Improving your organisation’s digital accessibility
Why do we need to make our organisations digitally accessible?
Everyone should be able to access a service or product in whatever ways suit them best and if you work on optimising accessibility more people will access your services and feel welcomed (many will leave a platform because of access issues). Good accessibility is good for everyone, not just those with disabilities or particular needs. Not only will your reputation be enhanced with people you work with if you are seen as welcoming and accessible, but this will also make your organisation more attractive to funders and commissioners. Furthermore, good accessibility helps your organisation comply with legislation including the Equality Act and the Equality and Human Rights Commission Statutory Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions and Associations.
At Connected Voice, we see improving digital accessibility as part of our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan. This is a live document with an ongoing set of actions which is overseen by our Trustees and implemented and reviewed by our EDI Group. The Covid pandemic has changed the landscape – probably permanently – with service delivery moving online and service providers and users getting used to a whole range of different platforms. The pandemic has exposed our digital divides – the trend towards digital technology was already growing before the pandemic, but the outbreak of Covid and subsequent lockdowns have accelerated the shift to digital technology. For example:
COVID-19 has spurred many more people to get online or to use the internet in new ways compared to before the outbreak. For example, among 50-70 year olds, three quarters (75%) say they were making video calls more often during lockdown and three in ten (31%) said they were emailing more than they did before the pandemic struck.
How has Covid-19 changed the landscape of digital inclusion? Centre for Ageing Better 2020
Digital Exclusion is far from being just a generational issue:
Digital exclusion is another facet of the deep inequalities which run through the social fabric of the UK and is more widespread than many people are aware of.
COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on a digital divide and the effects of digital exclusion on low-income communities. Communities are feeling isolated, forgotten about and unable to communicate their expertise and thoughts.
Coronavirus response must include digital access to connect us all. Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Some top tips
The most important thing is not to get overwhelmed so here are just 10 top tips with examples of things Connected Voice has done over the last year.
1. Get training from experts in the field
Staff from Connected Voice attended a series of Digital Accessibility workshops during 2021 co-produced by Difference North East and Enhance the UK. A further session is being delivered by Difference North East to our whole staff team in March, because we want everyone in our organisation to understand the basics of digital accessibility.
2. Spread good practice across your organisation
It’s important to establish good practice which is consistent across the organisation. This is important for everyone in your organisation, not just those with a specific communications role. Members of the Connected Voice team are producing guidance to ensure colleagues throughout CV understand why digital accessibility is important and how to improve it.
3. Don’t assume you know what good practice is – get advice
We produced a film about hate crime with text embedded in the images. We asked for advice from experts who use screenreaders. They confirmed that the text could not be read by a screenreader so we added a voiceover to the film.
4. Review every platform
We audited our self-advocacy app, DIY Advocate® and we’re reviewing the accessibility of our website and have made improvements to make them both more digitally accessible. We added accessibility software to the website and the app to provide users with tools to convert content into different languages, change font, colours and contrast, use screenreader and magnifier.
5. Think about all formats
We’re looking at our online resources, videos, printed materials, emails, social media, etc. We’re thinking about text, images and sound. For example we aim to write all text in Plain English, make sure our online images are meaningful and add to the text. We have made ‘Alt text’ a mandatory field on our website so it won't allow us to upload an image without it. ‘Alt text’ stands for ‘alternative text’ and is a short written description of an image, which makes sense of that image when it can't be viewed, for example due to visual impairment. Well-written Alt text is important both to your website's accessibility and its search engine optimisation (SEO). We also enable live closed captions for our online events and training for those with hearing impairment.
6. Consider intersecting needs
Consider how multiple, intersecting identities and needs might impact on someone using your resources. Sara, a member of the Connected Voice team, has written a blog, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Me about why Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are important to you and your organisation.
7. Share good practice across the sector
Amy, a member of the Connected Voice team recently wrote a blog about making your content more shareable. It gave tips about how to disseminate information and how to work out what our readers and members need to know about and what they will find useful or interesting.
8. Don’t let fear of getting it wrong make you inactive
There’s a lot to think about and sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Break down the areas into manageable chunks and decide an area to work on first. It’s much better to do what you can, but be open to hearing people’s views about what you could do to make things even better.
9. This doesn’t have to be expensive
There’s a lot you can do by using free guides and online resources. But remember to pay for training and advice if you can – people and organisations providing it need to have their expertise recognised.
10. Don’t stop – this is an ongoing process!
Make a plan of what you aim to do and review it regularly to check progress. Try to keep up with debates about access and new technological advances and incorporate them into your action plan.
