GAAD 2023 Let’s talk about Accessibility

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is just a week away. Let’s burst some myths around accessibility to celebrate GAAD.

Accessibility is an expensive effort and time consuming

This is not entirely true. Accessibility is neither too expensive nor consumes a lot of time if we consider accessibility at an early stage of product development. We should include accessibility right in the planning document to design to development to testing. If we have it as part of development process, the cost and time it consume is minimal. It does not mean that it does not require any additional effort. It does since applications of today are dynamic in nature and we need to add a few attribute to ensure they are accessible to all users including people with disabilities.

If we think of accessibility as an after thought, it’s certainly going to be an expensive and time consuming effort. So start thinking of accessibility at an early stage.

You must be thinking that your product is already grown and how can you make it accessible now? Not to worry, it’s always better late than never. So start your journey today. First thing, take the stock of current level of accessibility for your product, have it completely tested and identify accessibility issues, prioritize them as Critial, Major, Moderate and Minor. Then make a remediation plan to get them fixed in a phased manner. If a module / product is going to get replaced / retired soon (say in about a year) then you don’t have to do anything but focus on ensuring accessibility for your future product. Suggest work arounds for existing product when a customer asks.

Want to learn more or need help in your accessibility journey, write to us at info@accessable.co.in