Accessibility, disability and your business IT

In the beginning…
One area which is of great interest to me, and which I know confuses and worries many people is accessibility which also involves disability.

What gives me the right to talk about accessibility?
I have a teenage son with learning and physical difficulties. I’ve worked with and designed and developed software for many people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities. It has made me realise how badly people do accessibility, mainly because they don’t understand the needs and the problems sufficiently well. My designs always accommodate accessibility appropriately; it makes for better applications for all users.

What is accessibility and is it important?
In the UK we are governed by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), so we have a legal framework to operate in and legal obligations to consider. Other territories may or may not have accessibility laws. Whether or not you have laws to guide you, it is your moral obligation to consider the needs of a large part of our community. It’s also pretty stupid to make it impossible for capable people to work for you because you didn’t try.

Why do you need to consider accessibility?
Making applications accessible isn’t just a morally good thing to do; it may be a legal necessity. If an application is developed which unreasonably makes it impossible for someone to do a job they are otherwise capable of doing, then they may be able to take you to law. An employer has a duty under the DDA to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that a disabled employee is not put at a substantial disadvantage. These obligations are expressed in terms of ‘reasonableness’ so there is room for common sense in how these obligations are met.