Digital Accessibility: A Vital Practice Driven by Innovation and Inclusion
Explore the challenges of digital accessibility and how to adapt your website or application for equitable access to information.
2023-08-20
Digital Accessibility: What Challenges Does It Present for Businesses?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 15% of the world's population, which is over one billion people, live with a disability. Digital accessibility aims to ensure that everyone can benefit from the advantages of technology and online information, contributing to a more inclusive and equitable digital experience for all.
Discover in this article the challenges and importance of digital accessibility and find the tools to make your website or platform compliant with accessibility standards.
01_Understanding Digital Accessibility
I_ What Is Digital Accessibility?
Digital accessibility is the concept and practice of making digital technologies, such as websites, mobile applications, electronic documents, and other online content, accessible to everyone, including individuals with visual, auditory, motor, cognitive, or sensory impairments. The primary goal of digital accessibility is to remove barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from perceiving, understanding, navigating, and interacting with this content.
This means that designers and developers must take into account various factors to ensure that their digital creations are accessible, such as using textual descriptions for images, providing subtitles for videos, keyboard navigation, color management, and more. Digital accessibility aims to ensure that everyone, regardless of their level of ability, can benefit from the advantages of technology and online information, contributing to a more inclusive and equitable digital experience for all.
II_ Who Benefits from Digital Accessibility?
Digital accessibility primarily focuses on individuals with disabilities who may face specific challenges when interacting with technology. This includes individuals with visual, auditory, motor, cognitive, or sensory impairments.
However, the scope of digital accessibility extends beyond these groups and includes:
- Elderly individuals whose abilities may decline with age,
- Users with slower internet connections in certain regions,
- Those who interact with assistive technologies,
- Those who are less familiar with sophisticated digital interfaces.
02_Main Challenges
What are the main challenges faced by users with disabilities in the digital realm?
Visual Impairment:
Concerns individuals with visual impairments, whether blind or visually impaired.
- Some may be unable to see what is displayed on the screen and require text-to-speech rendering.
- Difficulty in reading due to insufficient color contrast.
- Text displayed in a font size that is too small or too large, necessitating the ability to adjust font size.
Hearing Impairment:
Concerns individuals with hearing impairments, whether deaf or hard of hearing.
- Inability to access audio elements, making it difficult to understand video or audio media if no accompanying text is provided.
Mobility Impairment:
Concerns individuals with mobility impairments in the upper extremities.
- Inability to navigate using a mouse, necessitating keyboard navigation to access all site content and activate all functions with the keyboard.
- Difficulties with certain functions like drag and drop, which are typically mouse-driven.
Cognitive Impairment:
Concerns individuals with cognitive impairments such as dyslexia, dysorthography, attention disorders with or without hyperactivity, or neurological disorders such as epilepsy.
- Difficulty in understanding written text.
- Difficulty performing calculations.
- Inability to tolerate rapidly flashing and bright animations (epileptic seizures).
03_The Significance of Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility promotes inclusion, equitable access to information, non-discrimination, and the protection of fundamental rights for all users, including those with disabilities. It also enhances the social responsibility of businesses by contributing to the creation of a more equitable and accessible digital environment.
I_ An Economic Opportunity for Companies
What advantages can companies gain from creating accessible interfaces?
Improved Reputation and Social Impact: Integrating digital accessibility demonstrates a company's commitment to inclusion and ethics, enhancing its reputation by reflecting socially responsible values.
Expanded Customer Base: By making technologies accessible, companies attract a broader audience, including people with disabilities, the elderly, and those with temporary limitations.
Innovation and Creativity: Accessible technological solutions stimulate innovation by encouraging the creation of new solutions to meet diverse user needs.
Regulatory Compliance: Many regulations require online services to be accessible. Companies that comply avoid legal penalties and align with ethical standards.
04_Disability as a Driver of Innovation?
To encourage a culture of systematic innovation, it is crucial to view changes as opportunities to seize rather than obstacles.
An interesting anecdote in this regard: did you know that the TV remote control was originally invented to make life easier for people with limited mobility? Today, it has become an indispensable device for all of us.
The rapid evolution of the web, marked by the development of rich applications, may appear to pose challenges to accessibility. In reality, the idea that accessibility hinders modernity and the aesthetics of websites is a misconception: numerous technological solutions exist today to combine aesthetics and accessibility.
I_ Stimulating Innovation
The obligation to make websites and applications accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, encourages designers and developers to innovate and think more carefully about their interfaces.
They must find creative technological solutions to overcome accessibility barriers, which can lead to new ideas and technological advances.
For example, many assistive features, such as voice synthesis or screen readers, were originally designed to meet the needs of users with disabilities. These technologies can later be adapted to a broader audience, fostering innovation.
II_ Accessibility and UX Design
Accessibility and User Experience Design (UX Design) are closely related concepts in the digital world. UX Design focuses on creating optimal digital experiences for all users, taking into account their comfort, satisfaction, and efficiency when interacting with an interface.
When accessibility is integrated into UX Design, it means that the user experience is improved for everyone, regardless of their needs or abilities: optimized navigation, ease of access to information, clear interfaces, and highlighting essential elements. By emphasizing accessibility from the design process, companies can create more inclusive digital products and offer a positive user experience to a broader audience.
05_Making a Website or Application Accessible
The fundamental principles of digital accessibility are clearly outlined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
WCAG govern the accessibility of online content, covering all types of content rendered by web browsers. Text, images, videos, audio recordings, downloadable documents, animations, interactive games: everything displayed on a website or application screen must be accessible.
I_ The Four Core Pillars of WCAG 2
WCAG 2 is structured around four fundamental principles:
Perceivable: Content must be perceivable by all users, meaning it must be visible, audible, and renderable for those who cannot see or hear it.
Operable: Content must be operable regardless of the type of computer use, including exclusive keyboard use, virtual keyboard use, laser pointer, or any other assistive technology.
Understandable: Content must be legible. Users must be able to navigate logically, be guided in their navigation, and receive assistance if they get lost.
Robust: The produced code must adhere to standards to ensure compatibility with various current and future technologies.
II_ How to Comply with These Standards?
WCAG guidelines provide specific criteria for making websites and applications more accessible to people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities.
The rules, broken down into success criteria and verifiable through various techniques, constitute the operational part of WCAG.
1. Perceivable:
- Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
- Provide captions and other alternatives.
- Make content easy to see and hear.
2. Operable:
- Give users enough time to read and use content.
- Do not use content that causes epileptic seizures.
- Help users navigate and find content.
3. Understandable:
- Make text readable and understandable.
- Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
4. Robust:
- Optimize compatibility with current user agents.
06_For Businesses, a Market to Conquer
The importance of this market should not be underestimated. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 15% of the world's population, which is over one billion people, live with a disability.
I_ Some Figures
In Europe: The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) estimated in 2021 that nearly 87 million people in Europe (about 17% of the European population) had a disability. These figures can vary from one country to another and from one source to another depending on how disability is defined and measured.
In France: 7.6 million people report a severe limitation or restriction in daily activities, including 6.9 million people with at least one visual, auditory, or cognitive limitation. 9.3 million people report providing regular assistance to a relative with a disability or loss of autonomy.
II_ Increasing Awareness
Digital accessibility has evolved to become a fundamental pillar of web development and the business strategy of many companies. This evolution is driven by a growing awareness of the importance of equitable access to online information, both by governments, organizations, and the general public. Strict regulations imposed by many regions of the world have strengthened companies' commitment to accessibility, encouraging them to invest more in this area.
Furthermore, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of social responsibility and inclusion, making digital accessibility a key element of this responsibility. In addition, they have realized that digital accessibility opens the door to new markets by targeting a significant segment of the population, namely people with disabilities. Technological advancements make the implementation of digital accessibility more efficient and cost-effective, reinforcing its position as an essential element of the ever-evolving digital landscape.