January is a month often associated with fresh starts and new beginnings. Many people try to better themselves with New Year’s Resolutions - often forgotten before the end of the month… but what if you made New Year’s Resolutions for your business? Hopefully, making sure everyone can access your business is high on your agenda at any time of year.
So, with that in mind, let’s talk about some easy changes you can make to your business to improve accessibility in 2022:
Ask for help
Before you start re-adjusting your office setup or changing your website’s colours, the very first thing you should do is ask the people who will benefit the most.
For example, if you aren’t sure about how to make your office more accessible, send out an anonymous survey to your staff. There might be issues that have affected them for ages but they have not felt confident enough to mention.
You might also find this case study interesting, in which I discuss the Accessibility Audit I carried out at a local office space.
Equally, if you sell products online - you can ask a portion of your dedicated customer base to give feedback on your website accessibility. Ask them target questions like:
How easy do you find the checkout process?
Are you able to filter all of the products by category easily on your phone?
Why do you shop with us?
A mixture of questions with a rating from 1-5 and open-ended questions will help you to get both definitive answers and the qualitative data you need to make real, impactful decisions about your website’s accessibility.
Consider different needs
Unfortunately, many people still have a very limited view of what a disability “should” look like. And, as a result, they fail to accommodate those with lesser-known or ‘invisible’ disabilities.
To many people, when you ask if a business is accessible, they will think about ramps, stairways and doorways. Don’t get me wrong, all of these are vital parts of good accessibility - and something I ask about regularly as a wheelchair user myself. However, what about other disabilities?
As a restaurant, it might be a matter of offering braille menus or having an online version that people can access using their screenreading device. Or, if you have a waiting area in your premises, have you considered how fluorescent lighting can trigger migraines and other issues for people with visual and neurological conditions?
For more about often-forgotten disabilities, check out the following blog articles:
👉Understanding Digital Accessibility for ADHD
👉How to Make Sure Your Business is Accessible to the Deaf Community
It might seem like being accessible to everyone is impossible, but the reality is that we aren’t looking for perfection - we just want to see you try. Made a mistake? Own up, apologise and make tangible improvements so that it doesn’t happen again.
Accessibility is a learning journey and it might not be something you can get right first time!
What’s Happening
While we can’t celebrate the rise of a disabled Marvel superhero every month, it’s still worth sharing some of the top stories from the worlds of accessibility and disability.
In typical Disney fashion, the subject of a live-action Snow White has been in talks for many years. The concept, which is turning into a reality with the casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White, has faced much criticism from the dwarfism community. Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage said a live-action remake would be “backwards” and would continue to perpetuate the misrepresentation of dwarfism on the big screen.
Producers responded to Dinklage claiming they would be “taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.”
So, it’ll be interesting to see how they do decide to approach this subject in the new film!
That’s all from me for this month. Don’t forget to subscribe if you arrived here from social media, and please forward this email to anyone you think would enjoy it!
Cheers,
Dean