What does true accessibility look like?
Accessibility Compliance is one of the highest underestimated – and often unused – tools in delivery of accessible products, services, and employment.
It is my mission supporting organizations as external consultant how to establish your tailored accessibility compliance program and complimenting policy.
Interested, please continue reading this page.
Why compliance matters
Compliance has multiple forms, as does risk management which is closely allighned with compliance. My approach is not based on minimum standards, compliance programs designed and supported by me are based on becoming the best in your sector. Weather your organization is a corporate financial institution, technology, or any other (global) business – certainly not excluding public organizations, NGO's, and SME’s either, because accessibility is of importance to any organization!I believe in ethical compliance, deciding to be the best and for example base your accessibility program on the UN CRPD, because this Convention covers all topics public and private organizations encounter – in the policy section on this page you can find examples how this applies on various organizations.
Ethical compliance is not about 100% accessibility, because this is practically impossible, it is about being accessible by default and being ready to act on issues that were never discovered before. About building the processes and governance/controls managing accessibility in every fiber of your organization.
Way of working
My role in your organization
I prefer to take the external consultant role in designing and building your accessibility program, where I will be working with your existing accessibility team, or help building an accessibility team from the ground-up.
Fantastic accessibility teams are a mix of: (1) accessibility experts, (2) lived experts (persons with disabilities themselves) and (3) business experts who know your business from the inside out. All team members should at least have 2 out of these 3 characteristics.
Risk Management
I built a risk model assessing which areas require attention when it comes to regulatory, reputational, and financial impact. Because you might not have a regulatory requirement to be accessible, reputational damage on social media and mainstream media can be extensive for inaccessibility or even discrimination of persons with disabilities. My risk model brings insights on both regulatory as reputational choices being best in class.
Accountability
With a compliance program your business becomes accountable for performance, or under-performance, when it comes to accessibility. With the program you can start building accountability within your organization, with as final goal accountability to both internal and external stakeholders.
Are you ready, read more about policy development on this page, or contact me directly discussing opportunities!
Example topics for an accessibility policy
I build on an ethical accessibility approach, which centers equitable services meeting your customers’ and employees’ requirements. Combining Universal Design and stakeholder involvement with; legal requirements. endorsed standards, as well as the UN CRPD.
For example:
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Accessibility of your digital infrastructure, applying Universal Design and EN 301.549 in your digital design processes:
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Finance example: Recognizing persons with disabilities as independent entities before the law and handling financial affairs: financial inclusion (CRPD Art. 9)
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Public organization – during elections: providing accessible and understandable information (CRPD Art. 21) about elections, with information about the political system and political parties, so persons with disabilities can make a well-informed decision in the voting booth (CRPD Art 29).
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Disability Inclusive AI practices – assuring that AI application are inclusive for persons with disabilities (CRPD in general) and accessible (CRPD Art 9) for users with disabilities.
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Accessibility of products and services: ;
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Physical accessibility in your built environment supporting independent movement in the physical environment (CRPD Art. 9)
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Including accessibility standards in your procurement system, minimum requirements in support of equality and non-discrimination (CRPD Art. 5)
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Employment:
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Providing equitable job opportunities with accommodations supporting persons with disabilities in senior roles within your organization (CRPD Art. 27)
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Providing training in accessible formats (CRPD Art 27)
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Considering the use of AI tools for hiring or other HR practices only if these are proven to be non-discriminative to persons with disabilities
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Active involvement of the disability community (by internal representatives, or local interest organizations) in design, development, and roll-out of the accessibility policy/compliance program
These are examples of policy topics, which vary per organization. This is why I work with your internal compliance experts and
Beneficiaries of your accessibility policy
Still not sure of the need of a policy, I’d like to introduce a few considerations designing a carefully drafted accessibility policy using my personally designed policy framework. Inclusion goes beyond persons with disabilities; accessibility benefits many others:
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Persons ageing, with an increasing population over 55 and their strong spending power a market worth pursuing Persons facing illiteracy in various forms:
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General illiteracy, research shows 20-25% of the people living in Europe experience illiteracy,
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Digital illiteracy, EU research shows 32% of the Europeans lack basic digital skills in a fast digitalizing environment
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Financial illiteracy, EU research shows 64% of the people in Europe have medium, and 18% a low financial illiteracy level
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Digital financial illiteracy, EU research shows only 36% of the European people feel fully comfortable with digital banking services
Accessibility revolves around POUR: Perceivable (can you receive information, services, products in a way you understand?), Operable (can you use it?), Understandable (do you know what is expected?), and Robust (fit for long-term use).
