Digital accessibility
Digital accessibility is a key concept in creating more diverse and inclusive companies. The business case for digital accessibility – both in terms of attracting more diverse talent, including employees with disabilities, and increasing the base of disabled customers – is increasingly recognized by companies worldwide.
Digital accessibility, not as a compliance measure, but as a “human-first” based digital inclusion transformation initiative, is at the beginning of its journey. If companies can establish digital accessibility as a foundational pillar to their overall digital transformation strategy and engage employees with disabilities at the product and service and workplace design phase, then we can begin to move digital impact measurement of digital accessibility away from compliance and over to innovation and business differentiation.
Frances West, Founder of FrancesWestCo and main author of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network’s publication “Leave no one offline: A primer on engaging your company on digital accessibility” presented the key insights and recommendations covered by this publication. Steve Framil, Founder & Associate Director Enterprise Digital Governance at Merck/MSD, presented the company’s journey on digital accessibility so far, success stories, current plans and the challenges that remain. Yves Veulliet, Global Diverse Abilities Inclusion Leader at IBM, moderated the session.
To support the development of inclusive digital societies the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have developed a project to ensure that online recruitment systems are accessible to everyone, including persons with disabilities.
The technological revolution is remarkably transforming society. From the way we communicate, socialize, shop to the way we learn and work. These changes, which have been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, deeply impact the world of work. With opportunities also come challenges like the imperative to leave no one behind in the digitalization process, including the more than one billion persons with disabilities across the globe.
These guidelines cover a wide variety of recommendations for making web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to people with a range of disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your web content more user-friendly in general.