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Accessibility Drivers

We all know that Accessibility is a relatively nascent area of focus. There is this great article by WebAIM – The crisis is real – Where are the web accessibility professionals.

We have surely seen more and more companies focusing on Accessibility and also seeing the rise of lawsuits over digital accessibility.

The question yet remains how organizations are delivering on the accessibility promise. In the last 5 years, we have seen that companies are starting to build teams around accessibility.

In-House Accessibility Team Strength Poll

So, we ran a poll to gather some insights about in-house accessibility teams.

Highlights of the Poll Results

• 56% of the teams are smaller than 10 people.
• Only 6.5% of the teams are between 11-20.
• Out of the 20+ team size, 61% were delivering IT services to customers, so we can assume that accessibility is one of those offerings.
• Out of all the organizations, 62% of them were working on accessibility for their in-house teams.
• When we map the industries that these organizations belong to, the top 5 are:
  • IT Services
  • Banking & Finance
  • Education
  • Product/Software Companies
  • Consulting Services

The number of digital assets that companies have internally or externally is only increasing. It is going to be critical to meet digital accessibility so that we can truly have inclusive organizations. Therefore, it is critically important to be focused on the accessibility of your assets by relying on a combination of your internal team and third-party vendors to achieve your accessibility goals.

I believe this is the start! Looking forward to an interesting few years ahead in the accessibility domain/space.

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In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Who does Section 508 apply to?

It applies to all Federal agencies.

What does Section 508 Accessibility Standard cover?

It covers all electronic & information technology which is either developed, procured, maintained, or used. Some of the items it would cover would be computers, printers, softwares, websites, information kiosks and electronic documents.

So let’s demystify that. If a federal agency buys a software to conduct surveys, or develops a Human Resource management system or buys office productivity suites for their employees to use, all those technologies must comply with Section 508.

What is the Section 508 Accessibility Standard and what does it include?

The standards and guidelines for Section 508 were revised and updated on on January 18, 2017 and then amended on March 23, 2018.

One of the key things that the Final Rules included was referencing and thereby incorporating the Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.0. This was critical and it went beyond that by applying the Level A and AA Success Criteria’s as developed by the W3C WAI. This also was a set towards harmonising with the international accessibility standards in specific the European Standards EN 301 549.

It looked to bring about clarity on what type of solutions needed to be compliant for example, the confusion on which electronic documents need to be accessible.

It highlighted that operating systems must also provide accessibility features and options and must interoperate with the assistive technologies needed by the diverse disability groups.

So if you are looking to sell your product or service to federal agencies, you cannot and should not ignore Section 508. You can even look at making accessibility a differentiator.

At BarrierBreak, we assist our customers to meet Section 508 compliance. Feel free to email us to discuss Section 508 Testing.

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One way that we support organizations is by providing accessibility testing by a team of skilled accessibility testers. This team comprises of disabled testers also! We invest highly in training and mentoring our accessibility testers. I wouldn’t even be exaggerating if I said that a large number of the early accessibility professionals in India, have been connected with BarrierBreak, whether being our employees, attending the accessibility training programs or then inspired by what we are doing.

I had hoped that over the course of the years, the number of professionals focusing in this area would increase. But I believe the trend is slow and often that is due to the demand of the IT companies. As Shwetank Dixit, once said to me, “We need to make Accessibility Cool”. Everytime I remember this conversation between us, I smile and grin and say “Yes, It is cool! It should be cool!”

But today, in India, the professionals that we find fall in a few buckets:

• Catch them Early – Hire freshers, they probably have never even heard of the term and inspire them.  Invest in them and provide them the training on accessibility. For me accessibility has always been go back to the basics whether its HTML, coding or anything. It’s a good place to start. If you can inspire them early, then you have a winner! I know we have a lot of people from BarrierBreak, who fall in this bracket!
• Professionals who have done 1 or 2 projects in their career – We find a lot of these professionals in the industry today who have been on projects where Accessibility was an ask, so they learnt a little and managed to deliver. Its more about the industry requirement. They haven’t been convinced on accessibility to make it a part of their DNA. But they have tried something! We get a lot of CVs which fall in this bracket, how do we convert them to accessibility believers?
• Professionals who are inspired – These professionals might have encountered Accessibility maybe in their job but then they bought in to the idea! They believed that Accessibility should be there, it shouldn’t be an option. They lobby within their projects and team for accessibility! We are looking these people, don’t wait, give us a shout!

Internally, at BarrierBreak, we live and breathe accessibility! It is our primary mantra! From day one, this is what our employees learn, we instill in them the need to take accessibility beyond their work. I smile when I hear some of them share about how they feel about accessibility, how they talk to their family members about it, how even if they left BarrierBreak, they would continue to focus on accessibility.

Accessibility is in their DNA!

• If you want to be inspired,
• If you want to live and breathe accessibility,
• If you want to to make a difference every day in your life
• If you want to include people with disabilities with your work in every day life
• If you have an urge to learn more on accessibility
• If you want to do, not 1, not 5 but 50 projects a year on accessibility,

We are looking for Accessibility Testers to Accessibility Consultants, write to us at hr@barrierbreak.com or call at +91-22-26860485/6/7 Ext – 105.

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Facts about Effectiveness of Automated Accessibility Tools

The facts are out there! The UK Government GDS Accessibility Team conducted an audit of automated accessibility testing tools and if you haven’t read it — you must!

I am just going to call out 2 staggering statistics from the audit:

• Automated tools identified between 17% to 37% of the accessibility barriers.
• Of the 143 barriers we created, a total of 42 were missed by all of the tools

So the question is can you rely on automated tools alone! The answer is quite obvious!

Automated Testing Tools — A part of the toolkit

At BarrierBreak, since our inception, we have always focused on manual testing. Automated testing tools assist accessibility testers to identify some of the challenges. But even there often there has to be manual verification.

A simple example everyone gives is image descriptions for images. It is easy to detect if an alt attribute is provided for an image, but it needs manual intervention to see whether the image description is meaningful.

We use between 3 to 5 tools, plugins, bookmarklets to help us evaluate accessibility! Automated Accessibility Testing Tools have to be a part of the toolkit used but can’t be the only one!

Let’s bring in the Who — People into Accessibility Testing

At BarrierBreak, our accessibility experts are key to our process. They are the people who test, analyze, validate and recommend the solutions.

We have always been focused on including people with disabilities as a part of our process. They are not only doing user testing! They are a part of the team that conducts the accessibility evaluation!

Native assistive technology testers should be a part of the solution since at the end of the day accessibility is about ensuring people with disabilities get access to digital solutions!

When I founded BarrierBreak, I was clear that I saw this gap in the industry that people with disabilities weren’t always a part of the solution!

When we think of the People First Approach, it is about our accessibility experts — who bring value to the product or solution. It is their inputs that are critical. They are the people that analyze the code, they are the people that recommend the solution!

So time to strike the balance between automated testing and manual accessibility testing and above all remember it is the people who are at the heart of the process.

Reach out to the team at BarrierBreak, to see how we can support you in the People First Approach

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I firmly believe that the developer and the tester need to be independent. It just is pure conflict of interest!

Accessibility testing is an Audit conducted of your website or mobile app. Which audit would you trust more:

1. One where the developer has audited their own work
2. Where an independent auditor checked the deliverable

Personally, I will trust the independent audit and I’m sure that’s due to you too.

So, if you have specified in your Statement of Work or RFP that the website or mobile app has to be accessible and meet Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.1 Level AA, then I am sure you want to ensure it meets the standards.

Some of the benefits of performing a third party accessibility audit are:

• Accountability – ensuring that the website or mobile app is delivered as per the accessibility guidelines and hold the vendor accountable to the SOW or RFP
• Validation – the audit will help you test that the accessibility requirements are met as per WCAG.
• Managing Risk – ensuring that your website and mobile app is inclusive and accessible. This will also ensure you comply with the relevant laws such as Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Above all be a company that is inclusive. Ensure your products and solutions are accessible to people with disabilities.  There are more than a billion people with disabilities in the world and have a disposable income of USD 3 trillion.

So choose right! Evaluate your options of vendors and don’t be limited by your “preferred vendor” list. Find the vendor partner that helps you to meet your accessibility needs.

Be Inclusive and Accessible!

Write to us at sales@barrierbreak.com to know more on how we can support you to be an inclusive organization.

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The decision is slightly more complex than an either or situation. Often the decision is based on product spread, headcount and budget. 

I believe that a strategically planned mix of an in-house team and an outsourced team as a combination will allow you to stretch your budget and implement accessibility effectively. 

In-house accessibility team 

As an organisation focusing on inclusion you want to own the accessibility mandate. 

Accessibility Lead / Head 

It is critical to have someone responsible for accessibility and who drives the mandate Across the organisation.

Responsibilities:  

• Shape the the accessibility culture of the Organization to go beyond compliance
• Create and align the accessibility strategy and budgets
• Partner with internal teams to bring alignment on accessibility.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders right from the executive leadership to the disability community.
• Build, manage, and develop a team of accessibility specialists.

Accessibility program manager

Focus on implementing the accessibility strategy and working towards compliance across product teams.

Responsibilities: 

• Work closely with stakeholders across the company, both technical and non-technical, to ensure accessibility awareness and compliance.
• Train product teams on accessibility practices.
• Partner with external vendors to provide documents  accessibility testing and compliance
• Managing VPATs and versioning.
• Managing customer relations on accessibility.

We have seen when Twitter Rolled out audio tweets without captions. The deaf community was soon to react. A perfect example of why each organisation needs a person who leads accessibility companywide and product wide.

Outsourced accessibility team

When it comes to accessibility subject matter experts or accessibility testers, you might find it beneficial to outsource due to multiple criteria:

• Product schedule
• Budgets
• Trained accessibility experts
• Access to disabled people as a part of testing team
• Availability of the needed assistive technology

Above all the flexibility to increase or decrease the team due to project schedules. 

Outsourcing is a way to have the relevant skills available without increasing head count and maximising your budget.

So why not the best of both worlds, and in-house team that owns accessibility and an outsourced team that delivers on the promise.

Need more information? Will be happy to get on a 1 hour tête-à-tête focused discussion on accessibility. Write to sales@barrierbreak.com

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In 2004, when I got funded by Aavishkaar, honestly I didn’t know much of the social enterprise or the venture capitalist world. I didn’t even know what it meant to have an investor.

Was fortunate to have Aavishkaar & Vineet Rai believe in the idea of BarrierBreak & my own family who was willing to back the idea with capital.

But honestly, was funding the primary need for us at that time.

In retrospect, no it wasn’t. I wish I knew this then.

I did find some amazing people who have mentored and helped me in my journey whether it was Pravin Gandhi, Arun Diaz or even conversations with the R. Sriram, Paula Mariwala or so many people I met through TiE or other connects and networks.

But the one gap I always felt, was no one really understood the disability market or the needs of the disabled community. Initially, it took time for everyone to realize that I was looking to go beyond the charity model. I wanted to create a sustainable & profitable business.

I am thankful that each of these people came into my life, asked the right questions, gave me the kind of advice that an entrepreneur needs, connected me with people I could learn from, helped me identify next steps, got me to think clearly of what I was doing or even just listened to.

As recently as last year, I was thinking of an e-commerce platform for disability solutions and the difficult conversations around the merits and perils of the e-commerce world, buying power of the audience, versus the scalability of the model made me decide to not go ahead.

My initial reaction was I want to do this but when I sat and listened and answered the tough questions, I realized that this wasn’t an area where I would get the impact I wanted to.

So if you want a mentor to help you in your startup focusing on disability solutions then apply now for the BarrierBreak Assistive Technology Startup Mentorship Program.

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BarrierBreak is proud to announce the 3 month Assistive Technology Startup (ATS) Mentorship Program to assist startup founders focusing on solutions for people with disabilities. The ATS Mentorship Program will help startups identify & solve for their  focus areas.

What we bring to the table is the deep knowledge of the disability sector, market understanding from India  & global perspective & business acumen.

Our 1st Cohort will be mentored personally by Shilpi Kapoor, our CEO who has proven that disability solutions can be nurtured into a sustainable model. Being a serial entrepreneur herself, she saw this gap in the Assistive Technology startup community and is looking to break this barrier and see people succeed in this space.

India Perspective

In the last 5 years, India has seen a surge in startups focusing on assistive technology or disability solutions. This has been a pleasant change. Since this is a relatively nascent segment, we do see them struggle to find the business model & market access that would help them become sustainable, scalable and profitable.

In the period pre-COVID, we saw 4 startups bear the brunt and have to close down. Yes, in the startup world, not every startup is a success. A recent study, “Entrepreneurial India,” by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics, found that 90% of Indian startups fail within the first five years. So yes, this will be true for startups focusing on disability, but can we give them a winning chance?

Why BarrierBreak ATS Mentorship Program?

The BarrierBreak ATS Mentorship Program will be a 1-1 mentoring with the startup founders where they will learn to think through their challenges & opportunities, identify solutions, create task oriented measurable plans to get to their goals. We will be starting small with only 3 startups in the C0hort.

We don’t ask you for Equity but we do ask you to be open and transparent, so we can together find the solutions.

Your idea is yours, all we want to do is support you think it through and help you succeed.

We won’t be doing the hard work for you, you will be doing it for yourself.

We don’t offer you heaven and earth in 3 months, but we do offer that you will have clarity on your plan and steps ahead to achieve your goals.

Shilpi believes that “Disability is so entrenched in the charity model, and we see most startups struggle to break out of that mindset. Yes, CSR should be one of the areas for disability solutions to be delivered to the end customers, but the differentiator will be to see how we can look at other business models to scale and create impact. So if you want to break the shackles and think out of the box, then send in your nomination for the BarrierBreak Assistive Technology Mentorship Program.”

If you have any questions, send in an email to mentorship@barrierbreak.com with your mobile number, so we can call you back to discuss.

Timeline

• Applications Close – 8th October
• Application Interview Process – 12th to 16th October
• Final Cohort Announcement – 22nd October
• Mentorship Period – 1st November to 31st January

How to Apply

Before you send in your nominations, ensure you are:

• Open to discussions, suggestions, and feedback
• Committed to investing time and working on the plans
• Ready to think out of the box

If you are an entrepreneur focused on a solution that impacts people with disabilities, don’t wait, Apply Now!

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