Access to Accessibility of Digital Products
Why implementing the rules of accessibility of digital products is so important from a business and social point of view.
Accessibility – what is it?
In general, accessibility means the level to which a given thing/functionality can be used by the largest possible group of people. In the case of accessibility, it is not so much about ergonomics or ease of use, but about the ability to use a given thing, functionality or the properties of both.
Accessibility affects every area of our lives, and until recently the problems associated with it have accumulated mainly in architecture and public spaces. However, nowadays, when more and more services are being transferred to the virtual world, more and more activities such as money-dialing are moving to the automated sphere (i.e., ATMs), and e-commerce is ticking off more percentage points in terms of its share of commerce, it is impossible not to talk about accessibility in terms of digital services in the broadest sense. In fact, we can say, nay, it must not be forgotten! There are many reasons for that: both economic and social.
Who may be affected by accessibility restrictions?
It seems that the answer is obvious, because we can quite easily identify the people who could be the victims of the limited availability of digital services. Often the first thing that comes to mind are the visually impaired or blind, or hard of hearing, people with mobility limitations and so on. And these would be totally correct examples, however, this does not fully exhaust the pool of people who may also be excluded. It is also important to remember that exclusion does not have to be permanent.
Some limitations may be temporary (e.g., resulting from an injury, surgery, etc.), and others will appear only with age (the progressive aging of society). In addition, another very important group here are carers; people who, although they themselves are not physically or mentally impaired , theybtake care of their dependents (children, older people, people with disabilities, the chronically ill). These people can also often become temporary or permanent victims of exclusion.
Europe is undoubtedly aging, in all probability people who today enjoy full health or are healthy enough to enjoy the benefits of digitization could well become victims of neglect in this regard in the near or distant futur . And this could have a huge impact not only on the well-being and welfare of individuals, but also on the wider development of both society and business.
It’s better to think ahead
Should we implement accessibility right away, while implementing features say, or, implement it in a subsequent iteration? This is a difficult question and there is no single answer to this, however, based on my experience so far, I lean towards option number one, i.e. implementation on the fly.
There are several reasons why I wouldn’t suggest waiting to bring websites and applications into compliance with accessibility rules. First of all, doing it on the fly, while we are still working on mockups and designs, is often much cheaper than applying updates later, which may not be so easy to do. It may require rebuilding the entire functionality, and some ultimately may simply be impossible to do.
Of course, ensuring accessibility to our applications or a site is not without cost, and often forces us to use limited solutions. For example, we may give up the vision of an animated colorful design, to be replaced with a simpler, sometimes more monochromatic design. Besides that, designing solutions in the spirit of accessibility, and then implementing them, may also require well skilled designers and frontend developers, and of course, there’s the time they will need to dedicate to implement these solutions to consider. In this approach, the correct implementation of accessibility very often requires, for example, using the correct HTML element (e.g. <p> for a paragraph instead of a <div> tag).
It often happens that implementing even such simple changes after implementing a feature can be very expensive (additional tests, deployments, often needing to introduce a new employee to the project, granting access, etc.). These are just some of the reasons why making adjustments to an already finished product could be more expensive than implementing them on the fly.
It’s no use crying over spilled milk – the product is in production but there is lack of accessibility
Until recently it was standard that products were not adapted to the needs of accessibility. However, there has come the time when products now need to be expanded to include these features, and this is where the problems very often appear.
Of course, one solution would be to use the sources we have on board – we delegate a programmer or a group of programmers (depending on our needs) and a designer to adapt our product to the new requirements. However, this is not the only solution, and we can’t always afford it either.
If for some reason we don’t want to or can’t use our developers, more and more companies are appearing on the market that specialize in auditing and adapting customers’ products to the requirements of accessibility . We can always ask them for some help.
Regardless of our choice of solution, we must remember there are higher costs we could incur by not implementing accessibility recommendations on the fly.
Implementing tools for accessibility
There are various tools available in the form of overlays, browser plug-ins, etc. that can make (for example) a website more accessible. However, these kinds of solutions do not always work, because for such tools to work well we need a site with properly constructed HTML code, which is not always the standard.
In the age of AI, more and more tools will undoubtedly emerge to automatically adjust our products to meet accessibility requirements. I guess that in time, as in many other cases, these tools will replace manual human work, however, it is important to remember that the AI algorithm is based on the data we feed it. Unfortunately, in terms of the proper building of websites and adapting them to the needs of people with different needs and limitations, at this point in time, things are not too good yet, and unfortunately there is a good chance that the AI could be fed with bugged data and may replicate these bugs. The idea of accessibility should not be about the appearance of implementing it, but about real actions that can meet the real needs of people and bring about real benefits.
Why accessibility is so important from a business point of view The European Accessibility Act (EAA)
Making digital services accessible is not just wishful thinking, nor does it only depend on the goodwill of the providers of these services. In the European Union, such an obligation has already been partially imposed on public benefit web portals and other similar sites.
According to DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/882 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 17th, 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services, a number of entities are required to implement accessibility rules in their digital products by June 28th, 2025. After that date, a lack of accessibility facilities (e.g., for book readers, ATMs, web portals, etc.) may result in financial penalties. Additionally, a company could incur costs in terms of its public image, because in times of a growing demand for inclusiveness, businesses do not want to be associated with any product/company/service that does not represent these values.
WAI, W3C and WCAG
The enormous number of requirements that need to be met can be overwhelming. However, there is help at hand: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This is a set of guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium W3C, on how to make web content more accessible to people with various types of disabilities. This is a very comprehensive document, which explains in a fairly thorough way (including with specific examples) how to implement accessibility on websites. It gives specific examples of use and on how to implement them. This is an invaluable resource for developers and designers. The current version of the guidelines is WCAG 2.
Why accessibility is important from a social point of view
Perhaps this argument should have been made at the beginning of the article. Because although the implementation of accessibility will not directly generate profit for any business itself (indirectly, yes), more importantly it works to improve the well-being of the digitally excluded. Digital exclusion may affect many people in many different ways – not only people with physical disabilities but also those with mental and neuronal ailments as well as neuro-atypical individuals and the older people. This group also encompasses caregivers, family members, and others close to the people affected.
By making digital products more accessible, we are giving people the chance to become more independent in handling their affairs, whether official or simply private, such as shopping online, reading a book or using an ATM. These people are often prisoners within their own four walls, and the use of digital services can give them an opportunity to be independent. Being able to do things on their own that are perfectly natural for others, can give them a sense of agency and boost self-esteem.
At the same time, it can give more space for caregivers and the people who give support on a daily basis.
Involving people who feel excluded in social life and, above all, inviting these people to co-create the reality around us should not be a privilege, but a natural right, which will result in building a more sustainable, responsible society.
Last but not least – the advantages of implementing accessibility
Conducted in 2019, The Click-Away Pound Report 2019 shows what a huge part of society people are still excluded from. They are excluded in many ways: but mainly both from the labor market and as consumers.
The report shows that in this era of shifting business and official affairs more and more to the web, ignoring the needs and the potential of such a large group of people doesn’t pay off, and both the public and private sectors simply cannot afford to ignore them.
It may seem that here, progressive digitization has been presented as multiplying and creating new problems and impediments for businesses to cope with. But nothing could be further from the truth! The development of digital services is an opportunity, because for the first time in history, people who have previously been excluded are able to be activated on such a large scale!
For now they are starting to be able to improve their skills by studying, becoming employees when previously completely absent from the job market (especially in the IT area), doing official business, setting up online businesses, and finally – being able to take advantage of the widely expanded ecommerce branch, in which doing a little grocery shopping or going to the sound store for new music equipment are no longer obstacles in themselves. Therefore, it would be tremendously imprudent on the part of companies not to take advantage of these opportunities – to make their sites or apps truly available to all.. I strongly encourage you to read The Click-Away report, which gives more concrete numbers to fire the imagination!
Summary
In this era of widespread digitization, it is unthinkable to marginalize the huge group of people who may be excluded due to lack of accessibility. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that these people may be excluded for many completely different reasons and may have varying needs related to accessibility of, for example, websites or mobile applications.
While it may not seem possible to create applications, products or websites that are able to meet the needs of everyone, our efforts should be aimed at making them as accessible and inclusive to as many people as possible.
Step by step, we should be implementing solutions in digital products, which allow the largest possible number of people to use them. As research shows – but also as common sense and experience indicate – this will not only serve to improve social well-being in general, but also in addition boost business development and create benefits for companies too.
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Authors
Frontend Developer at Scalac.
