Accessibility is a core part of building quality and customer-centricity. Many organisations are investing in responsibility and equality, but can these goals be achieved if accessibility isn’t considered as part of service development and organisational culture? Without clear ownership and leadership, accessibility easily falls on the shoulders of individual people.
Accessibility doesn’t advance by itself
Expertise, will and resources are needed. It matters who is responsible for accessibility and how the subject is discussed. For example, if accessibility is regarded in an organisation as “extra work” or merely a technical detail, it will easily fall behind other matters and be the last priority — if it ever even makes it onto the list.
Conversely, if accessibility is emphasised at the leadership level, resources are invested in competence and accessibility is one of the organisation’s and services’ development objectives, the message and level of commitment are completely different. For example, a product owner can include accessibility in the team’s objectives and acceptance criteria. When accessibility is part of the team’s working methods, it doesn’t remain just a check at the final phase, but becomes an integral part of service development.
When accessibility is continuously advanced, the level of ambition and execution is completely different compared to a model where accessibility depends solely on audits.
Accessibility is ongoing development
Accessibility work should be monitored continuously and not only in isolated audits. Good practices include, for example:
- Monitoring the accessibility status of services: the organisation continuously monitors what kind and how many accessibility challenges arise in different phases of development.
- Gathering customer feedback continuously and taking it into account in the development of services.
- Accessibility is part of quality and customer experience metrics.
When you know how many challenges there are and what issues they relate to, it is easier to grow and direct competence and to develop working methods.
Accessibility supports business objectives
It is worth seeing accessibility as a business-positive matter, because that is what it is! Accessible services suit different people in different situations. When services can be used smoothly, transactions don’t remain unfinished and users return. In addition, users appreciate ease of use and clarity of content. Accessibility improves customer experience, builds a positive image, raises usage rates, reduces disruptions and load on customer service, and increases engagement. For teams this means, for example: more efficient use of resources, fewer corrections needed and focus on building quality. Accessibility is an investment that pays for itself.
When accessibility is considered from the start in development, the number of challenges and necessary corrections is reduced already before production. It is clear that fewer bugs in production mean lower correction costs and time can be used for quality building instead of expensive fixes. Building accessibility is thus a key part of quality and anticipation.
Accessibility is a decision for an equal world
Accessibility is part of responsibility and equality. Managing it involves metrics, processes and decisions, but above all a decision for a better and more equal world. At its best, accessibility is part of organisational culture and way of working — not just a bolt-on check.
