Our digital world has now, thanks to the pandemic, become even more significant in our daily routine than ever before.
The rise in remote work and online communication due to lockdowns and social distancing has magnified our society’s lack of digital accessibility assets for people who live with disabilities.
Finally, organisations are starting to realise the importance of digital accessibility for a fully inclusive society and an optimal business function, but a few actually are set to put it into practice due to budgets and lack of information,
That’s why in this blog, we’re going to share what is digital accessibility, who benefits from these digital assets and why all organisations need to have it in place.
Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility is technologies, services and resources such as websites, mobile apps, ebooks, and downloadable documents that are specifically designed to:
- Meet the needs of disabled people and additional needs
- Be flexible and customisable for individual needs
- Be compatible with Assistive Technology
Over 50% of disabled people are more likely to face barriers to accessing digital services than non-disabled people. This was evident in a Web AIM study that found that more than 99% of websites violated some aspect of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Clearly, a huge gap is being missed here – a gap that affects people living with a large variety of different disabilities and health conditions. These may include, but are not limited to people living with:
- Visual Impairments – blind, partially sighted and colour and vision deficiency
- Seizure Disorders
- Auditory Impairments – Deaf and partial hearing loss
- Dexterity Impairment – People with limited function of limbs or digits
- Speech Difficulties
- Cognitive and Neurological Disability – Autism, Aphasia, Dyslexia and Memory Loss
And, with over one billion of the world population living with some sort of disability, it’s about time that our society starts to build an inclusive society where everyone can thrive. However, to do this, our organisations need to take the proper steps forward, and digital accessibility is one of them.
As our world drastically becomes dependent on digital technology, it’s even more critical to ensure that our digital assets are accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Digital accessibility is good for business. It keeps a customer loyal to your brand. Think about it this way, your website and other digital assets are a gateway to your products and services. If they are not accessible to everyone, you will lose a significant amount of potential customers. Just in the UK alone, there are over 14.1 million disabled people. That’s at least 1 in 5 people.
But not just that, digital accessibility allows organisations to employ disabled people too. It would help to support accessible recruitment and foster a supportive working environment for everyone.
Despite the positive benefits of making digital technology accessible, it’s, in fact, a legal obligation for organisations, especially within the public sector, to ensure that your digital assets, such as your website, mobile apps and documents, are accessible.
By implementing digital accessibility within your organisation ultimately benefits everyone and supports the disabled community.
Find out if your organisation meets digital accessibility standards by accessing our free digital accessible resources today. For more information on our digital accessibility services, download our digital accessibility insight proposal.