Accessibility: Fancy Philanthropic Effort or More?

Accessibility refers to making the products and services accessible to all, including people with disabilities (PwD) and a lot has been talked about it as a social, philanthropic effort, almost so much so that it sounds like a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. Do u really think that big companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, and Cisco, are continuously improving their products, services, and processes w.r.t. accessibility to accommodate only a social cause? Well, I do not think so. Addressing social needs might be one reason…one small reason I would say, however, there is more to such an initiative.

Big companies are claiming to make the outputs of their businesses, such as products (phones, laptops, computerized kiosks), documentation, and services (learning solutions, Web sites), accessible or available almost equally to all, be it a professional, or an older person, or a PwD. And, the reason given for such a move, most of the times, is to provide equal opportunities to all. That, in my opinion, is only partly true.

It Means Business

An important reason for implementing accessibility is the big money involved. As far as the statistics goes, 6% of world population is suffering from disabilities, and around 19% of the U.S. population contributes to this number. Now, these people are customers with special needs who need accessible products and services to make the transactions that other people make. Also, PwD are all the more dependent on Internet and technologically advanced solutions to make their day-to-day operations a bit smoother. Technology can assist them, like other non-disabled people, right from paying off their bills sitting at home to controlling their businesses from a location of their choice. However, PwD need these services more and the reason is obvious. Therefore, if companies are implementing accessibility in their products and services, they are very well capturing a new customer set (PwD) for their products that others did not even consider.

In addition to the customers that companies can capture and satisfy with their accessible solutions, companies can also hire and retain employees who are good at work however did not get hired because the company lacked accessible products and services. Apart from PwD, some people face disabilities because of age—many old people develop certain disabilities with age and if the companies do not retain them as employees just because of their recently acquired disability, companies lose on the expertise that these people have earned through their experience. And this population of aged people is above and beyond the 6% (PwD, worldwide) and 19% (PwD, U.S.) statistics.

Now, think of the revenue that a company can earn by making new customers, catering to them, and retaining diverse employees. And then, philanthropy just becomes one of the peripheral advantages that emerge out of this business need called accessibility.

So, when IBM introduces shortcuts/special buttons on this Think Pad (for people with locomotor disability), or Cisco launches accessible phones (that converts speech to text) for hearing-impaired people, or Microsoft releases Windows Speech Recognition in its Windows Vista (to enable people with locomotor disability to interact with heir PCs by their voice), I think there is more than a social cause to it---it all translates to wider customer base and therefore more business.

Competition Demands It

Another important reason of implementing accessibility is that in these times of severe competition, you cannot and rather would not like to be left behind. All big organizations are involved in addressing needs of PwD, be it visual, auditory, speech, locomotor, neurological, or cognitive disabilities. IBM and Microsoft are actively involved in implementing accessibility in their products since early 1980s. And now Cisco is also joining the bandwagon by having an Accessibility Unit for the organization that takes care of accessibility needs for the organization on whole. When the top-notch players are competing in providing accessible solutions, other companies are bound to follow the suit.

Clients Demand It

Many companies, such as Cisco, have U.S. federal government and other U.S. state governments, as their clients. For these companies, with such clients, it becomes a stated requirement to make their deliverables accessible because they need to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (in U.S.). This act requires all products and services to be accessible to all in the public. With more states and clients asking for accessible solutions, be it in learning or product domain or otherwise, the demand of accessible solutions will rise and an organization can only be ignorant to not proactively learn more about it.

Pleasing Customer

Making the products and services accessible to PwD makes things easier for the other lot too, i.e., people who do not have disabilities. If an organization like Microsoft allows the flexibility to use the IE7 browser in a way that best suits customer’s needs and preferences, it benefits the PwD and others alike. It becomes a comfort for all to be able to customize text, style it, and color it; use keyboard shortcuts; use the zoom in and zoom out functionality for the Web content, and so on. This makes a customer of your product happy and the more customers you please; the more you make your business grow. After all, customer is God.

Accessibility has already gained a lot of momentum within big companies and the medium sized companies as well are catching up with it. The management in the latter should consider proposing accessibility as a part of the solutioning for the client. Because if your product is good and the client intends to use it for long, it might not be very far that the client comes back to you saying he wants to make it accessible and then turning back the wheel would be a tedious process. So, treating accessibility as a solution that a business can offer to make better products and services for PwD and otherwise is a wise thing to do---a wiser business proposal than a philanthropic effort.