It will be relevant for any business currently trading (or planning to trade) within the European Union.
In my opinion, the European Accessibility Act should be on the radar of anyone considering how to improve their technology for the benefit of vulnerable users. It’s about understanding and identifying what barriers might be preventing users from finding what they are searching for and taking steps to rectify them.
This is a topic that we take extremely seriously.
What we’ve learned is that often, improving services for people with disabilities is as much about design choices as it is about technical integrations and AI. That’s why we advocate for businesses to focus more on usability testing and integrating regular CX audits. They are essential to identifying what improvements are needed and why. With this data available, it becomes easier to critically assess your technology from the perspectives of those user groups.
The key areas where digital accessibility can be improved
Improving technology for people with disabilities can be a complex process. However, the improvements within AI and automation, along with personalisation settings and customisation tools, mean that it’s never been easier for firms to make small changes that can have a significant impact on disabled and neurodiverse user groups.
Part of the reason why technical barriers have been in place for disabled user groups is because of an unconscious bias. Usability testing and design choices have been through a lens of physically able, neurotypical audience groups – so it’s essential to bring in different perspectives throughout your testing processes.
It’s also worth noting that digital accessibility is extremely vast. Every user will have their own preferences for what helps their own experiences. Making changes in one area to aid one user could adversely impact other users elsewhere. That’s why it’s essential to factor in personalisation and customisation strategies so each user can take control over their own technology. They can have the results they are looking for every single time they visit your website or open your app.
Stronger integration with assistive technologies
Assistive technologies are essential for many disabled user groups. From screen readers to voice-activated controls, there is now more choice in the market than ever before. However, it’s essential that businesses routinely check that these third-party solutions are correctly integrated into back-end systems, with no conflicts emerging that could prevent them from working effectively.
While AI and automation are making it much easier for businesses to automate tactics such as alt tags, image descriptions, language translations, video captions and written transcripts, it’s essential to keep human oversight on all activities. That way, they can be checked for errors and corrected before any go-live options.
While we think that automation is making it much easier to align content, imagery, and video with assistive technologies, businesses must remember that any automation needs to have clear direction and clarification. If you wouldn’t accept typos and spelling mistakes elsewhere on your website or platform, it shouldn’t be acceptable within your assistive technologies.
It’s about giving every user the respect that they deserve.
Design choices are a contributory issue towards inaccessibility
Many businesses might be stunned to realise that their design choices are causing significant accessibility errors. This could be because digital transformation teams (including designers and developers) will often approach projects from a perspective of usability without realising that accessibility is very different.
While websites, apps and other online platforms often look visually exciting, they may be creating barriers for disabled users. For example, many colour palettes include red and green despite an awareness that they cannot be easily seen by those affected by visual such as colour blindness.
What’s more, many font choices, font size and line spacing options, as well as colour contrasts, can impact how accessible information is for people affected by conditions such as dyslexia, autism or ADHD.
We recently conducted user-led research*, which confirmed that six in ten people had previously experienced significant issues when trying to browse a website.
- Over 86% of users** have resorted to manually changing website background or text colour to improve readability.
- 63% of users had previously experienced issues viewing a website because of the colour palette or imagery.
- 25% of users said they wanted the ability to adjust the size and colour of the mouse or cursor.
- 88% of users expressed a desire for more websites to offer clear instructions on how to adjust accessibility features, including text and background colour options and even mouse pointer visibility.
Our research findings confirm our opinion that continuous usability testing should be a crucial part of any improvement plans. It’s not good enough that such a significant proportion of audiences are routinely let down by something as fixable as a colour palette.
With regular testing in place, these issues can be spotted and rectified much earlier.
This is also where personalisation settings can become far more valuable – by giving each user the opportunity to set their personal accounts to the default option that helps them, they will start to have a much better experience every time they return.
Are AI-driven chatbots inaccessible to disabled user groups?
In recent years, many businesses have turned to chatbots and generative AI to manage their customer service capabilities. While many of these chatbots offer suitable filtering options, there are concerns that they are creating barriers for disabled user groups and could prevent vulnerable users from asking for help.
While there is a clear advantage of implementing well-managed customer service plugins which direct users to the help they are looking for, it’s vital to ensure that different options are available for all customers.
For example, live text chats are efficient, but they can be overwhelming for those with reading difficulties or visual impairments. Adding an option to select video chats along with caption/transcription services or lip-reading capabilities could be far more beneficial for some users.
Another option is to reassess any customer feedback forms. Any form should be labelled correctly – along with clear outlines of how much more information may be required. While traffic light colour coding systems can be effective in informing users of progress, the colour palettes may be overwhelming, which is why using shapes to direct progress can be more inclusive.
Right now, technology is better than it’s ever been. That’s great news for vulnerable users because rapid improvements can be made to websites, apps, and platforms that improve everyone’s online experience. The challenge is to make sure that web designers, web developers and digital transformation teams retain sight of those user groups.
Rather than seeing digital accessibility as something to tack on at the end of any project, it needs to be strategically thought through from the very beginning.
With the right foundations in place, technology can become far more inclusive and accessible to all users.
** Sherwen Studios survey results were managed through a short questionnaire hosted on the Sherwen Studios LinkedIn page. Results were obtained from 191 people across the UK (date range: 25.03.2023 – 15.04.2024).
Matt Sherwen
Matt Sherwen is the owner and CEO of Sherwen Studios, a creative, strategic and technology-driven digital consultancy for transformation, AI and automation. From website development to full omnichannel digital infrastructures, Sherwen Studios works with clients to help them understand how to evolve their digital presence.
