifth birthday I still wonder why there is not enough awareness about it in the main steam media and in public sector in general.
Now I am generalizing here, but please check the situation in your country and comment here. I am afraid, that my generalization is unfortunately applicable throughout the countries in Europe. I am waiting for the new WAD reports that are due by the end of this year, but as far as I know after talking about this with specialists from multiple countries, it’s unfortunately so.
Organizations of people with disabilities are doing some awareness building as well and there are different international projects that try to educate both stakeholders and end users, but I really wish that awareness building would reach main stream media for best reach. I feel that we have a common responsibility here and that we need to promote giving and receiving accessibility feedback, so that we spread the awareness and eventually things will improve.
Why should we implement accessibility feedback?
Having a dedicated accessibility feedback – as we know how inaccessible is the digital world – should be a must for any type of organization. We should do all we can to promote feedback, so that we can learn and improve. And this is extremely important when it comes to accessibility, because we can literally discriminate people without knowing it.
But having a mechanism alone is not enough. We also need to prioritize the feedback, we need to build the awareness, we need to spread the knowledge internally, so that feedback will get proper attention and resolution. The worst thing to do is to have the feedback mechanism and ignore the feedback.
When I start supporting organizations with accessibility, I always check if they got any feedback on accessibility. Sometimes stakeholders just dismiss it by saying – we can’t implement everything people want us to.
And that’s sometimes fair, but they often fail to understand that any feedback is a potential treasure, but accessibility feedback often is a treasure. And we need to treat it like that. Especially when people are providing it voluntarily, or because they need help with our products and services. And we need to respect their efforts and treat them with respect.
WAD mentions “reasonable period of time” (opens in new window) for “legitimate and reasonable request” and that is indeed a key component. But we first need knowledge to assess if a request is “legitimate and reasonable”. And then we need to know what we need to do, for example – how to provide an accessible alternative.
So – in reality “feedback mechanism” is much more than feedback mechanism. It requires accessibility knowledge in our organization. It requires us to know more about accessibility. And with this awareness and knowledge we also kind of prevent the need for feedback, with time, at least. Because we know what to do to make things more accessible and minimize the need for accessibility feedback.
So – once again – it comes down to awareness and knowledge. And it shouldn’t just apply to public sector. Actually, if you are not convinced, do the math – what is the statistics for disabilities in your country? Then add the possibilities for temporary and situational disabilities. Add also people that are just getting to know web and mobile and elderly. And then consider how much potential is there for your product or service?
Every country is different, every organization as well and yes, because people are different and so are our needs.
My suggestion: make dedicated accessibility feedback page or view (and processes that support it), learn more about accessibility and systematically make your services and products more accessible. It will help people and with that – it will help you.
