alternative text

In the digital accessibility world, there is a standard line of advice that goes something like this: You need to design and build with accessibility in mind. If you do things right the first time, you shouldn’t need to invest in remediation or rebuilding later. And by the way, it doesn’t have to be that […]

Digital accessibility is addressed in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to be exact. It requires all federal agencies and departments to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities, including both employees and members of the public. This includes websites, PDFs, and digital kiosks. The requirements also apply to federal government digital procurement as well as some bodies that receive federal funding.

So you’ve just learned about accessibility. Now what? The good news is that it’s never too late and there are steps you can take to make an immediate impact. But what should you do first?

When you work in digital accessibility, you hear a lot of things from customers, designers, developers, and agencies that just aren’t correct. Most are genuine misconceptions, but that doesn’t mean they’re harmless. At best, organizations can end up overspending on accessibility. But they also let organizations psych themselves out of pursuing greater accessibility out of fear that it will be too expensive or too difficult. And at worst, orgs might think they are accessibility conformant but are actually increasing their legal risk while missing out on the business benefits of digital accessibility.

Twitter fired their entire accessibility team this month. But that doesn't mean you can afford to pause on accessibility during a tech recession.