The critical importance of accessibility

Paul McAdam at Source Code Control explores the silent business cost of locking customers out of your digital services

 

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is now live and enforceable across the EU, setting a clear expectation that websites, apps, and digital interfaces must be usable by everyone. That’s EVERYONE! Including people with visual impairments, motor disabilities, cognitive and learning disabilities, hearing loss and photosensitivity.  

 

Not only are fines associated with a lack of compliance, but the commercial impact of inaccessibility is immediate, as it risks excluding one in twenty of your customers.

 

There are over 2 million people in the UK living with sight loss that significantly affects their daily lives. Dyslexia affects approximately 10% of the UK population, which equates to around 6.3 million people. Colour blindness affects approximately 3 million people or about 4.5% of the population, and it’s estimated that approximately 2.5 million people in England have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), including those without a formal diagnosis. Further, about 1 in 100 people in the UK has epilepsy, and of those, 3% to 5% have photosensitive epilepsy, or between 20,000 and 33,000 people.

 

There are also approximately 18 million people in the UK who are affected by hearing loss, which is more than a quarter of the population, and 87% of those people with hearing loss report that it affects their everyday life, including communication, work, and social interactions.

 

Given these stats, if your website or digital assets and interfaces aren’t accessible, you risk alienating millions of people. Someone who clicks on a website that they find hard to use will simply move on to a better one. A potential employee will turn away from your jobs page if it is hard to read or if the forms are not easily accessible. A potential customer won’t buy your fridge if its interface is hard to use. 

 

 

Commercial impact of inaccessibility

Despite the equivalent UK accessibility legislation being enforced in 2018, many businesses still don’t realise that 1 in 20 UK users aren’t able to access their websites and apps properly. That’s a potential 5% loss of traffic, conversions, and customer trust in the UK alone. This increases significantly as a proportion of the population across Europe. There are also potential fines for those public sector organisations or companies trading in the EU who do not comply with the legislation.

 

 

Accessibility gaps everywhere

Companies serving European markets are legally obligated to meet the WCAG 2.1 technical standard, which is a comprehensive framework for making web content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities.

 

Whether it is a user portal, a job listing, or a blog that a screen reader can’t access, or an app that triggers a sensory issue, a lack of accessibility can silently drive users away. Consider colour contrast. If text doesn’t have enough contrast against the background, it can be hard to read for users with low vision or colour blindness, for example, green on red isn’t accessible. Or an inaccessible form, that lacks labels or instructions, makes it confusing for screen reader users.

 

But accessibility is more than visual; it’s also about cognitive ease, navigation, animation pausing, contrast and more. For example, automatically playing videos that can’t be stopped or controlled by the user can be disruptive or trigger sensory issues.

 

The first iteration of a website may pass the WCAG 2.1 standard. As it evolves, businesses drift away from compliance due to ad-hoc changes, content updates, and an internal lack of knowledge. SharePoint templates, internal documents, and app user interfaces can be even worse, sometimes entirely inaccessible.

 

The risk is beyond Europe’s borders; even if a business is based in the UK, if it sells to EU customers, the EAA applies. The scope is broad, covering not just websites and apps but kiosks, ticket machines, and even smart appliances. Companies failing to meet the standard may lose the right to sell to European governments, be disqualified from contracts or, in some cases, be prevented from trading. 

 

Lost revenue is the hidden penalty. If a screen reader can’t navigate a job application form, checkout process or key product page, customers will go elsewhere.

 

Accessibility is more than a checklist. It’s about embedding inclusive thinking into the way digital products are designed, built, and maintained, and making it part of organisational culture.

 

 

Auditing accessibility

An accessibility audit with a qualified accessibility consultant can reveal risks and untapped opportunities.

 

An audit goes wider than just your digital assets; it will look at whether accessibility is part of your company’s ethos. A good assessor will ask you, for example, when you are building a new PowerPoint or Word template, do you consider accessibility requirements? Or, when using SharePoint, have you enabled the SharePoint accessibility standards? Or, importantly, where you are building applications and if accessibility is considered within the User Interface (UI) and for the developers themselves. You can benchmark your company to see how inclusive you really are and what remedial action needs to be taken. 

 

Consultancies also offer the benefit of being able to benchmark yourself against industry standards. You may excel in terms of user interface, but your application development might not be as strong. Very few companies have considered accessibility when sharing documents. And application development is a bit like the Wild West of accessibility; it seems to be much less thought about.

 

An audit will evaluate a range of digital assets, including websites, SharePoint templates, and other user interfaces for compatibility with accessibility needs related to epilepsy, visual impairment, dyslexia, ADHD, colour blindness and hearing impairment. There are now simple tools that allow you to access all parts of your website and other digital assets and interfaces. An audit will look at: 

• Compatibility with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and voice control.
• Alt text for images and non-text content.
• Captions and transcripts for video and audio.
• Colour contrast and visual clarity.
• Responsive design and mobile accessibility.
• Consistent navigation and clear structure.
• Manual testing by users with disabilities.
• Evaluation of interactive elements (forms, buttons, menus.)
• Testing for motion sensitivity and cognitive load. 

There are tools that can be uploaded to your website to help optimise accessibility. The software enables you to improve your user interface, for example, pausing animations for neurodiverse or epileptic users. 

 

However, an audit extends beyond ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1. It addresses critical issues, as well as nice-to-have fixes. For example, reviewing licenses to phase out inaccessible tools and assessing third-party software. A good audit will also provide a point-in-time benchmark, which can be re-assessed and help the sponsor build a case for more work. Ensuring that the scope covers all aspects, user portals, mobiles, kiosks etc, is paramount. 

 

There is also a significant educational aspect regarding best practices in the industry that shouldn’t be overlooked. For example, Microsoft and Apple have incorporated numerous accessibility tools, and Google’s Chromebook is particularly well-suited for accessibility. However, part of an audit is to determine whether companies are using these tools or not.

 

 

Common pitfalls

It’s easy for companies to think they are good at accessibility, but we’re yet to come across a website, including our own, that didn’t have some accessibility problem.

 

Accessibility needs to become part of your company’s DNA, so you don’t lose customers to competitors with more accessible digital interfaces. Do it better than the competition, and you will potentially become the first port of call for millions more customers. 

 

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Paul McAdam is a Director at Source Code Control

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com  and alexsl