Not Just for Customers: Digital Accessibility in the Workplace

Your organization may be making efforts to address digital accessibility for its customers, but have you considered how to address digital accessibility in the workplace? Providing accessible digital experiences for employees is more important than ever from business, ethical, and legal standpoints.

Developing digital accessibility initiatives as a part of inclusive workplace practices is often overlooked by organizations that think only a small number of their employees are affected by disability. However, according to the Boston Consulting Group, organizations are drastically underestimating how many of their employees are disabled. While employers estimate that 4-7% of employees are disabled, the real number is closer to 25%. To support creating inclusive workplaces, this piece will highlight four areas to focus on to address digital accessibility in the workplace.

Use accessible internal digital systems.

When considering the accessibility of software solutions, it can be easy to overlook software that is primarily used by employees. But since many employee-facing systems handle confidential information—such as payroll and demographic information—it is especially important to ensure these systems are accessible. The presence of confidential information means employees who encounter access barriers within these systems have limited options for enlisting assistance—especially since involving another person would mean exposing their private, confidential data.

Your organization’s website, job portal, software, inter-office documents, and social media profiles all need to meet the technical requirements of the latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). When considering which third-party software tools to adopt, ask to review the vendor’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT®) to evaluate how accessible the software is for employees. It can also be helpful to enlist the help of a skilled expert that can conduct a comprehensive review of VPAT documentation.

Learn more about evaluating VPATs with our VPAT Checklist.

Review technology used by employees in edit mode.

It is common for user experiences to vary between the public-facing version of a software product and the version that allows for editing or inputting information. So while the software you use for customer interactions might be accessible, the same might not be true of the pages and menus your employees are using to work within that software. Common accessibility barriers include keyboard traps, difficulties in navigating menus, and elements that are incompatible with assistive technology. Conduct automated and manual testing of software in editing and / or input mode to verify that all aspects of the employee user experience in the software are accessible.

Adopt an accessible meeting culture.

Inclusiveness in the workplace depends both on accessible practices and accessible systems. One common area where employees can encounter digital accessibility barriers is during online meetings, especially in today’s remote work culture. To improve accessibility, make a practice of enabling recordings, transcripts, and AI captioning for every meeting. Adopting a culture of avoiding overlapping conversations and using hand-raising functionality before speaking can also reduce accessibility barriers for employees.

Read more about creating accessible virtual meetings.

Make assistive technology available to all employees.

Assistive technology—such as screen readers and AI captioning—is central to supporting access for some individuals with disabilities. However, because these tools are often only granted under formal employment accommodations, they are not always available to everyone who could benefit from them. For example, while screen readers are traditionally used by individuals with low vision or blindness, they can also be beneficial to users who benefit from text-to-speech functionality, or by users who have certain types of seizures or vestibular dysfunction.

Also, when assistive technology is restricted to people who file for formal accommodations, employees who are uncomfortable with disclosing their disabilities are forced to choose between access and personal feelings of safety and confidentiality. Therefore, it is beneficial to enable a free screen reader, such as NVDA, or other forms of assistive technology, as part of freely downloadable and installable employee technology packages.

You can also consider adopting IT policies that allow users to freely customize their browser plug-ins or other freeware. By giving employees greater access to customization for their tools and user experience on work devices, you help create inclusive workplaces without requiring employees to disclose disability status or meet specific disability diagnoses to access specific tools.

Inclusive workplaces are accessible workplaces.

Every leader of a successful organization knows that employees play a crucial role in that success. Focusing on digital accessibility is key to ensuring employees have tools and support they need to contribute their best work. And a trusted accessibility expert can help you craft and implement a plan to address any barriers you may have to accessibility in the workplace. To receive more information and guidance for your accessibility journey, contact us today.

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FAQ

How does accessibility support diversity in the workplace?

Digital accessibility provides support for diversity in the workplace by acknowledging the presence of individuals with disabilities as valued members of and contributors to an organization. By ensuring all employees with disabilities have equitable access to workplace tools and systems, organizations can send a clear message that they benefit from having a diverse and inclusive workforce.

How is digital accessibility different from workplace accommodations?

Workplace accommodations are granted through a formal process in which an employee self-identifies as disabled and requests modifications, otherwise known as accommodations, to their workplace environment, systems, or expectations, to allow them to equally participate in the workplace. While digital accessibility is often a part of accommodations granted to a specific individual, focusing more broadly on digital accessibility in workplace systems, software, and practices, can remove potential barriers before an employee needs to request accommodations. Focusing on digital accessibility has the added benefit of extending access beyond specific employees with disabilities to all employees, which can improve workplace experiences for everyone.

If my organization already has an accessibility initiative, why do I need to focus on employees?

Even if your organization is already working to implement digital accessibility for its customers, it is still important to specifically focus on accessibility in the workplace. Often, the user experience in workplace websites, software, and other digital assets is different for employees versus customers, especially when employees are responsible for building or inputting information into these systems. Additionally, many organizations use software that is exclusively employee-focused—such as HR and payroll systems—which can be missed in testing and evaluation that is exclusively customer-focused.