Given the scale of the problem, it’s surprising that there is not more of an active debate about the best way forward on digital accessibility. In our view, there are several reasons for this.

1. It’s a sensitive subject and sometimes an awkward conversation. Questioning whether the guidelines are too complex can imply that you don’t support efforts to make websites accessible or you’re trying to justify ignoring the guidelines.

2. It’s not easy to admit that your website does not meet accessibility standards. Internally, it looks like the digital team is failing. Externally, it doesn’t look good for the agency involved and is bad for PR. The best way to avoid giving an impression of culpability is not to admit there’s an issue in the first place.

3. It’s just not regarded as a strategic priority because it is not seen as a commercial issue. Instead, it seems to generally be regarded as a slightly annoying compliance issue. It’s not currently on many teams' radars.

4. Most digital teams do not have the knowledge, resourcing, budget, in-house skills or tools to confidently tackle the issue. It may be seen as easier to ignore.

Where do we go from here?

How do we go about changing this situation? In our view, there are three things that need to happen. We need to:

1. Start the conversation about accessibility within organisations and across the industry.

2. Shift the emphasis away from compliance to user experience and from achieving compliance to moving towards it.

3. Take a pragmatic view to achieve better levels of accessibility and related compliance.

Image: Pexels/Angie Reyes