Nexer Digital is spearheading a crusade to prioritise digital accessibility. The research design agency’s ‘I matter too’ campaign strives to raise awareness of the ’digital’ barriers faced by people with disabilities when accessing everything from apps, websites or other digital interfaces like ATMs, or other touchscreen devices
“As a consumer and a customer, the campaign felt quite timely,” Hilary Stephenson, managing director, Nexer Digital, told Customer Experience Magazine.
Over the last five years in the UK, discussion on accessibility has broadened to embrace issues of inclusion. The advent of the European Accessibility Act in the summer will heap further pressure on businesses to include digital accessibility as part of their strategy.
European Accessibility Act comes into play
“The European Accessibility Act is an important step in ensuring equality, but compliance alone isn’t enough,” said Stephenson. “Through the ‘I Matter Too’ campaign, we’re calling on businesses to take this as an opportunity to go beyond the minimum requirements.”
Even though the UK is no longer in the European Union, any organisation looking to sell services into the EU will have to comply with the legislation.
“That’s everything from online shopping, websites, apps, kiosks, card readers, [and touchscreens]. All kinds of weird and wonderful technology that you find on the high street,” explained Stephenson.
Compliance is variable
There is already legislation regarding digital accessibility in both the US and UK markets, however, compliance is variable. In the UK the public sector has taken the lead in adopting accessibility measures. But the private sector has “played a game around risk versus reward”, said the agency head.
“There are some punitive fines that would come in. A lot have gambled on the risk of being hit versus the investment of trying to make all things accessible,” she explained.
The public sector also appears more willing to collaborate around accessibility technologies. Nexer Digital arranged a well-attended round table last year for the public health services sector to discuss the issues.
However, efforts to do something similar with the banking sector fell flat. One bank responded to their invite by saying “they were good” at digital accessibility and didn’t want to explain it to their rivals.
Think about digital inclusion
Both public and private sectors also need to give more thought to digital inclusion. During and after the pandemic, a host of services went online. While many of those services opened up accessibility, unless they also provided audio support the visually impaired were excluded.
That’s symptomatic of a wider problem — organisations rarely succeed in integrating accessibility throughout the customer journey. Somebody with accessibility issues might succeed in booking a train ticket online, but there is no guarantee somebody will be on hand to help them on or off the train.
A story from last year illustrates the point. Baroness and Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson was on her way to the Paris games, when she was forced to drag herself off a train at Kings Cross Station, London because no staff came to help her disembark.
“People don’t really join-up the full service experience. We need to think of it as a full customer experience challenge,” said Stephenson.
For her part, Grey-Thompson was more blunt: “it’s not good enough,” she said.