This document provides guidance on how to advocate for accessibility work internally and externally. It begins by introducing the presenter and defining accessibility. The main sections discuss pitching accessibility to senior leaders, internal teams, and clients. For each audience, the document provides statistics, business cases, and examples to demonstrate the value of accessibility. It emphasizes an iterative process and that automated tools alone are not enough. The goal is inclusive design without compromising goals.
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How to sell the value of accessibility work to stakeholders
1. How to sell the value of accessibility work to
internal teams, management and even clients.
Kat Richards 2021
Accessibility Buy-in
2. Table of Content
1 About me
2 Reasons for accessibility
3 Know your audiences
4 Recap
3. Tell me
in chat…
QUICK POLL
Your role:
A. Designer or Writer
B. Developer
C. Project Manager
D. Other
How often you
do a11y work:
A. Every project/all the time
B. Occasionally/client requests
C. Rarely/wish I did more
D. Just learning how to now
4. Kat Richards
WHO AM I
9 years in UX & consumer experience
CX Manager at Hoffman York (Agency)
DEI Advocate, she/her
Accessibility advocate, but not expert by
any means
@katkrichards
5. Building solutions that are inclusive
is part of our responsibility.
Unfortunately, not everyone
understands that it’s not as “easy
as a click of a button”.
The Pitch
The Pitch
6. That’s 20% of the
population that
identifies as having a
disability — or 1 in 3
households . (Source)
NUMBERS
We’re building good
business rapport, as
well as creating quality
products for everyone.
BUSINESS
Designing for
independence; we as
designers should be
building products and
experiences for all users,
not just “the bigger
population.”
EMPATHY
Icons used throughout this deck: flaticon.com
Why is accessibility important
9. 61 million is a huge number to dismiss when it comes to
business revenue
NUMBERS GAME
If your competitors aren’t working towards accessibility efforts, that
makes your company and your clients a step ahead of the game
UNIQUE FACTOR
Building inclusive and accessible solutions just makes business sense,
especially when it helps you and your clients avoid being sued
BUSINESS SENSE
1 | SENIOR LEADERS
Key Points
10. We’re seeing a 23% increase of
lawsuits since from 2019 to 2020,
and it continues to grow over time.
Source
1 | SENIOR LEADERS
Avoiding
Lawsuits
11. It varies across all industries, but
we’re noticing a bigger trend
within retail and food services,
which makes sense as a result of
COVID.
SENIOR LEADERS
Source
1 | SENIOR LEADERS
Business
Sense
12. 19.9 Million – motor
15.2 Million – cognitive
8.1 Million – vision
7.6 Million – hearing
USA alone
SENIOR LEADERS
Source
1 | SENIOR LEADERS
Numbers
game
14. Building your digital solutions accessibly the first time will save a lot
more time than trying to fix it later
TIME EFFICIENCY
Showing highlight reels of PwD using your website with assistive
technology to understand the barriers
EMPATHY
2 | INTERNAL TEAMS
Understanding that disability covers a wide variety and varies from
permanent, temporary to situational circumstances
NUMBERS GAME
Key Points for Internal Teams
15. Your website is boring or that it has to be a text only website.
2 | Internal teams
Accessibility doesn’t mean:
16. Understand the wide spectrum of
disabilities and how your work
can influence the overall
experience.
Source
2 | INTERNAL TEAMS
Numbers
Game
17. Running a usability test on your
product/project with PwD when
possible.
Explore simulation workshop with
user personas and task prompts as
an alternative.
2 | INTERNAL TEAMS
https://www.funkify.org/
Using
Empathy
18. Doing it right the first time will
save you time later.
2 | INTERNAL TEAMS
Time
Efficiency
19. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
CLIENT SERVICE
Time efficiencies and avoiding
lawsuits for your clients.
UX DESIGNERS
Using empathy to build inclusive
solutions for all users
DEVELOPERS
Building usable components and
time efficiencies
PROJECT
MANAGERS
Time efficiencies
UI DESIGNERS
Visual and interactive elements
and its impact
QA
Accounting for different situations
& tech when QA
Internal Teams
22. Content Writer
TOOLS
• Write simply (write at 8th grade reading level)
• Be consistent in page layout and writing style
• Write clear & descriptive link & CTA’s
• SEO implementations like alt text, headings,
proper content hierarchy
• Transcripts and descriptions for audio and
video content
• Prioritize Content
• Making sure content is resizable without
assistive technology up to 200%
http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
http://accessibility.voxmedia.com/#designers
https://consciousstyleguide.com/
https://styleguide.mailchimp.com/writing-for-accessibility/
http://4syllables.com.au/articles/writers-accessibility-evaluation/
https://bitsofco.de/the-accessibility-cheatsheet/
https://accessibility.digital.gov/content-design/getting-started/
23. Design
• Don’t rely on color alone to convey meaning
• Check color contrast through tools to ensure
there’s enough separation with color and
font size
• Don’t rely on mouse or keyboard or speech
alone for interactions
• Avoid interactions or flashes
• Make text bigger, 16-20 px for body copy
with a minimum of 14 pixels
https://www.toptal.com/designers/colorfilter/
https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/
http://colorsafe.co/
http://accessible-colors.com/
https://www.microsoft.com/design/inclusive/
http://accessibility.voxmedia.com/#designers
http://trace.umd.edu/peat
https://airbnb.design/anotherlens/#answer3
https://accessibility.uxdesign.cc/
TOOLS
27. Being an inclusive and customer driven brand means
building solutions that reflect that
BRAND VALUE ALIGNMENT
Building inclusive and accessible solutions just makes business sense,
especially when it helps your business from being sued. You’re also
covering a large demographic and improving their lives.
BUSINESS SENSE
3 | CLIENTS
A huge part of selling to your clients is getting client service or project
manage roles to assist in the pitch
GET YOUR TEAM TO HELP
Key Points for Clients
28. Get your client service and other
team members to help you push the
case for accessibility with clients.
3 | CLIENTS
Power in
Numbers
Source
29. Saying your company is inclusive
and user centric when it comes to
solutions is one thing, showing it
with action is another.
3 | CLIENTS
Brand Values
Alignment
Source
31. “We’re not the
government so we
don’t have to make
this accessible”
508 compliance is the only
government requirement,
but when it comes to ADA
and WCAG… more
regulations will be coming
for digital experiences.
We’re already seeing this
shift now because of COVID.
Actually….
32. “This is just going
to cost us money
that we’ll never
make back!”
Actually….
That’s what happens when
we don’t plan to do it right
the first time.
Just like UX or SEO work,
accessibility work is
iterative and ongoing.
Trying to retrofit it
afterwards will always take
more time and money.
33. “People with
disabilities don’t
come to my
site… they just
aren’t my
customers.”
We already learned
61 million of the USA
population have a disability.
What we do know...is that
we’re losing customers and
creating barriers for them.
Actually….
34. “We checked our
site using an
automated tool.
This should be
enough.”
Automated tools identify
only 20-30% of errors and
can issue false positives.
Always include a manual
testing element, especially
with A11Y professionals.
Actually….
35. “Tools that promise
a ‘quick fix’ to all
your accessibility
issues… can we just
use that?”
A lot of these solutions
are surface level and
make it difficult to use.
You can dive deeper into
why they don’t work:
Actually….
https://overlaysdontwork.com/
https://overlayfactsheet.com/
36. Widgets and overlays do not fix
accessibility problems. Especially
the ones that sound too good to
be true.
Source
Overlay
Widgets
37. Make things as accessible as we can,
without compromising business goals or
aesthetics of the site.
With an understanding that it’s iterative.
Goal:
38. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Understanding what motivates
them will guide you on how to
communicate to them
AUDIENCE MATTERS
Accessibility work is an ongoing
process. Ongoing with education,
ongoing with selling the value.
New technology is constantly
shifting.
ONGOING
Summary
39. Agile mindset
Shifting mindsets to a new habit: It
takes a minimum of 21 days for old
habits to shift and for us to form
new ones.
RECAP
Recap
Putting it all together
40. “Good accessibility work is about
compliance. Great accessibility work is
about empathy.”
We all have responsibility and the power
to remove barriers and empower all
users to be productive and connected.
So, let’s get to work.
Source
41. How to reach me
STAY IN TOUCH
@katkrichards
krichards@hoffmanyork.com
If you’re looking for an agency to help
pitch or consult accessibility work, we
are happy to help at Hoffman York!
43. Types of Disabilities
Source
Posters are created to help accessibility
design in the UK gov.
Six Different posters covering:
1. Autistic Spectrum
2. Screen readers
3. Low vision
4. Physical/ motor disability
5. Deaf/ hard of hearing
6. Dyslexia
44. Spectrum of Ability
Persona spectrum:
• State of disability
• Permanent, temporary and situational
• Types of accessible design considerations:
• Visual (color blindness, long-sightedness etc)
• Motor/ mobility (muscular, skeletal, use of arms
and hands)
• Auditory (affect hearing or total deafness)
• Seizures (sensitive to light, motion, flickering)
• Learning (not all disabilities are physical)
• Age accessibility (young & old)
Source
Hinweis der Redaktion
Hi everyone! Welcome to Getting Accessibility Buy-in.
Today- we’ll be talking about how to get buy-in for accessibility work and understanding who your audiences are to help you with this pitch.
Before we start- I’d love to know more about who you all are. If you can respond via the chat your role and how often you do accessibility work. This will give me more context.
But before we do that… I want to tell a bit about who I am. I’m Kat Richards. I’m the Consumer Experience manager at Hoffman York, an integrated advertising agency in Milwaukee WI.
I have 9 years of background in visual design, UX or user experience and consumer experience across small agencies, in-house corporates and small digital startups.
My pronouns are she & her. I’m a huge DEI advocate and of course, an accessibility advocate. But I do want to note that – I’m still learning too and by no means am I an expert or have all the answers.
Bc of COVID, I had the opportunity to take the Deque (DECK)University’s Full curriculum accessibility courses… I highly recommend it if people are looking for resources on how to learn/dive further. https://dequeuniversity.com/curriculum/packages/full.
So why are we here?
I want to start by saying that building accessible and inclusive solutions is part of our responsibility. I’m going to take a wild guess that since you’re at this event, you already know this.
However – not everyone understands accessibility. It’s not as easy as a “click of a button”. How can we do more accessible work when there are not a lot of understanding or even buy-in internally with your team, with your management and with your clients? Today I’m going to share with you some talking points I’ve used in the past, so you can pitch for more accessibility work at your company.
Understanding why accessibility is important and it comes down to three things.
Numbers game- there are 61 million disabled individuals in US alone. That’s 20% of the population— or 1 in 3 households . (Source) When we look at this globally- that’s $8 trillion dollars of buy power. That’s a huge market of audiences we’re ignoring.
Business sense. By being a brand that builds with inclusivity – we’re building business rapport and creating quality products for everyone. We’re also not exposing the business for being sued.
There also has been a lot of lawsuits and accessibility litigations.
Empathy…making sure we’re building solutions for all users- not just the bigger population.
We have to understand each one of these points carry different weights to different audiences. In order to understand which one to dial up or down, you have to know who you’re talking to.
Understanding that different audiences will care for different reasons and learning to leverage that so you can pivot your pitch differently.
This is in sequence to how to pitch it. You can’t successfully pitch this to clients if you don’t have the right buy-ins internally or the right process to learn and execute this work.
So we start with senior leaders and management first.
When talking to senior leaders, use data and numbers to help your case. What is the ROI of accessible solutions?
That’s not to say that we can’t use any other key points like empathy or bc it’s the right thing to do. But what I’ve learned is that using data with this audience has bigger impact and resonates more.
In 2020 alone, there has been 3,550 cases of website accessibility lawsuits filed against companies.
Amongst those, 77.5% of those were against consumer goods and retail space. That’s 10 lawsuits every day.
In fact- according to a HubSpot report, this was a “record-breaking year of ADA digital accessibility lawsuits”.
When we talk about lawsuits- we can see it carries across all industries. But we do see a bigger trend in retail and food services, especially as a result of COVID.
Some of these lawsuits include:
Target lost over $6 million + $3.7 million in legal fees for not having a site accessible for blind individuals
Wells Fargo lost over $16 million for a similar lawsuit.
And the most recent, Domino’s Pizza v. Guillermo Robles, is still ongoing, but the Supreme Court’s decision to side with the consumer is foreshadowing what’s to come for businesses. Even if you’re not retail, it doesn’t mean you’re immune, it just means you’re getting targeted at a later time.
According to the Census Bureau,
“19.9 million have difficulty lifting or grasping for mouse or keyboard usage,
15.2 million have a cognitive, mental, or emotional impairment,
8.1 million have a vision impairment
and 7.6 million have a hearing impairment.” And that’s in the United States alone. That’s a huge percentage of users that we’re not meeting the needs of. And to top it off- if your company is one of the few who can do accessibility work for your clients, that helps the overall business stand out from competitors.
Pivoting to the internal team.
Now – I know we’ll all have different company cultures and team dynamics. So for this presentation- I’ll try to cover a wide variety, but this is still speaking more from an agency perspective.
When talking to your internal teams, it’s important to note that disabilities cover a wide variety and could be permanent, temporary or situational circumstances.
But the most impactful way to reach your team is using empathy.
Lastly- it’s considering time efficiencies- making sure that we’re building the solutions right the first time will save a lot of time down the road to fix it later.
SOURCE: https://www.guru99.com/accessibility-testing.html
When I talk to internal teams… I always start with this.
It would also be helpful to show websites who are accessible, so your team has a better understanding of what is possible.
A big part of evangelizing accessibility to your team is understanding that disabilities isn’t always so black and white … or one or the other. But it’s a spectrum. Microsoft’s inclusive design kit breaks this down quite well. (Hearing example)
Getting the team to understand that we need to create solutions that are inclusive of all the situations; & when we do that, we cover a broader audience.
It’s also the RIGHT thing to do b/c all users should have access to digital solutions – whether that’s healthcare, banking or retail.
Another way to sell to your internal team is using empathy. Test with users who have a disability whenever possible on your product and share those highlights with your team. Showing a video speaks louder than any pitch or presentation you give.
If that’s not possible…explore immersion exercises to go through a simulation. Now I know there are some who will be against this.
Always caveat that this isn’t intended to understand what it’s like to live with a disability. The goal is to provide teams or even clients a glimpse of what it’s like to be in someone else’s position and complete a task via our product/digital solution.
We also want to note how you’re using the site via a disability simulation will be slower than those who are well versed in using assistive technology. But the premise of running a simulation workshop is similar to how we run usability tests. We create personas for our audiences from data and research… in this case it would include a backstory for context. There’s a plugin that we use call Funkify and then we would ask that user to perform a specific task on our product/site.
Funkify simulates different types of disabilities with a wide spectrum of severity. Microsoft’s inclusive kit also does a great job breaking activities like this down.
Retrofitting accessibility efforts into an existing project is never going to be as seamless as doing it right the first time. There’s a Deque case study from last year found that 67% of accessibility issues originate in design. And it significantly increases as we continue in a project process to development and testing.
It’s the same as UX or SEO work. Having to fix something after will always take more time and effort. Accessibility should be talked about as an investment into your website or product, not a one time line item.
Understanding that even within your own teams, there are different motivations for different team members. The biggest educating moment I had with the teams I work with was explaining accessibility isn’t just one person’s job on a team. We all play a role in the overall accessibility on a project.
Understanding that for client service and project management folks- it’s about time efficiencies and avoiding lawsuits…
For UX designer and visual/ui designers- it’s relying on empathy to see the overall impact of their work.
For developers and QA – it’s building usable components and making sure we’re accounting for different situations/tech when testing. I also have resources at the end of this deck broken out by different team roles and links to reference for more information.
Understanding each one of the team roles and how they can impact accessibility efforts.
Starting with client service & project management – for them it’s seeing accessibility work as time efficiencies. They need to allow time for accessibility training and integration into the project process for the team to be successful.
From a UX perspective, it’s building empathy and understanding the frustrations PwD have using our solutions. That can be done through testing with people with disability or as I mentioned earlier- simulation exercises.
Simulate experience by using screen readers, navigating using only keyboards, following captions for video content, colorblindness simulation tools etc.
For content writers – it’s writing simply and consistently. Making sure content hierarchy and SEO (on page and technical) are in place
This is for web and product content…. As well as social media content.
SEO & Accessibility work closely together.
For design teams – it’s understanding ways to communicate to our users- not relying on color alone or mouse alone.
Making sure there’s enough color contrast in designs and avoiding flashy interactions
For development- it’s making sure code is in a logical flow and using tools to verify if there are improvements to be made. Understanding when and why to use ARIA.
Lastly- we have QA. Making sure they work with UX to manually test. Learning different ways of testing with color contrast tools and screen readers.
Once you had these conversations with senior management and your internal team, the last part is selling the value to clients.
If you can sell it to the first two audience groups, they will help you sell to this group.
The three key points here are similar to the ones you heard for senior management.
Getting your team to help pitch is key here.
Explaining to clients building accessible solutions will help their business avoid lawsuits. It’s also covering a large demographic of users.
And lastly, being customer driven as a brand means that your solutions also reflect that.
Use numbers to your advantage. Get your team to help you sell this pitch to your clients.
Your Client service team are your biggest allies here.
And then of course – building accessible solutions also aligns with your brand. Saying your company is user centric when it comes to solutions is one thing. Showing it with action is another.
34% of consumers considered a brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion when making purchase decisions. The report entitled ‘WALK THE TALK – What consumers expect from today’s online brands’ revealed that 41% of consumers have stopped using, or are using less of, an online brand that has a poor reputation or is engaging in malpractice.
67% of consumers are more likely to make a second purchase from a diverse and inclusive brand
“people can sense when a brand is merely saying what it needs to say versus truly walking the walk.”
The unfortunate thing ….is clients typically fall into three groups:
Those who care about accessibility bc they’re being targeted for lawsuits… so they’re being more proactive about it.
They truly care about building inclusive solutions bc it’s the right thing to do
They understand where you’re coming from, but don’t have the budget for it or their priorities are different….
At the end of the day, all we can do is pitch the value of this well. And it’s up to the clients to decide what they want to do. I’ve used this pitch for our clients… and sometimes you win some… and sometimes you don’t.
What I’ve learned is that when you pitch this, you will hear some rebuttals and misconceptions. And I wanted to walk through how to address some of these.
“We’re not a government entity or website- so we don’t have to make this accessible”.
Government entities only require 508 compliance. However, more and more regulations are coming- esp for digital experiences. We can look at ADA and WCAG for guidance as a starting point. We want to be pro-active rather than reactive.
“This is going to cost us money we’ll never make back”
- Just like UX or SEO work… accessibility work is iterative and ongoing. If we didn’t do it right the first time, it’ll cost the clients even more later.
“People with disabilities don’t come to my site.”
We learned that 61 million in the USA alone is somewhere on the disability spectrum. We also know that WCAG 2.2 will be released this fall and WCAG 3.0 (Silver) before 2023.
We’re losing a % of customers and creating barriers for them. And the standards are getting stricter as time goes on. We’re just adding to our “accessibility debt” as we continue to disregard accessibility issues. Are you confident that all the users coming to your site now are not facing any accessibility issues?
My two favorite ones I hear quite often from clients:
”We checked our site with an automated tool. This should be enough”
- Automated tools only account for 20-30% of errors. In addition to automated tests, we always recommend manual testing as well and testing with accessibility professionals.
“Tools that promise a quick fix to all your accessibility issues..”
A lot of these solutions are surface level and overlays…which actually causes more problems. You can dive deeper from the two url’s here of why.
Just for more reference- the overlay widgets still get sued.
More than 250 of the lawsuits from this past year alone were for these “solutions”.
At the end of the day- our goal isn’t to make the entire site meet AAA standards and have everything perfect.
It’s to “make things as accessible as we can, without compromising business goals or aesthetics of the site. With an understanding that it’s iterative.”
Putting it all together…
Understanding your audience matters. Understand what motivates them helps you figure out how to best communicate to them.
And know that accessibility is an ongoing process. Ongoing education, ongoing with selling the value. Esp as new technology is constantly shifting
While accessibility work and building inclusive solutions isn’t as easy as a click of a button….
We have to approach this with an agile mindset. It’s going to take time… know that you will have some barriers. You’re most likely going to fail the first time. No one starts a new skill at the expert level.
But it’s really focusing on small steps with quick wins to get buy-in. By educating internally the value of accessible work and slowly trickling it into our project process. It’s no longer “added work” but “just how we do things”. Understand that accessibility work is a journey and iterative.
I’ll leave you with one final thought.
Sheri - another speaker at this conference said something that really resonated with me. “Good accessibility work is about compliance. Great accessibility work is about empathy.”
We all have the responsibility and the power to remove barriers and empower all users to be product and connected.
So let’s get to work.
You can find me via Linkedin or email here if you want to reach out.
And of course- if you’re looking for an agency to help consult or pitch accessibility work, we are happy to help at Hoffman York!
Thank you everyone for coming to my talk today.
Does anyone have questions?
There are posters that the UK government put together. They outline different types of disabilities and how we can design solutions for each. Before COVID- this was something I had printed out and taped up on a wall in the office. It was a great way to build that education internally and also a great conversation starter.
There are also different variety and spectrums of ability. Solve for one- extend for many;
example: when designing for people with permanent disability- it also creates a better solution for a much larger group.
Ex: Closed captioning was created for the hard of hearing community - but it also benefits those reading in a crowded airport or teaching children how to read.
