Accessibility and inclusion through digital, products & services and organisational paradigm changes
Accessible design means better design. There is growing importance, demand and opportunity for businesses to adopt accessibility across their digital products, their communication with customers and how they conduct business.
Designing for users with varying levels of impairment and exclusion ensures that all user interactions are perceivable, understandable, operable and robust.
Why inclusive design is so important?
- 3bn people globally live with a disability
- Est 14m disabled people in the UK (1 in 5 of the population)
- Numbers grow year on year due to an ageing population and advances in medicine
- There are more than 2m disabled people in work in the UK
- The number of disabled people in work has increased by 3m since 2013
- 80% of disabilities are acquired between the ages of 18 – 64
- Only 4% of businesses are focussed on making offerings inclusive of disability
- Of over 500 MTD for VAT products less than 1% have declared themselves accessible
- Valuable 500 initiative estimated that companies are losing $13tn in sales by ignoring disabled consumers
BASDA’s direction of travel
BASDA has already started this journey and our goal is to bring our members with us. We will champion this important topic through a new Specialist Interest Group focused on Ability which launched in June 2021.
The Chairperson of the Ability SIG commented “We recognise that a collaborative approach, working with members and specialists in the industry, will help create awareness, understanding and a structured way forward that will help us all embed best practice regarding ‘ability’ across our respective businesses.”
We were delighted to have secured fantastic industry guests to join us at the launch event, speakers from businesses that brought real value as they spoke about their own personal and business journeys:
- Helen Moloney, Managing Director, All Things Web® presented on their direction of travel as they start their ability journey, the process adapted for both their business and BASDA’s digital footprint, challenges that organisations may face and how they are bringing their clients with them on the journey.
- Robin Christopherson MBE, Head of Digital Inclusion, AbilityNet presented on why prioritising digital inclusion in everything an organisation does is critical – from a culture, development and people perspective.
For members to move their Ability agenda forward, it’s important to have sponsors and champions within your business. Working with BASDA through this SIG, members can be assured they are getting access to the latest developments, industry best practices and access to specialists to help develop clear strategies and goals across their business.
Who should participate in this SIG?
- Directors / Owners
- Product Managers
- Product Marketing Managers/senior leads
- Technical seniors (Managers/design leads/technical product leads)
- CX Seniors/leads
We would strongly encourage your company to have representation at this new Ability SIG event and find out more about how you can further embed ability and inclusivity into your software development, products and overall business.
Video with Key Highlights now available
A summary of the key highlights of the event including the objectives of the SIG, the inaccessibility of the CAPTCHA system, the importance of inclusive design and how to grant greater access to web-based content, the need for a cultural change and maturing models, and public sector accessibility regulations are all covered. To catch the important video highlights click HERE
Read more about the Ability SIG HERE or register your interest in joining this SIG by emailing marketing@basda.org
If you are not already a member of BASDA and would like more information on how to become one, click HERE for more information on how to join.