What is accessibility?

Accessibility involves ensuring information, activities, and environments are sensible, meaningful, and usable for as many people as possible.

The advantages of accessibility

Content should be accessible to everyone. Access can be difficult for people who are blind or low vision, have mobility issues, hearing challenges, cognitive limitations, or others facing barriers related to age, culture, language, education, or temporary obstacles.

Creating accessible documents is a key way to accept, respect, and respond to individual differences, giving everyone an equal opportunity to access content.

Prioritising accessibility goes beyond helping people. It shows your organisation’s dedication to social responsibility and inclusivity. Accessibility will positively influence your brand, expand your market, boost search engine optimisation (SEO), ensure compliance, and reduce legal risks.

Understanding information deficit

One of the biggest challenges blind people face is a lack of information. For instance, e-scooters left in the middle of footpaths are a hazard. A sighted person can see the hazard and walk around it. A blind person does not have the same information as a sighted person. They cannot see the hazard and may run into it. This is information deficit.

Overcoming information deficit

Since the 1990s, screen reading access software has been available for the blind. When this software is installed, a speech synthesiser is also set up. The software converts content into braille, and the synthesiser verbally reads out the content exactly as written. The quality of the translation and the spoken content is dependent on how the document is formatted and organised. Not all content suitable for sighted users is suitable for the totally blind.

Learn more about accessibility, visit: www.seewritehear.com (Opens in a new tab)