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The rapid evolution of workplaces over the past several years has brought about some positive changes. One exciting development? Individuals with disabilities are now participating in the workforce at a record high level. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of employed workers with a disability climbed to 7.6 million in July.
But while people with disabilities have made inroads in the workplace, employers still have more to do to make these workplaces work for them.
The State of Digital Accessibility
Widespread acceptance of remote work has greatly benefited employees with disabilities, according to Meryl Evans, a global accessibility consultant and disability advocate.
“It opened the doors for many who may not be able to commute to an office, may not be able to tolerate the noise of an office, may not be able to tolerate the harsh lighting and more,” Evans said.
However, despite this, people with disabilities still aren’t always prioritized by employers.
“They're often not included. If they're hired, they feel like a checkbox because the company doesn't provide them with accessibility or tools to help them thrive in their roles,” Evans said.
Just as employers have both a legal and ethical obligation to make the physical workplace accessible through design, products and services for disabled workers, they also need to ensure that the digital tools, systems and other technologies they use throughout the day are fully accessible to them.
While laws do exist to guide companies on this front — The Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 508, The European Accessibility Act, and other country-specific legislation — many rely on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to provide recommendations for making web content and digital tools perceivable, operable, understandable and robust for all users, including those with disabilities.
However, according to a report from WebAIM, only 3% of websites were accessible by WCAG to people with disabilities as of 2022, and lawsuits related to web accessibility actually increased by 14% between 2020 and 2021.
Matt May, a consultant who formerly spent more than 15 years at Adobe, focusing on accessibility, inclusive design and product equity, said that at the moment, there’s a lot of “mutual aid” that currently has to happen for employees to get the best use out of accessibility tools, which are often hidden by design or not adopted by non-disabled employees at scale.
“There’s two pieces,” he explained. “One is having the functionality that the users need in the tool and then having the community knowledge that it exists. Because it's almost like this invisible thing to a lot of users.”
Related Article: Digital Accessibility in the Workplace
Where Tech Helps — and Hurts
May said few vendors in the digital workplace space are exemplary at this point. Because most are primarily concerned with getting products to market quickly, accessibility tools end up becoming bolt-on features that only get added after pushback.
“Every time a new platform or a new product comes out, there's this kind of dread among a lot of [disabled] users. Did they think about this, or did they just throw it out there and ask for forgiveness?”
Despite the cultural and institutional changes that still need to happen, many vendors are moving full steam ahead on accessibility tools powered by generative artificial intelligence. Microsoft, for one, recently shared plans to introduce an AI-powered accessibility assistant to Microsoft 365, among other initiatives for disabled and neurodiverse users.
Evans said voice-to-text technology, voice commands and automatic captioning are all tools which AI can positively impact, though she stressed their limitations.
“I speak perfect English ... but I have a deaf accent. People understand me when I speak, but speech-to-text apps aren't ready for my accent yet,” she said.
To her point, a report from 3Play Media found that automatic speech recognition still hasn’t improved to a point where it no longer needs a human editor.
May, on the other hand, said AI can actually be more of a step backward and a distraction in this space because it gives companies the impression they can simply replace more expansive work around accessibility with quick-fix tools.
“It’s just kind of a slap in the face,” he said. “It's just like having [Amazon’s] Alexa replace every interface in your house. Nobody actually wants that right now.”
Related Article: Tim Christensen: Technology Should Be Accessible to All Workers
The Benefits of Access and the Harms of Exclusion
Tara Robertson, a DEI consultant and leadership coach, says inaccessible workplaces are simply non-inclusive.
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“I don't think there's anyone who thinks, ‘I really want to make sure that some people feel like they don't belong here’ or wants to create extra barriers so that they can't do their job or they can't fully participate. But through the decisions that we make, we may unintentionally be having that outcome,” she said.
Then, she said, there’s also the issue that some people view disability as a permanent condition that you either have or don’t have, rather than something that may appear or evolve over time.
“I think as we age and our population overall in North America is aging, more and more of us will experience disabilities. So right now, I'm non-disabled, but that will likely change in the future,” Robertson said.
Evans believes that prioritizing accessibility can help anyone who would otherwise benefit from a better user experience. “Accessibility is no longer something only disabled people use,” she said. “Captions are the best example of that, as 80% of the people who use them are not even deaf or hard of hearing. In short, companies limit their reach when they don't prioritize accessibility.”
Related Article: How to Make Your Digital Workplace More Accessible
Progress Over Perfection
The good news? May said more mature vendors in the space are starting to make accessibility as a key part of their development framework.
“Once you transition from the idea of legal compliance to actually meeting the needs of a diverse set of users, the infrastructure kind of grows from there,” he said. “You’re not just taking an engineer and telling them what to do. You start building institutional memory and spreading that knowledge across the company.”
So, how can companies start better supporting their employees with disabilities? Evans and Robertson offered the following tips:
- Include an accessibility-related role at your company as part of your DEI efforts.
- Train HR teams, internal comms teams and employee experience teams on digital accessibility guidelines and standards.
- Make accessibility a cross-departmental effort, with everyone from procurement to payroll involved.
Evans said it’s important to also be realistic in the process. Due to the wide spectrum of disabilities that exist, employers likely won’t be able to offer every accommodation needed upfront.
“This is why I encourage a 'progress over perfection' approach to accessibility,” she said.”You can't begin to implement every possibility that will make everyone happy. The hiring and onboarding process should be straightforward in asking the employee about the accommodations they need — and granting it.”
Robertson believes individuals with disabilities should also be involved at every stage of developing inclusive products, policies and procedures.
“You can be proactive without speaking on top of these individuals, and you should be solving problems with us, not for us,” Robertson said. “There’s a statement in the disability justice world: ‘Nothing about us, without us.’ I think that’s really powerful.”
