Blog 14 – Everyone benefits from digital accessibility
December 2024
I am new to the subject of digital accessibility following a successful career of more than 50 years in IT. I am no expert in the technical details of how to deliver accessibility. From my own personal experience accessibility of IT systems was rarely a topic mentioned by customers or suppliers. This explains why I have so little technical knowledge on the subject.
It is not my intent to become a technical expert, it’s too late and there are many people who are extremely knowledgeable on this. My focus is to raise the awareness with organisations who choose not to improve the accessibility of their websites and mobile apps.
Disabled people are part of the whole
I was fortunate to recently attend the excellent AbilityNet TechShare Pro event on digital accessibility. There were many excellent points made at TechShare Pro. One that really resonated with me was the notion that disabled people are part of the whole, it is not us and them but we. I believe this to be an important mindset in the delivery of inclusive digital services.
Re-reading my last blog it is obvious to me that by addressing most common accessibility errors will produce websites that are not only more accessible but more usable for everyone. Consider websites with good contrast, controls that are clearly labelled, no empty links and the consistent use of headings. Eradication of these errors are for the benefit of all.
A second takeaway from TechShare Pro was a statement made HSBC who hosted the event. They claimed that their goal is not to be perfect but to be the best in their industry. From listening to others more knowledgeable than myself I have concluded that there is no such thing as a perfectly accessible website. The Accessibility of a digital service is not binary, it’s about improving accessibility over time. In parallel changes to technology, standards, guidelines and legislation will move the goal posts to deliver improved accessibility.
Reasons organisations do not rise to the challenge
It appears to me that there are multiple reasons why organisations do not rise to the challenge to improve the accessibility (and usability) of their digital services. (1) ignorance of the problem (2) complexity (3) fear of getting it wrong (4) cost – often because it is considered too late in the development cycle.
Accessibility needs to be taken on board at the senior levels in organisations at board and C Suite. Improvements to accessibility is a journey and can and should be delivered in multiple releases over time with each release being an improvement on the previous release. Thereby accessibility improvements with be delivered to the benefit of all users of organisations’ data services.
Non-functional requirement
From a software development lifecycle approach Accessibility is classed as a Non-Functional Requirement (NFR). For many years I have specialised on the topic of Performance Engineering, another NFR, and I have firsthand experience of the difficulty to ensure that projects pay sufficient attention to performance along with other NFRs. In the absence of any known standard definition of NFRs, Wikipedia is a good place to start https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-functional_requirement for further information on NFRs. It is interesting to observe that Wikipedia lists NFRs in alphabetical order with Accessibility at the top of the list.
Including improvements to the most common accessibility errors may be a place for organisations to start the journey to improve the accessibility of their digital services. See my last blog Making the World Wide Web more Accessible https://archivesit.org.uk/blog-2/making-the-world-wide-web-more-accessible/
My Previous blogs for AIT:
- https://archivesit.org.uk/blog/the-it-industry-must-do-more-for-disabled-people/
- The IT Industry has standards and guidelines dating back a quarter of a century. https://archivesit.org.uk/blog/the-it-industry-must-do-more-for-disabled-people-part-two/
- (ESG) the potential silver bullet that I have been searching for to make a step change to the accessibility of digital services. https://archivesit.org.uk/blog/the-it-industry-must-do-more-for-disabled-people-part-six/
- A summary of the story so far, as told in parts 1 – 6. ?https://archivesit.org.uk/blog/the-it-industry-must-do-more-for-disabled-people-part-seven/
- Awareness is a lifetime experience. ?https://archivesit.org.uk/blog-2/the-it-industry-must-do-more-for-disabled-part-8/
- Legislation and regulation are required to improve digital accessibility, but there are significant benefits to be gained from self-regulation. ?https://archivesit.org.uk/blog/the-it-industry-can-do-more-for-disabled-people-part-nine/
- The Valuable 500 white paper on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) and Disability Data and says that all organisations should include W3C Web Content Accessibility Content within their Environment Social and Governance (ESG) programmes.
https://archivesit.org.uk/blog/ - Given there is digital accessibility legislation and regulation I ask why it isn’t always implemented.
https://archivesit.org.uk/blog-2/the-it-industry-can-do-more-for-the-disabled-part-11/ - Low colour contrast makes websites illegible
https://archivesit.org.uk/blog-2/low-colour-contrast-makes-websites-illegible/ - Making the World Wide Web more Accessible
https://archivesit.org.uk/blog-2/making-the-world-wide-web-more-accessible/
About the author
Chris Winter FIET FBCS CITP is an Advocate for the Digital Poverty Alliance, an evangelist for digital accessibility and a former IBM Fellow, now retired.
About the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA)
The DPA defines Digital Poverty with five key determinants: the affordability of devices and connectivity, accessibility (for the disabled), skills, motivation and a lack of ongoing support. With the breadth of digital poverty being so broad. Its objective is to eradicate digital poverty in the UK by 2030.
