Imagine returning to work after your skiing holiday, with an unwelcome holiday souvenir: your arm in a cast. Suddenly accessibility is a relevant topic as you sit at your desk, trying to do your work without having to use the mouse.
Accessibility refers to whether a service or product is designed in such a way that everyone can understand and manage it, including persons with a disability. We have spoken much on the topic of the European Accessibility Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) which define how to make digital content more accessible to people with disabilities. We tend to think of accessibility in connection with persons with permanent disabilities (e.g. visual, auditory, cognitive, motor, speech). However, it also applies to temporary disabilities due to a broken limb, a sprained wrist, blocked ears, RSI (repetitive strain injury). There are also situational disabilities such as reading a screen in bright light, listening to recorded messages in noisy surroundings, multitasking.
Some companies may claim they have no users with disabilities. They do, without realising it! They have overlooked those with temporary or situational disabilities like our unfortunate skier.
How accessible is your company’s communication?
We, the JPC Accessibility Team, can tell you! https://jpcint.com/a11y-services/
Dutch page: https://jpcint.nl/a11y-services/