Digital accessibility, the way is co-design with disabled users
Six months after the entry into force of the European Accessibility Act, start-ups are advancing to bridge the gap between rules and practice
Key points
The Web is often portrayed as an open, fluid, limitless space. But for those with visual, motor or cognitive disabilities, navigating a website, filling out a form or completing a purchase can become an obstacle course, not unlike that faced by a person in a wheelchair when faced with an architectural barrier. Not always apparent to those who do not experience them directly, digital barriers limit access to information, services and opportunities, reducing the very value of digital as a tool for inclusion.
One in five people in difficulty
It is in this context that, last June, the European Accessibility Act (Eaa), the European regulation imposing accessibility requirements for digital products and services, came into force. On paper, this is a historic step. In practice, the gap between regulatory obligation and actual user experience still remains deep. According to research carried out by YouGov for AccessiWay, about one in five people in Italy have difficulty reading, listening to or understanding digital content, and more than 15% forego online purchases or requests for services because of barriers to accessibility.
A dynamic that harks back to what Robin Christopherson, head of digital inclusion at AbilityNet, a British non-profit organisation working on accessibility and digital inclusion, calls a real 'compliance trap'. "Accessibility is too often interpreted as a set of technical checks to be ticked off, rather than a requirement of the user experience," he explains. At the heart of the matter is the insufficient involvement of people with disabilities in the research, design and testing phases: "Without the lived experience, it is not clear where the barriers really lie". Complicating the picture are technological choices accumulated over time, which make it difficult to intervene organically. And when responsibility is diffuse, it often ends up dissolving: 'If accessibility is everyone's, it risks being no-one's,' Christopherson observes.
Eye-Able born of concrete need
It is precisely in the gap between law and practice that new European realities such as Eye-Able, a start-up born out of a personal story in Germany, are emerging. The founder saw his best friend drop out of university because digital tools and online content were not accessible due to a visual impairment. "Eye-Able did not start out as a business idea, but as a concrete need," explains Lorenzo Scumaci, managing director of Eye-Able Italia. This approach is reflected in an approach that goes beyond formal compliance and often directly involves people with disabilities in the evaluation of real usability: 'We intervene at the root. We analyse code, design, content and interaction flows, thanks to a dashboard that provides a complete report of the errors present'.
Scumaci: 'Designing accessibility from the start'
However, Scumaci emphasises that accessibility cannot be 100 per cent automated: 'For many aspects, human intervention is necessary, especially to assess the coherence of the content, the logic of the paths and the experience of people with disabilities. That is why we involve real testers'. A theme that also returns in Christopherson's words; according to him, accessibility is an ongoing process, requiring monitoring, training and maintenance. "More mature organisations integrate accessibility from the very beginning. When suppliers, designers and developers work according to inclusive principles from the start, compliance becomes a natural consequence of good design, drastically reducing costs and corrective actions," he points out. According to Scumaci, awareness is needed, because 'websites and apps are just the beginning: the topic will increasingly affect more platforms, including social networks and the use of artificial intelligence'.
