I often get asked about what organizations should be doing to improve their service and the accessibility of their communications for people with disabilities. It can often be difficult to figure out what tangible activities should be looked at and where to focus one’s initial energy. I’ve written this article to try and provide a framework for activity that relates to the Information & Communication Technology area of ensuring accessibility.
Most businesses today conduct a large part of their communications, information and service delivery using an “online” or electronic component. Initially an organization should focus on getting an idea of where they stand. It is pretty difficult to fix something you don’t understand or something without knowing the problems you are trying address. The first step out the gate should be hiring someone to do a compliancy audit against existing standards. This does not mean going out and hiring a person with a disability to visit your website or similar “user centric” activities, but rather to get an overall picture of where you meet the relevant standard for things like Web Accessibility, Document Accessibility, Email Accessibility, Equivalents for Publications & Printed Material. Standards exist for accessibility in all major areas of Information & Communication Technologies. Standards exist for creating accessible documents in a variety of formats. People with print related disabilities require documents in 1 of several formats. Large print, audio, e-text, structured e-text, daisy (type 1-6) to name a few. In order to have an inclusive environment where people with print related disabilities are not excluded, material cannot be provided solely in inaccessible or print only format. 1 fully structured and accessible version of the same material must be available at the time of distribution with the availability to request alternative formats upon need or request.
The following 4 areas cover the larger part of this activity. When not otherwise identified, the term “accessible” refers to a format that meets the AA level of conformance of the WCAG2 standard W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This may seem like a significant amount of work or a significant change in corporate culture; however, I assure you that the amount of effort in addressing these issues in a less systemic fashion is more costly, more effort, more trouble and leads to many possible larger issues later on down the road.
Part 1: Steps For Web Accessibility
- An inventory of the organization’s web sites and web applications be created (this includes any of the organization’s related web sites, tools and resources – i.e. wiki, scheduling and social media sites)
- A comprehensive evaluation by an expert in web accessibility be conducted on the above list to determine conformance with the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to determine what Conformance level currently exists (A, AA or AAA).
- A priority list with timelines for fixing issues be created based on the above evaluation with a subsequent evaluation being scheduled to ensure AA conformance as a minimum with a goal towards striving for AAA
- All web developers receive training on Accessibility
- All web content providers receive training in Accessible content creation
- Employees be educated in accessibility when a web based project is undertaken within the organization
- An automated accessibility monitoring tool be implemented
- Usability testing be conducted which includes people with disabilities to improve the usability of the sites, services and information provided
- A policy be created or amended to add Accessibility requirements into all procurement following the APT – Government Of Canada's Accessible Procurement Toolkit: http://www.apt.gc.ca/ or an equivalent toolkit be developed
- THE ORGANISATION establishes a formal evaluation process for compliancy.
