The importance of digital accessibility and how to embed it in your organisation

The business case for accessibility

At its core there are three components to the compelling case for considering accessibility in everything you do:

• It’s a legal requirement – Equality Act and the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations
• The ROI is huge – an estimated £274bn disposable income of people with disabilities in the UK and 76% will ‘click away’ if they encounter inaccessibility
• It’s just the right thing to do – think how important digital is to you…
  I won’t go into any more depth here as it’s all brought together in one handy business case page here on our AbilityNet website. Visit AbilityNet website.

Oh and by the way, did you know that accessible products are easier to use by all? This is because everyone using a mobile phone experiences ‘situational impairments’ every day.

Here’s a nice infographic from Microsoft to explain the concept.

Embedding accessibility across your organisation

The best way to review your organisation’s current levels of ‘accessibility maturity’ and identifying and prioritising actions to level up is using a Digital Accessibility Maturity Model. We have one that is free to use.

Our DAMM is a practical way of assessing how well you embed accessibility within your digital products – both internally and those you may produce. It exists to answer two BIG questions we are asked by our clients:

• Where are we currently when it comes to digital accessibility and compliance across everything we do?
• What do we need to do next to achieve a position of compliance and even best practice?

Maturity Models are a well-established management consultancy tool which help you address these questions through a structured consultation process. The result? Movement towards a less ad-hoc, less ‘fire-fighting’ approach to accessibility and towards one where shifting left means that everyone has the tools, training and support to do things right from the outset; making sure things are ‘Born accessible’.

We have a self-serve version of the DAMM process to download, as well as more information on how we can help guide the process and provide our recommended actions. Both can be found on the DAMM page on our website. This Powerpoint presentation is also a good overview.

More info about AbilityNet

We offer a range of services from accessibility audits to diverse user testing, from employee assessments to free home visits. You can find out more at www.abilitynet.org.uk.