Technology is supposed to make it easier for everyone to live and work, but for the 10 million disabled people in the UK, many of whom find it difficult to use a conventional keyboard and screen, life is much harder than it need be.
Everyday business activities such as accessing information or using email are complicated or impossible for those with physical or sensory impairments, because websites and in-house systems cannot be adjusted to cater for their needs.
On the face of it these adjustments seem simple enough: the ability to make text bigger, change colours, have onscreen text read aloud or to plug in special hardware and software. In fact many alterations that disabled people need can be achieved just by changing Windows settings.
Wake-up call
However, many organisations have struggled to make their IT accessible. Until recently only organisations with a high proportion of disabled users, such as government departments and banks, took much account of the fact that their customers and employees might not be able to use a screen and keyboard unaided.
Accessible IT may sound like a good idea, but to many CIOs it looks complicated and expensive to provide for a comparatively small number of users. But things are changing. Firms increasingly recognise that the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act puts the onus on them to carry out “reasonable adjustments” to their websites and in-house systems to make them usable by everyone.
Improved and less expensive accessible technology makes it easier for even severely disabled people to access IT, and more difficult for IT departments to cite cost as a reason for not taking action. So far as expertise is concerned, there is an increasing number of accessibility specialists.
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