How to measure accessibility maturity and compliance in Higher Education

Guest blog by Alistair McNaught*

When you ask adults to recall their most memorable and enjoyable learning experiences it nearly always comes back to relationships – a fun teacher, an inspiring lecturer, a lively community. Such human interactions neatly illustrate the difference between maturity and compliance.

A “mature relationship” sounds a lot more attractive than a “compliant” one. Yet many institutions are offering compliance to disabled learners rather than mature relationships.

A group of people sitting in a lecture theatre

Maturity and compliance are different

In the UK, the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) set clear legal requirements for universities and colleges - and slightly less clear legal requirements for schools.

Many colleges and universities have made significant efforts to move towards compliance. It’s a good first step but the worry is when compliance becomes the goal.

Accessibility maturity is about ensuring the things that promote good practices continue to grow. This means being embedded in cultural practice and consciousness. There are implications far beyond a time-limited steering group.

Maturity in an educational context

Among public sector bodies, education has unique challenges.

  • Engagement, challenge, and assessment – technology enhanced learning has to engage all the users with all the content. It must challenge them to persevere with content they find difficult. It must set them tasks and test the extent of their understanding. No other public sector body requires their audience to access and learn all the content provided. This has implications on the media, formats and activities teachers need to use.
  • Third party content - an online teaching module may have links to YouTube videos, journal articles, e-books, research papers, industry publications and so on. All of these have their own copyright and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) conditions. These hinder tutors from making wholesale improvements to accessibility, even when technology exists to make such improvements.
  • Skills, resources, and training - most public sector bodies have a small team of trained people in charge of online content. Quality assurance is easy to guarantee. But a university or college may have a thousand different people with different skill sets uploading content daily.
  • Within this context, a compliance-only approach, is at best, very hard to achieve. At worst, it is counter-productive. If organisations retreat from digital diversity to rely on hardcopy printouts (where no accessibility standards apply), disabled students are massively disadvantaged.

Free webinar: How to promote digital accessibility at your institution, with University of Derby: Tuesday 13 April, 1pm BST 

Register now


Accessibility maturity is based, instead, on a holistic approach that:

  • acknowledges the generic benefits of digital content over traditional handouts/hard copy,
  • encourages diverse digital approaches that are mindful of different accessibility needs,
  • recognises that people with different disabilities (or indeed none) benefit from different resources in different ways,
  • moves beyond compliance to culture, seeking to identify and evolve “best achievable practice” that draws on good pedagogy, good policy, and good quality assurance.

Measuring maturity

The critical thing for any consideration of accessibility maturity is that it needs to have resonance and relevance for the people employing it. That’s why other “high level” maturity models have less traction in educational contexts. They don’t get to the nitty gritty of practice or influence.

The AbilityNet/McNaught maturity model originated from observations and conversations with dozens of leaders across the higher education sector. Throughout 2020, I worked with AbilityNet to:

  • build on the original model (The TechDis Accessibility Maturity Model effectively disappeared when the Jisc advisory services were disbanded at the end of 2014),
  • extend and update it to reflect developments in the last 10 years,
  • make it more granular,
  • make it more measurable.        

We’ve developed 2 versions of the model - one at institutional level and one at course/module level. These reflect the relative responsibilities and spheres of influence of different staff roles. We’ve tested the 2 models with 18 different pilot institutions.

This is the first of a series of blog posts exploring the findings of those pilots and the implications for real-world practice.

    Are you looking for accessibility training courses aimed at higher and further education professionals?


    Sign up for our courses
     


    Institutional level maturity: 8 lenses... and an overview

    In total, there are 8 lenses through which organisations are invited to measure themselves. There is some overlap between them because accessibility is pervasive, not discrete.

    The lenses we use are:

    1. Main driver - Where is energy being expended and what is measured as success?
    2. Responsibility - Who are the actors. Do they have sufficient authority?
    3. Model of disability - Is the perception "users with issues" or "systems and content with barriers"?
    4. Focus of effort - Is accessibility a "task and finish" project or a long-term quality improvement?
    5. Skills and expertise - What is the focus of training? Who gets it? Is it considered important?
    6. Digital accessibility in policies - Digital accessibility is a vital equality issue. Is it visible in policies?
    7. Culture - Is the focus on minimising risk? Or maximising user experience? Does accessibility straitjacket online learning? Or encourage innovation and experimentation?
    8. User's digital experience - How consistent is the user experience? How well designed?

    In subsequent posts will explore the findings, lens by lens. We will end this post by exploring two top-level messages from the pilot.

    Takeaway message 1 - there are different routes to excellence.

    The pilot institutions included 3 organisations with very similar final scores, ranging between 51 to 57%. Yet how they achieved the same kind of score was markedly different, as shown in the graph below.

    Graph illustrating visually what is described in the text included in the body copy of the post

    Institution “a” scored well for policies, culture and student experience but had much lower scores for clarity of responsibility and skills/training. By contrast, institution “i” scored well for responsibility, culture, and student experience but poorly for policies and model of disability.

    Institution "c" had far more consistency across each lens, being let down only by skills/training.

    Using the model allows organisations to identify their strengths, weaknesses and inconsistencies. This helps focus efforts. Areas identified for improvement can be coordinated with other broad initiatives across the institution, saving time, resource, and effort.

    Takeaway message 2 – perceptions within an organisation can vary significantly

    Many institutions struggle with effective internal communication. This may result in vastly different perceptions about an organisation’s accessibility progress. Identifying differences and exploring the realities behind them is a vital part of maturity.

    It is easy to believe all areas of the organisation are as confident (or unconfident) as your own. We recommend many people are involved in the self-reflection process. Divergent views give insight into the effectiveness of communication or pervasiveness of good practice.

    The screenshot below shows the differing scores of two people working in different parts of the same pilot organisation. While they closely agree on the quality of the organisation’s culture, their scores are highly divergent for the institution’s policy framework, the effective allocation of responsibility and even what they perceive the main drivers to be. One view is more pessimistic. Finding such discrepancies is vital to unearthing information and experience that otherwise remains hidden.  

    Graph illustrating visually what is described in the text included in the body copy of the post

    What next?

    In upcoming blog posts I will share further pilot results from each of the lenses. Hopefully this will provide useful comparative data for your own organisation to learn from.

    Meanwhile I would encourage you to:

    * This is an edited version of Alistair's blog that can be found in full on LinkedIn.

    Further resources

    AbilityNet provides a range of free services to help disabled people and older people. If you can afford it, please donate to help us support older and disabled people through technology

    How Microsoft delivers digital accessibility for all within Europe and globally

    Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer and VP for European Government Affairs on driving change from the inside. Learnings include:

    Picture shows teams panel with Sumaira Latif from P&G (top-left) Casper Klynge (top-right) and Jenny Lay-Flurrie (bottom-centre)Accessibility “has never been more important,” said Jenny Lay Flurrie, Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility Officer.

    Lay-Flurrie spoke at the first virtual TechShare Pro hosted via Microsoft Teams.

    Covid-19 has forced many online, to the benefit of disabled users, argued Casper Klynge, Microsoft’s VP for European Government Affairs. “We have a young guy on our team with a hearing disability. He said he’d never had a better time than during Covid-19 because he could use the technology on Teams.”

    “That kind of flexibility is something that we shouldn't just focus on during Covid-19, but we also need to focus on afterwards.”

    Techplomacy: lessons from Europe

    Klynge is recently appointed to Microsoft and hopes to draw on his previous experience as a tech ambassador for the Danish Government.

    There, he coined the phrase “techplomacy” to describe the need to drive accessibility up the agenda by engaging with leaders across countries.

    “We were trying to disrupt the traditional way of looking at how countries interact with each other and what it means to have envoys in, in the hotspots of transformation,” Klynge told P&G’s Accessibility Leader Sumaira Latif, who chaired the discussion.

    He added, “Policy reigns supreme in a lot of these areas. A good starting point is to make sure that accessibility requirements are standard”. 

    As an example, he pointed to the success of GDPR in driving change.

    “There wasn’t a single technology company where we didn’t hear complaints about what Europe was doing and how awful it all was in terms of the regulations. Fast forward to today and there are very few companies that haven’t implemented GDPR as a universal approach for customers and consumers,” he told attendees. 

    Raising the bar on accessibility

    However, Lay-Flurries says there’s a risk in putting too much stock in policy alone.

    “It sets the goal line at the least minimum bar. And I would never want that to be the goal because the policies are woefully behind the use of technology,” she said. 

    Klynge agreed, saying we must learn the lessons of Covid-19 and deliver a sustainable accessibility plan. 

    “Rome was not built in one day. We need to use the global pandemic as an opportunity to do more. That's a job that I and my team take quite seriously.”

    Driving accessibility from the inside

    To make accessibility sustainable, you need to change the way you work, says Lay-Flurrie. “After five years of pushing, this is an operations job; a role where you have to understand what the issues are, advocate and then problem solve for those to be addressed systematically. So, you're not fixing it every year. You're fixing it once.”

    She added: “I want everyone to learn the basics of accessibility, what it is to be a person with a disability that the reliance and dependency we have on technology.” 

    It also means embracing a diverse talent pool, she said: “If you have talent with disabilities at the core of the company that ecosystem just drives itself,” she said. 

    “You've got people with disabilities, giving us feedback, and telling us when things are right, and when things are wrong. We really put a kick into hiring talent and amplifying talent and empowering talent with disabilities.”

    Innovation: the benefits of an accessibility agenda

    Peter Bosher, middle, an audio engineer who is blind who worked with the Project Tokyo team early in the design process, checks out the latest iteration of the system at Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge, UK, with researchers Martin Grayson, left, and Cecily Morrison, right. Photo by Jonathan Banks.Focussing on disability has acted as a driver for innovation within Microsoft.

    “Focusing on disabilities has a very nice spinoff effect from a commercial point of view, also valuable for a company like Microsoft,” said Lay Flurrie. 

    “When I came into the role, we did a listening tour and people described it [accessibility] as a tax. History tells us that talking books and audible came out of books for the blind. Fluorescent lights came out of accessibility…it's the benefits of designing with through and for people with disabilities.”

    Microsoft can point to examples including the Seeing AI app, and an adaptive controller for the Xbox. Lay-Flurrie also points to Microsoft's Project Tokyo a HoloLens, which enables blind people to find familiar faces in a room.

    The bottom line, literally, is that accessibility makes good business sense. 

    “It’s not just about the nerdery. I think it’s a lot more than just a piece of code. Microsoft looks across all of the different dimensions of the company …our hiring process, do we have physical accessibility at the bar that we want? Do we have internal accessibility as well as the different pieces of Word, Excel or X-Box?”

    International Telecommunication Union publishes report on state of ICT accessibility in Europe

    The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recently published a report that outlined the digital inclusion landscape across Europe – a crucial subject explored by thought leaders from across the continent during their ICT 4 ALL - Accessible Europe 2021 conference last week.

    Accessible Europe Session 4 Panel: Accessibility Standards for Products and Services - 5 people shown on screen speaking at online event

    I was asked to speak on the expert panel (pictured above); 'Accessibility standards for products and services' – part of a programme that greatly assisted in the overall understanding of the current opportunities and challenges when it comes to ensuring that all European citizens can fully engage in their digital lives.

    “More than 1600 registered participants and viewers were pleased and enriched by the valuable content that was delivered through your and your fellow speakers’ interventions. The points emerged in the event proved to be very valuable for ITU Members as well as non-Members, cultivating understanding of the current policies and strategies, good practices, and innovative solutions in place, and key actions needed to advance the implementation of ICT accessibility in the Europe region. As the primary goal of the ITU Office for Europe is to support Member States in achieving their national objectives, we look forward to collaborating with you in the future to continue and further enrich the discussion around ICT Accessibility.”

    - Jaroslaw K. Ponder (Head of the ITU Office for Europe)

    ITU is exploring new ways in which policy, practice and technology can be brought together to enhance the lives of disabled people. 

    Further reading and resources: visit the websiteread the presentations from the day, head over to the ITU YouTube channel and download the report

    Exploring a more accessible Europe

    The ITU is one of several organisations (including AbilityNet) who are endeavouring to explore new ways in which policy, practice and technology can be brought together to enhance the lives of disabled people across Europe.

    As well as recognising the importance of conferences such as this (and the likes of AbilityNet's own annual TechShare Pro – the world’s biggest digital inclusion knowledge and networking event) the ITU also realises the importance of reviewing and reporting on the current state of play with regards accessibility across Europe to help highlight the scale of challenge that still exists on a continent where the vast majority of digital services remain far from compliant.

    Group of people at TechShare Pro event waving - banner saying Building a digital world accessible to all. www.techsharepro.com

    We would recommend downloading the ‘ICT accessibility assessment for the Europe region’ report which ‘Reviews and summarizes the current state of ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities in the ITU Europe region, and assesses commitments and implementation status of ICT accessibility laws, regulations, policies and institutional frameworks across the region’. Unlike many ITU publications, this is a free download.

    Further resources

    AbilityNet provides a range of free services to help disabled people and older people. If you can afford it, please donate to help us support older and disabled people through technology.

    Can the European Accessibility Act level up access to digital services?

    In 2021 it seems perverse to be discussing whether digital products are universally accessible. Yet, a survey of the home pages for the top one million websites paints “a rather dismal picture of the current state of web accessibility for individuals with disabilities,” says WebAIM. Similarly, many digital products remain inaccessible to disabled people. 

    The good news is that in Europe there is hope for a levelling up thanks to the European Accessibility Act (EAA). The EAA promises to transform everything from cash machines to computers, e-books to e-commerce apps by making digital accessibility a legal requirement for any company selling products and services across Europe. 

    Contents include

    What is the European Accessibility Act?

    AbilityNet's head of digital inclusion Robin ChristophersonWhile Covid-19 has brought the need for tech accessibility into sharp focus, the EAA predates it; the European Union published the directive in 2019.

    The aim is to create a harmonised set of rules for accessibility products and services, said Robin Christopherson, MBE, Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet.

    “The European Accessibility Act will harmonise and modernise the legal requirement for websites, apps and other technology to be inclusive and easy to use by all. Implemented across all member states, it should see a significant shift in what is, at present, a challenging online world for those with a disability or impairment.”

    Casper Klynge, vice president of European government affairs at Microsoft agreed: "It creates clarity and transparency. It raises the standards and holds everybody to account. Harmonised standards help us to comply in a consistent way,” he said. 

    “It [the EAA] is a big step that will affect many, many users with disabilities and also elderly people,” said Susanna Laurin, chief research and innovation officer with Funka, the Swedish accessibility organisation. 

    "I don't think this will be smooth and easy, but in the long run, I'm quite sure that this will be successful and, when it is, I think it will make a difference."

    The directive is primarily concerned with digital technology. Among the list of products and services that fall within its scope are computers and their operating systems, smartphones and television services. The Act also encompasses technology generally used in public spaces, such as ATM cash machines and transport ticketing machines. "The products and services selected in the EAA are key for the socioeconomic inclusion of persons with disabilities in economy and society," said Inmaculada Placencia Porrero,  Deputy Head of Unit for Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the EU.

    Companies must comply with the European Accessibility Act

    While new, the EAA builds on and complements previous legislation, such as the EU’s Web Accessibility Directive. Crucially, the EAA, unlike the Web Accessibility Directive, applies to private companies and organisations, not just the public sector

    That means any private company selling products and services needs to comply. So, if you’re selling into an EU member state, your website, product service or app must comply. For larger companies, compliance should be relatively straightforward.

    “Apple, Microsoft, Google; they have all invested for many years in accessibility; they have clear leadership in the company when it comes to accessibility. So those, I don't think we'll see suffering,” said Alejandro Moledo, policy coordinator for the European Disability Forum.

    However, medium-sized online retailers may feel a pinch.

    “Look at, for example, e-commerce; e-commerce can be absolutely any website or mobile application that sells you stuff online. Maybe for those more, let's say, medium enterprises, it will be a little bit more difficult to catch up,” said Moledo.

    “Or maybe they don't even realise that there is legislation that affects them in this regard.”

    There are exemptions. So-called microenterprises will be exempt, and non-member states don't have to bring the EAA into law. Post-Brexit, a freeze on the automatic adoption of any new EU directives means the EAA may not become UK law. 

    European Accessibility Act: raising the bar worldwide

    Despite this, the EAA will raise the bar for accessibility standards. 

    Once companies have done the necessary work to comply with the directive in the EU, it's doubtful that they will undo all of that hard work and expense when selling their products or services outside of the region. 

    Klynge likens the EAA to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU legislation that had implications far beyond European shores.

    "I think what it [the GDPR] has done is to create minimum standards that everybody will have to comply to," he said.

    “What we did at Microsoft was to say what works for Europe will probably work everywhere, so we took a global approach and implemented that in all our products and all our technologies around the world.”

    Headshot of Microsoft's Caspar Klynge

    “What we did at Microsoft was to say what works for Europe will probably work everywhere, so we took a global approach and implemented that in all our products and all our technologies around the world.”
    Caspar Klynge, vice president of European government affairs at Microsoft.


    Laurin agrees that the EAA is a rising tide that lifts all boats. 

    She points out that companies selling products to the UK are unlikely to sell less accessible products into that market just because the same laws do not govern it.

    "If they already have a system or a product or service that is accessible, why would they have an inaccessible one to sell to you [in the UK]?" she asks.

    And anyone in the UK selling products to a member state will also have to comply. “Anything that touches Europe or that comes from Europe is going to be improved by it [the EAA] because it'll need to be compliant,” said Christopherson.

    He adds that: "unless you're creating a digital product that you've got no intention of diversifying into Europe or elsewhere, why wouldn't you follow the guidelines?” 

    Laurin argues that the EAA will help bring the EU more in line with international markets, such as North America. She said it would “both mean harmonisation within the European inner market and also across the pond to North America, where accessibility requirements cover more sectors than we currently do in Europe.” 

    European Accessibility Act: A turning point for accessibility?

    Is the EAA a pivotal moment for digital accessibility? Certainly, it’s a step in the right direction. “We believe that the European Accessibility Act is going to be a turning point for accessibility in the European Union and Europe,” said Moledo.

    "For the first time, we have a horizontal legislation on accessibility that sets out the functional accessibility requirements that a set of products and services will need to comply with," he added.

    And even though the legislation only covers EU member states, all of our experts agreed that the EAA's impact will stretch beyond EU borders.

    Klynge says legislation such as the EAA focuses minds. “We want to make sure that we include accessibility in every single product that we develop,” he said.

    He added, "I still think we're just at the beginning of this, and we'll see a massive amount of innovation and further developments that will ultimately benefit everybody, help people with disabilities – and make sure that we have a more inclusive workforce.” 

    Change won't happen immediately. EU member states have until mid-2022 to enact the EAA into their local law, and enforcement won’t begin in earnest until 2025. 


    The lead time is necessary, given that ensuring inclusive products can be complex. “There's a challenge with regards getting to grips with the technicalities of compliance,” said Christopherson.

    He added: "It's not a simple box-ticking exercise or deciding one day to get to grips with accessibility. “There's a learning curve that needs to be resourced, that needs to be prioritised… You need to give people a little bit of extra time to build it into their day job."

    Placencia Porrero agrees companies should start planning, now. "Companies should really be getting acquainted with those requirements, training their staff and setting the procedures for implementation," she said. 

    The Act may also, in turn, lead to more companies realising the benefit "of employing more and more persons with disabilities who can also contribute to the development of products and services," said the EDF’s Moledo. He added that their insight and experiences would be invaluable to the companies. 

    “Not all companies have been thinking of accessibility before,” said Moledo. “We see that there will be a huge demand for accessibility professionals from the industry side.”

    Beyond legislation: Business benefits of the EAA

    No piece of legislation is ever perfect, and the experts we spoke to raise some concerns over elements that are out of scope or will be difficult to implement. 

    Health care products were omitted from the legislation, for example, as was anything to do with the built environment. 

    There are also many exemptions, most notably for 'microenterprises’ – companies with fewer than ten staff or below certain financial thresholds.

    Laurin also has fears over the enforcement process and whether there will be sufficient mechanisms to monitor companies for non-compliance and support them in meeting the requirements. 

    A picture of AbilityNet's head of digital inclusion Robin Christopherson leaning over a balcony
    “There’s a very significant business case for accessibility. Websites and other products or services that are inclusive are going to reach a wider audience – not just the 15% that have a disability in your customer base."
    Robin Christopherson, MBE. Head of Digital Inclusion for AbilityNet
     


    However, Laurin says that raising awareness of the EAA can mediate a lack of fines. "If everyone helps out by making sure the users know about this legislation so that they do complain or provide feedback, that I think would be the strongest enforcement because nobody wants a war with a disability organisation or 20 people in wheelchairs demonstrating outside of their headquarters,” she said. 

    Besides, it's not just about compliance; accessibility is good business sense.

    “There’s a very significant business case for accessibility,” said Christopherson. “Websites and other products or services that are inclusive are going to reach a wider audience – not just the 15% that have a disability in your customer base. They make for products that are easier to use for all and, as such, accessible products will help those millions of potentially excluded customers who would otherwise struggle with digital.”

    The so-called Purple pound represents a potential £247bn in revenue. By 2040 it's estimated that older people, who are more likely to be disabled, will account for 63p in every pound or £550bn, according to the International Longevity Centre (ILC).

    It's a compelling argument. 

    Combining the legislative force of the EAA with business and moral imperatives, the hope is that European consumers may soon be able to have confidence that the technology they communicate with or through will be accessible to all.

    The article was commissioned by AbilityNet and written by Barry Collins of Media BC

    Related content

    How AbilityNet can help with Inclusive Design

    New accessibility training courses for higher and further education

    For disabled students, now more than ever during the global pandemic, an inclusive digital experience is crucial to their ability to participate in education on an equal footing.McNaught Training Consultancy Authoring

    Yet, we often find that accessibility investments in one part of an institution can be undermined by lack of awareness in another, or we identify a lack of long-term institutionwide planning for accessibility overall.

    With this in mind, we have created two new accessibility training courses, in partnership with Alistair McNaught of McNaught Consultancy, aimed specifically at higher and further education professionals.

    The courses ran in February and March and were so well received that we are repeating the sessions later this year.

    "I think the main thing this has raised for me as someone from a school where commitment to accessibility is really high, is that it's useful to be well-meaning, but being well-meaning doesn't mean we don't need to do the work of going through materials in more detail and consider things from different angles." - HE course attendee, Spring 2021

    Introductory discount options

    As a special introduction to the courses, we are offering a 10% discount on each course: Just use the code AbilityNetHE10 at checkout.

    There is also a 3 ticket bundle (£99 each) discount available. See below for more information.

    How to grow your accessibility maturity - for HE and FE professionals





    Date: Wednesday, 26 May, 2021

    Time: 2pm

    This training course will show you how to:

    • Evaluate your digital accessibility maturity
    • Gauge your institution’s strengths and weaknesses
    • Identify gaps in policy, practice or responsibilities
    • Set priorities and plans to embed lasting change and new ways of working.  

    The intended audiences for this training include anyone with responsibility for (or interest in) improving student experience. This may include senior managers, digital teams, student experience, learning and teaching. Bring your team - 3 ticket bundle (£99 each) discount available.

    What previous attendees have said about our similar training:

    • "The process was really good and showed how close we are, even where scores are low, I can see what needs to be done and can use the findings to encourage senior leadership into taking action."  
    • "Thank you, this provides a great roadmap for us and what we need to focus on now." 
    • “The activities and focal discussion points have provided a most useful lens for critical self-refection at an organisational level.”
       

    Find out more and book >

     

    How to deliver and sustain accessible digital learning - for HE and FE professionals

    Date: Wednesday, 16 June, 2021

    Time: 2pm GMT

    Good accessibility practices make teaching and learning more effective for everyone. Baking digital accessibility considerations into your course design will improve the learning experience for all.  
    This training course will show you how to:

    • Evaluate your course creation approach for accessibility 

    • Identify strengths, weaknesses and training needs using a range of evidence-based checks 

    • Consider how to bake digital accessibility considerations into templates, quality assurance and feedback  

    • Engage content creators and teaching and learning staff with accessibility
    • Provide a framework for auditing the accessibility of courses/subject areas
    • Improve the overall learning experience for all students 


    Students in a lecture, taking notes

    The intended audiences for this training include course leaders, heads of subject, digital teams, student experience, learning and teaching. Bring your team - 3 ticket bundle (£99 each) discount available.

    What previous attendees have said about our training:
    "We’re about to pilot universal design for learning and bringing disability visibly into the curriculum with a set of modules and will use the scoring early in the process to review what they have built in for students in their module."
    “An excellent and informative session”
    “Very useful session and a nice model to use. It was good to know that others have similar issues and challenges” 
    "The overall excel tool is a fantastic resource that I can see us using regularly"

     

    Find out more and book >

     

    two students studying in classroom with laptops

    If you are interested in an institution specific session engaging key stakeholders from across your university or college, we can arrange this.
    Please contact Helen Wickes, Education and Workplace Relationship Manager, on: 01926 562 671 or email Helen.Wickes@abilitynet.org.uk. You can also use the contact form on this site.


    How AbilityNet can help

    For support from AbilityNet call our FREE helpline 0800 048 7642

    Watch recordings of FREE AbilityNet Live! webinars and sign up for new ones 

    Find out more about AbilityNet's Digital Accessibility Services

    How to build a sustainable accessibility-led business

    Tobii and Be My Eyes shared learnings on sustainable business at TechShare Pro 2020, including:

    A picture of the three panellists together on-screenAccessibility or purpose? Starting out

    Tobii is a world-leader in eye-tracking technology that made £1.5 million in revenue in 2019>, but although it's tech is transforming the lives of disabled people it launched in 2001 with a focus on technology rather than accessibility.

    “We actually didn't start with accessibility," said Henrik Eskilsson, Tobii’s CEO & Co-Founder, speaking at TechShare Pro 2020.

    Eskilsson added; "We provide eye-tracking technology and we do that for a lot of different fields, and then, we were early on, approached by, some experts in the field of accessibility who saw our technology and recognize that there are some fantastic use cases for our technology in this field.” 

    “Today, accessibility is the largest part of our business, and it is a truly amazing opportunity to build products that have a positive impact."

    Be My Eyes: Driven by Purpose

    Conversely, social purpose was the driving force behind
    Be My Eyes, the app that connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers. 

    “We started out with accessibility as the core of what we're doing," said Alexander Hauerslev Jensen, Chief Commercial Officer for Be My Eyes.

    He added, "The purpose was at the core to offer this free service that allows people who are blind or low vision to lead more independent lives by connecting them to volunteers, and with companies,”

    Be My Eyes used is status as an AbilityNet Tech4Good Award winner to drive growth


    The two leaders were speaking to Emma Lawton, Co-Founder, of start-up More Human, a platform designed to help build digital communities. 

    “As someone who’s building a start-up with social good at the heart of it, and with massive commercial potential we're finding it difficult to balance the commercial and the sort of the good it will do for people, and how-to get it out into the market,” said Lawton who has Parkinson’s Disease. 

    How to Turn Purpose into Profit

    The app Be My Eyes brings connects low-vision and blind users to over 4 million volunteers, in 180 languages. The large reach is key to the company's purpose, but it faced a challenge in turning that purpose into a sustainable business model. 

    “When we started, we had no idea how to make BeMyEyes into a sustainable thing," said Hauerslev Jensen.

    "We launched this, mobile app connecting blind users with volunteers. We don't want to put up any barriers to using the application. It has to be free, and it's our responsibility to figure out how to make it sustainable?”  

    “There was such a difference between purpose and profit, and we wanted to change that perspective to make it about the ‘interplay’ between purpose and profit; factors that accelerate each other and not slow each other down.” 

    How Be My Eyes monetised its service

    The solution Be My Eyes developed was what it calls 'specialised help', a service that allows companies and organisations to talk to “connect to the low vision community.”

    “It's like accessible customer support through live video,” said Hauerslev Jensen. 

    Microsoft was the first company to join, followed by Google, Proctor & Gamble and a variety of banks. These companies pay to provide the service to the community allowing Be My Eyes to continue offering the app and the service free to its users. 

    “We're really excited about that because it really follows our mantra that no one is losing here; the user is able to get the support that they need; the companies are able to provide accessible support to this community of millions and millions of people. And we're able to provide as a free service and build a sustainable business. So that's kind of how we have gotten to monetisation,” said Hauerslev Jensen. 

    A more human approach to sustainable business

    A picture of Tobii's eye glassesTobii’s Eskilsson says business is increasingly recognising that purpose is a solid foundation for a sustainable business.

    “The line-up of this year’s TechShare Pro [2020] with industry leaders from huge companies where accessibility is such a high priority shows that accessibility, purpose, and doing the right thing goes hand-in-hand with creating a sustainable big business,” he said. 

    Technology has a role to play, but only by serving people, reflected Lawton.  

    “Something we have in common between our three businesses is that humans are at the heart, and technology is in supporting role,” she said. “More Human is using technology to bring groups of people; Tobii is about humans having the basic world of communication with other humans by using technology, Be My Eyes is humans helping humans through technology.

    So, there's an interesting balance between what role the human takes and what role the technology takes in any relationship.”

    An inclusive design approach runs throughout AbilityNet's accessibility products


    Eskilsson agrees that successful businesses will be the ones where technology bends to people and not vice versa.

    “If you go back 20, 30 years technology was kind of clunky and it was expected that we human beings figured out how to use the technology, and if we couldn't do it right, we were kind of stupid or something.

    “Today when you're in big corporations that provide products or services based on technology the one who's winning is actually the one who can develop the best user experience and the most human user experience.”

    A user-focussed approach

    Designing inclusively, means listening to all your customers. 

    “I'm the perfect user test because I have so many symptoms that I can kind of test for many things and be quite useful in that sense,” said Lawton. She added “Businesses have realized if you're not designing for the people with the biggest challenges, you're not really designing for a massive group, which is great,”. 

    Hauerslev Jensen agrees: “We will all need these technologies at some point. Even if we strip away all of the compassionate arguments for investing in accessibility, if it's only like a super selfish decision, I don't see why that's not the easiest decision to make, to make it accessible and inclusive.”

    “If I was an investor, I would go for the companies that invest in building technologies and solutions for the future. And that's why I think accessibility is becoming more than the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do also for, from a business standpoint.”

    How AbilityNet can help (accessibility services)

    How to make products accessible by design

    Getting accessibility right demands an individual, human approach. So argued Christina Mallon, head of inclusive design and accessibility for global advertising firm Wunderman Thompson, at a fascinating session at TechShare Pro 2020. 

    Image shows a large transparent bubble with the sky visible behind it. Inside the bubble are wild flowers and butterflies“Everybody deserves the right to express themselves. That is a human right. I believe so,” said Mallon. "A lot of the time, we [disabled people] have been othered. As long as they have just their basic needs, they’re fine. But that’s not true, and that’s not true for anybody.”

    Speaking to Rama Gheerawo from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Inclusive Design, Mallon explained why a more human approach is key.

    “What ties us all together is we’re human beings, and we all live on this gorgeous little planet of ours. The same sun rises and sets on us every day. But that day can be radically different depending on ability,” Mallon added. 

    Building a business case for inclusive design

    Driving change means engendering empathy at the top. “Many times, executives don’t recognise they’ll be disabled at some point in their lives. It shocks them."

    When they think of disabilities, they think of someone in a wheelchair or has dual-arm paralysis. It takes a lot of education because people don’t want to think about the challenges they might have in their lives when it comes to accessibility and inclusion.”

    Gheerawo agrees. “We talk about designing for ability, not disability. It’s not just about disability. It’s an inability. A designed world that actually makes it unable for people to use,” he said. 


    So how do you convince executives to embrace inclusive design? Mallon describes a “three-pronged approach”.  

    “It is about personal stories. Show that there are people with disabilities right in front of your face. And they are a huge community.”

    “And then I talk about, you know, the stats. The disability community has $8 trillion of disposable impact…similar to the disposable income of China. And then, you know, I dropped that legal compliance bomb on them, especially in the United States when it comes to digital accessibility,” she said. 

    “Give them reasons why it affects their role if they’re the legal counsel, the CFO, or you’re the chief brand officer. This is not just moral, ethical. This is the right business thing to do, but it takes a lot of conversations,” Mallon said. 

    A picture of Wunderman Thompson's Christina Mallon1. Use personal stories
    2. Use statistics about the business potential
    3. Highlight the need for legal compliance
    Christina Mallon, head of inclusive design and accessibility for Wunderman Thompson

    Inclusive design: the power of personal stories

    Image shows the website for the adaptive clothing line for Tommy Hilfiger. The caption reads "behind the design".Personal stories can influence and inspire, said Mallon. “What is so great being at Wunderman Thompson is we're good storytellers. Great stories around accessibility and inclusive design get people excited.

    "So, I've made sure to arm myself with really great case studies to show kind of the impact that investing inclusive design and accessibility has on an organisation.”

    One example is Wunderman Thompson’ work helping to launch the adaptive clothing line for Tommy Hilfiger.

    “We helped it launch an adaptive clothing line brand and adaptive clothing. Why can't buttons be magnets? Why aren't we looking at better design?"

    Just telling those stories about these kinds of aha moments that people have when they're rethinking why things are right about design and challenging that. Telling that via storytelling is so important,” Mallon said.

    “I think that's where I've been able to get CEOs and CMOs excited," added Mallon.

    Raising the bar on inclusivity

    By listening, you create a better product for all, said Mallon and Gheerawo. 

    Gheerawo cited an example that is part of the Heen Hamly Centre's origin story. The story involved Helen Hamlyn Centre founder, Roger Coleman. Coleman's twenty-year-old friend has MS and needed to refurbish her flat, so the council would approve for her to stay there.

    "They spent the whole day getting things together and making sure it was functional. Suddenly, they realised they needed to ask her what she wanted. She said these immortal words pressed on my brain; she said, 'I want to make the neighbours jealous.' And that was a lightbulb moment."

    Mallon agrees. "One thing that is so important in design is co-design, and that's not just what people with disabilities. If you're trying to design something, it can't just be, you know, your personal beliefs or preferences.”


    Mallon believes in talking about people "with a range of ability" and has a focus on extreme users.

    For example, she said, in looking at a redesign for Heathrow Terminal 5 they collaborated with an eight-year-old Japanese tourist who didn't speak English, a visually-impaired gentleman and a couple in their eighties with minor impairments but who couldn't lift their own suitcases. 

    "Some of my biggest successes come from getting the people in charge to focus on extreme users," she said. 

    Wrapping up Gheerawo said: "We need to start talking about people. A phrase I like to use is that consumers consume but people live and that's people of all ages, abilities, needs, gender, races..."

    It's another reminder of Mallon's assertion that what makes for good inclusive design is a focus on human beings.

    How AbilityNet can help with Inclusive Design

    On its 32nd birthday we ask “is the web accessible to all?”

    On the anniversary of its birth, we ask “is the web accessible to all?”

    The “power of the web is in its universality,” said Tim Berners-Lee, who submitted the original proposal that would ultimately become the worldwide web on 12 March 1989. Thirty-two years later AbilityNet's Head of Digital Inclusion Robin Christopherson, MBE, looks back at key milestones in its development and asks how accessible the web is now.

    A young Tim Berners-Lee sits in front of an old style computer monitor. Source: CERNCERN would later publish Berners-Lee’s source code for free. Without that there would have been no ‘world-wide’ internet and the risk of competing systems vying for popularity and profit.

    What’s the difference between the internet and the worldwide web?

    The internet is the physical global network (or networks) of computers and servers that supply us with the content we access on our screens. 

    The web is what we see; the content.

    The internet is the infrastructure and the world wide web is what we see and interact with. So we go on the internet (online) to access the world wide web.

    If you have a disability, it’s that content that we access every day that can present either challenges or opportunities.

    The web may be ubiquitous but, as the volume of content increased, not all of it was universally accessible to disabled people. Here, I’d like to take a personal look back at some key milestones and their impact in terms of digital accessibility. 

    Pre-1992 a text-based, accessible web

    A picture of the WebbIE browser. It is largely text-based. There are menu options to refresh and have images turned off.The early networked computers mainly used text to communicate. 

    It was only as internet use became more mainstream that the occasional image began to appear on web pages. WebbIE, one of the early browsers, was largely text-based. 

    In many ways, this text-based approach was super-accessible - a simple document where you can change colours, fonts, and text. It was quick to load and straightforward and easy to interpret for anyone with a disability or impairment.

    1992: Things get gooey with a graphical approach

    A picture of the Windows logo. It appears to be a collection of moulded, coloured perspex.The text-based internet was a good marriage for the hefty text-only laptop I was lugging around, as a blind student at University.

    It included specialist screen reader software that enabled me to read and write without worrying about images – or a pesky mouse.

    Things became visual as the Graphical User Interface (GUI, or gooey) caused the shift from DOS to Windows.

    As a blind computer user it was a challenge but for many represented the dawn of a more intuitive interface. 


    Image shows the four members of pop parody Les Horribles Cernettes. The image was the first posted on the worldwide web. The four women wear dresses and pose for the camera.Tim Berners-Lee publishes the first photo on the web in 1992 – a picture of pop parody group Les Horribles Cernettes.

    Without a text description, it was meaningless to anyone not able to view it for reasons of disability, browser capability or bandwidth.

    Posted here, I can read a description of the image using Alt Text an accessibility standard that wasn’t conceived until three years later. 

    1995: Raising the standards for accessibility

    With complexity came a need to set standards. In 1995, Dr Cynthia Waddell published a web design accessibility standard for the City of San Jose’s Office of Equality Assurance. 

    It comprised a comprehensive list of specifications for the city’s website designers and developers and included, among many other things, a requirement that all images be accompanied by an alternative text description (visible to blind users' screen reading software) and that all video and audio elements have accompanying text transcriptions. 

    Waddell, sadly now deceased, was a pioneer who became Executive Director of the International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI) and co-authored books on building accessible websites.  

    1999: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

    Fast-forward to today and WCAG guidelines are internationally-recognised as the basis for website accessibility. 

    The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) published version 1.0 of WCAG in 1999. WAI is the working party of the de facto world governing body for all things technical to do with the web; the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) of which Berners-Lee is Director.

    That’s a lot of acronym spaghetti.

    Version 1.0 of WCAG had 14 guidelines to help developers create inclusive, accessible websites. These included the all-important requirement to label images; the no. 1 prerequisite for blind users everywhere.


    WCAG has been the go-to guidelines ever since. The current iteration is WCAG 2.1 but versions 2.2 and 3.0 are on the horizon. Version 3.0 promises a stronger emphasis on disabled user involvement – something we’ve championed for years. 

    1998: A legal right to accessibility

    The US followed through with legislation designed to nudge developers and content creators to ensure they didn’t exclude people using assistive technology, specialist software and settings designed to make things easier to use. 

    In 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Rehabilitation Act Amendments, including a revised Section 508 which was expanded to include the worldwide web. 

    It mandated that any websites published by or used by the government or federal agencies be completely accessible to those with disabilities. 

    Here in the UK, we had the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995, but it wasn’t until 2003 that an accompanying code of practice ensured that it covered the digital world. 

    The newly-minted European Accessibility Act (EAA) brings together the updated web accessibility guidelines with others relating to smartphones, public terminals like ATMs and ticketing machines, telecoms and broadcasting and all flavours of public transport, and require that member states comply (the final milestone is June 2025). 

    Enforcing accessibility guidelines

    Crucially, the EAA mandates that member countries take the vital step of identifying and resourcing bodies to monitor and report on inaccessible websites and other products and services. That’s the key; actually enforcing the law. There’s nothing like the threat of hefty fines to focus the mind, and boardroom agenda, on creating inclusive products.

    Whilst there are moral and business cases for compliance, money talks loudest of all. The Norwegian government proactively monitors and fines companies that don’t comply. SAS, their national airline, dragged their wheels for a year before being threatened with the equivalent of a €15,000 daily fine. It fixed the issues in ten days.

    Looking forward: an inclusive future

    The future needs to go beyond the accessible and to be fully inclusive. That means designing so that digital products are easier to use by those with impairments, or disabled by environment.

    The tide is turning and last year’s TechShare Pro conference saw over 900 attendees, was hosted online on Microsoft Teams and was fully accessible. What’s more, all of our headline sponsors belong to The Valuable 500 and so are driving accessibility from the top.


    Companies are beginning to recognise the business case for accessibility. Get it right and sales and revenues will grow. 

    Diversity and Inclusion is rising up the corporate agenda and a greater focus on disabled people as valuable ‘extreme testers’ is a huge step forward.

    As today’s anniversary passes, the real legacy that I hope will stay with you should be the transformative power of the internet.

    That has to be for everyone - including me as a blind person and millions of other individuals who are entirely reliant on accessibility to use the internet for work, shopping, keeping in touch with friends and loved ones. 

    Imagine, on finishing reading this, not being able to read the next article that catches your eye.

    Imagine not being able to add items to your Amazon shopping cart or make a payment using your trusty banking app.

    Imagine if, from now on, hardly any images loaded on websites – and none whatsoever on social media. It’s enough to make you weep. I do sometimes.

    So thank goodness for the internet, but thank goodness for accessibility guidelines, too. 

    How AbilityNet can support you in your accessibility journey

    Further resources

    Top tips from Microsoft about inclusive, accessible recruitment

    In our free webinar last week, 'How to do inclusive, accessible recruitment,' we spoke with Microsoft's Digital Inclusion Lead, Michael Vermeersch, about how his organisation approaches accessible recruitment. 

    Mairead Comerford, AbilityNet's Head of HR, and Amy Low, AbilityNet's Services Delivery Director also shared their best practice tips about inclusive recruitment, including about avoiding discrimination and unconscious bias. We outlined AbilityNet's own recognition as an approved Disability Confident Leader with inclusive recruitment practices. 

    What did we learn during the webinar?

    Here are our key takeaways from the session:

    3 women and 1 man on grid on computer screen, speaking on live webinar

    1. Only 8% of attendees said they are "very confident" their organisation has fully inclusive accessible policies and procedures.

    As part of the webinar, we held an interactive session including a few of the questions from AbilityNet's workplace inclusion GAP Analysis service, which is designed to take people through a range of questions and have them provide their experience as employees or managers. We polled attendees to get a feel for where organisations are with inclusive by design recruitment considerations. 

    Responding to the poll Q: 'Can you tell us how confident are you that your organisation (if applicable) is doing recruitment in an inclusive, accessible way?' attendees responded with the following:

    • 8% said they are very confident that their organisation has fully inclusive accessible policies and procedures.
    • A further 47% reported they are quite confident - 'there may be some things we could do better but generally we get things right'.
    • 38% said they are 'not very confident, we still have a lot to learn'. And finally, 3% were not at all confident - 'My organisation needs to make major improvements'.
    • 4% of respondents did not belong to an organisation.
       
    In addition to questions about recruitment, there are other sections in AbilityNet's GAP analysis that relate to onboarding and ways of working, and the overall employee journey. We will share those in future webinars later in the year - sign up to our enewsletter for announcements.


    2. 17% of job applicants that applied for a job in the last five years had a job offer withdrawn as a result of their disability.*

    This is according to a 2019 report by Leonard Cheshire charity. Furthermore, 24% of employers are reportedly less likely to hire a disabled person and 6 out of 10 questioned thought disability would adversely affect someone’s ability to do a job. 

    And why might organisations fail or refuse to make a reasonable adjustment? According to the same report, 66% cited cost of reasonable adjustments and 38% cited designing accessible recruitment process as barriers to employing disabled people.

    Knowing what disability discrimination is and how easily it can occur is really important for all participants in the recruitment process including applicants, interviewers, and those in marketing roles advertising the job opportunity. 

    3. Microsoft: Not a 'know-it-all company, but a learn-it-all company'

    Michael Vermeersch of Microsoft: "We kind of became an organisation that, you know, rather than being a know-it-all we want to be a learn it all. That in itself drives that curiosity... how do we connect? How do we become a better organisation? People start really getting engaged in this because they would like to be treated like this as well. So it almost becomes part of our DNA....
    Finally, we also publish our results. That keeps us honest and keeps us driving as well. Very recently we published our disability representation stats."

    4. Only 24% of attendees said their organisations' job application processes signpost help with completing an application form/cover letter 

    When polled on the question 'In your organisation's job application process do you signpost help with completing an application form/cover letter if required?' answers were as follows:

    • 24% said yes
    • 34%  said no
    • 12% said not consistently
    • 25% said they didn't know
    • 5% said the question was not applicable to them

    5. Key advice from Microsoft: Listen to your employees

    Michael Vermeersch

    We asked Michael 'If you had to choose one piece of advice to give to people that is going to make the biggest difference [regarding inclusive, accessible recruitment], what would that be?'

    Michael Vermeersch, Microsoft: "It's really key to listen to your employees and listen to your employee resource group if you have one. If you are sizeable enough to set one up, do do that. They will give you feedback on your experiences on your processes. It will make you a better employer both internally and externally..."

    6. Allow candidates to request changes to the recruitment stages

    During the webinar, attendees had the opportunity to pose questions to the panel. One question answered after the session was, 'Do you break inclusive recruitment into stages - are there any steps that should be prioritised?' 

    Mairead Comerford, Head of HR at AbilityNet: "At AbilityNet we do state the process of each stage of recruitment and allow for this to be changed to suit the candidate.   

    1. Ensure your recruitment process is inclusive - provide training to hiring staff is really important so everyone understands ‘The Why’.
    2. Have a process in place to ensure job descriptions are checked for relevance to the role (and for any bias – using Gender decoder or Textio).
    3. Check that interview questions are strongly linked to the job requirements (if not then take them out).
    4. Strong communication with candidates welcoming them to ask questions and give feedback to help you to design the interview process to be inclusive to the widest audience (considering all potential barriers)."

    Find all the Q&A responses on the webinar recording page.


    Watch the webinar recording

    You can also access a transcript, slides, question and answers from the webinar, and a captioned recording of the webinar via the webinar page.

    What you said about the webinar

    Feedback about the session was really positive, including from Sky Randall, recruitment specialist, via LinkedIn:

    "I've just attended a really insightful webinar by AbilityNet where Michael Vermeersch from Microsoft explained their approach inclusive and accessible recruitment, and how we could all do more."


    Further resources

     

    * Leonard Cheshire Reimagining the Workplace report, 2019.

    Promoting an accessibility agenda within a university

    Join us in our free webinar on Tuesday 13th April to learn how University of Derby works with senior leaders to promote accessibility and place it high on their institution's agenda.

    Claire Gardener from University of Derby will discuss her accessibility programme at the Higher Education provider. Claire is Senior Learning Technologist, and lead contact for Digital Accessibility at University of Derby, and is also co-chair of the Blackboard A11y User Group which provides accessibility advice for those within the education sector. 

    University of Derby logo

    Register now for the free session >>

     

    As well as sharing insights into her university's accessibility programme, Claire will also share her experience as a participant in AbilityNet's Accessibility Maturity Evaluation pilot badging project, which is a service that enables you to judge the maturity of your organisation's digital accessibility.

    In the session, the University of Derby will discuss how it worked with AbilityNet to create an elearning module for its staff to ensure all the requirements for accessibility were understood and met, with practical advice and resources provided to all the team. 

    During the session we will also update on the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) upcoming deadline on 22nd June.

      This webinar will take place on Tuesday 13 April 2021, 1pm BST, and will last for 60 minutes.

      You will be able to pose questions to the panel during the session.

       

      Register now for the free session >>

       

      If you find that you can’t attend, please don’t worry. All of our webinars are recorded and you can find them on our website.

      Further resources

      AbilityNet provides a range of free services to help disabled people and older people. If you can afford it, please donate to help us support older and disabled people through technology.

      Pages