The Business Value Of Accessibility

The Business Accessibility Cost

Digital communications are the most effective and cost saving method in communicating to a wide ranging customer base. Alternative information formats and delivery methods should only be considered when the mainstream communication channel fails to meet customer needs. Providing alternative accessibility information formats for blind customers tend to be expensive, time consuming, and unnecessary in today’s digital economy. Organizations that choose to focus on Accommodation Services, rather than a corporate wide inclusive strategy, will only continue to struggle with accessibility challenges.

It should not be the customer’s responsibility to shift the corporate culture of inclusion by constantly requesting special support services. Customers with disabilities should not be expected to bear the responsibility of inefficient corporate processes and substantial development costs due to inadequate knowledge skills. In a rapidly changing world, with multiple service offerings, requesting special support services simply become unmanageable.

It is the service provider’s responsibility to be familiar with customer expectations and market trends, through a leadership that understands product development and delivery standards and regulations.
Understanding The Cost Of Not Being Accessible (new window)

The Business Case For Accessibility

The Business Case For Accessibility

Implementing accessibility functionality should be considered an investment, not a burden, as it improves the interactive experience for all users. Implementing accessibility functionality has been proven to be at minimal cost if integrated into the project life cycle, rather than a separate requirement which will dramatically increase development cost.

In a typical web development shop environment, the cost of integrating web accessibility features should be minimal, but depending upon ineffective development processes, tools, and knowledge skills, the cost could be substantial.
Design and Development Principles: Transparency, Inclusivity, and Accountability.
The W3C Business Case for Digital Accessibility (new window)

The benefits of accessibility

The Legal Value Of Accessibility

In the past three decades there has been an important paradigm shift catalyzing the development of new legislation and policies concerning persons with disabilities (PWD), from segregation to integration, from institutionalization to mainstreaming, from the medical model of disability being viewed as a condition to be treated, to the social model of disability focusing on the removal of disabling barriers in the environment that hinder full participation in society.

  • Medical Model: A disability is a health condition dealt with by medical professionals and in need of being fixed or cured. People with disability are thought to be abnormal and a problem of the individual. From this point of view, disability is a tragedy and people with disability are to be pitied. The medical model of disability is all about what a person cannot do and cannot be.

  • Social Model: A social model perspective does not deny the reality of impairment nor its impact on the individual, but rather it challenges the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment to accommodate impairments as an expected incident of human diversity. The social model sees disability is the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and an environment filled with physical, attitudinal, communication and social barriers. It therefore carries the implication that the physical, attitudinal, communication and social environment must change to enable people living with impairments to participate in society on an equal basis with others.

Governments around the world are legislating Digital Accessibility Laws, as technology alters the way we interact with the world around us, and users increasingly desire flexibility that allows a wide diversity of user devices, and a responsive interface that customizes the style and format for their environment. This trend increasingly exposes organizations to the threat and cost of litigation, public relations issues, and loss of government contracts.

Digital accessibility is the digital equivalent of the wheelchair ramp for sidewalks. The need of the person in a wheelchair to be able to navigate efficiently, is the same at that moment as the need of the mother pushing a baby in a pram, a person pulling a suitcase or a delivery man with a cartload of products. The design improvements made to allow for the curb cut for wheelchair users benefits many others at the same time. Inventions like the typewriter, telephone and optical scanning were designed to meet a human need, but are now mainstream technologies enjoyed by all people. these inventions benefit many people and have long been considered mainstream technology in turn leading to newer innovations. Human Centred Design is the core principle for full inclusion and business success.

International Laws

Human Rights Around The World

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (new window) states that access to information and communications technologies and systems is one element that will enable persons with disabilities to participate more fully in all aspects of life. Most countries around the world have adopted and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). To date, the UNCRPD has been signed by 164 countries and ratified (or made legally binding) by 180. The UNCRPD was adopted in December 2006 and entered into force in 2008. Canada was one of the first countries to sign the Convention (signed March 30, 2007 and ratified on March 11, 2010), which complements existing obligations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (new window), and in other federal and provincial legislation.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that approximately 25% of the world’s population is affected by disability, and 80% of the world’s people with disabilities live in low-income countries. It was deemed that people with disabilities were being denied their human rights.
The Convention in Brief (new window)

Article 9 of the convention states:

People with disability have the right to access all aspects of society on an equal basis with others including the physical environment, transportation, information and communications, and other facilities and services provided to the public.

Accessibility Adoption By Country

There is a growing realization of the business case for advancing accessibility to the digital realm for persons with disabilities. It is seen as an opportunity to reach into broader consumer segments in a crowded marketplace. This global trend has, through global collaboration, established globally accepted web accessibility standards that are supported by government legislation compliance regulations around the world. In addition to being signatories to the UNCRPD and agreeing to abide by that Convention, most countries have adopted their own methods for governing digital accessibility internally. For some countries, the requirements only apply to government organizations, and in others, it applies to both public and private organizations.

  • Australia uses the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 which applies to both public and private sector organizations, basing their requirements on WCAG.
  • Canada uses the Canadian Human Rights Act of 1985 which applies to both public and private sector organizations. Canada also has the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity, 2016 which applies to government organizations and is based on WCAG.
  • The European Union currently has the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act, which use WCAG.
  • The United States has a number of laws and requirements some of which are based on WCAG and others on different variations, some applying to public and private sector and others to one or the other.
  • The United Kingdom has the Equality Act, 2010 which is a non-discrimination law applying to both public and private sector organizations and is based on WCAG.

European Accessibility Laws

The European Commission Strategy

The European Accessibility Act (new window) covers products and services that have been identified as being most important for persons with disabilities while being most likely to have diverging accessibility requirements across EU countries. The European accessibility act is a directive that aims to improve the functioning of the internal market for accessible products and services, by removing barriers created by divergent rules in Member States.

The Benefits To Business

  • Common rules on accessibility in the EU leading to costs reduction
  • Easier cross-border trading
  • More market opportunities for their accessible products and services

Benefits For Persons with disabilities and elderly people

  • More accessible products and services in the market
  • Accessible products and services at more competitive prices
  • Fewer barriers when accessing transport, education and the open labour market
  • More jobs available where accessibility expertise is needed
United States Laws

Section 508 Accessibility Standards

The U.S. Access Board is responsible for developing Information and Communication Technology (new window) accessibility standards to incorporate into regulations that govern Federal procurement practices. On January 18, 2017, the Access Board issued a final rule that updated accessibility requirements covered by Section 508, and refreshed guidelines for telecommunications equipment subject to Section 255 of the Communications Act. The final rule went into effect on January 18, 2018.

The rule updated and reorganized the Section 508 Standards and Section 255 Guidelines (new window) in response to market trends and innovations in technology. The refresh also harmonized these requirements with other guidelines and standards both in the U.S. and abroad, including standards issued by the European Commission, and with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a globally recognized consensus standard for web content and Information Communication Technologies (ICT).

The U.S. Accessibility Requirements Tool (ART)

The U.S. Accessibility Requirements Tool (new window) is a step-by-step guide to help you easily identify relevant accessibility requirements from the Revised 508 Standards, and incorporate them into your procurement and contracting documentation, as well as in-house IT development. Use the ART to buy and build technology that is accessible to all. Under the Section 508 law, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information comparable to the access available to others. The law applies to all U.S. federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology.

Canadian Laws

The Accessible Canada Act

The Government of Canada, in keeping with its responsibilities, passed Bill C-81, the Accessible Canada Act (new window) on May 29, 2019. Bill C-81 will benefit all Canadians, especially Canadians with disabilities, by helping create a barrier-free Canada. By working together with provinces/territories and public, private and not-for-profit sectors, the Government of Canada aims to ensure equality, inclusion and full participation in society for all citizens.
See The Accessible Canada Act (new window)

The Act applies to all federal government departments and agencies, crown corporations, Parliament and First Nations band councils, and private sector businesses that are regulated by the federal government. The Accessible Canada Directorate (ACD) in Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is responsible for overall implementation of the Act. This includes measuring progress in the identification, removal and prevention of barriers by regulated parties and Canadians more generally.
The ESDC Canada Federal Data and Measurement Strategy for Accessibility 2022 to 2027 (new window) Strategy covers an initial 5-year period. The goal is to see how measurement progresses over the next 5 years, and adjust the Strategy going forward, as required. The mission of this Strategy is to develop a framework for collecting and analysing information on accessibility. This will allow the Government of Canada to track, measure and report on progress in all areas under the Act. This will include measuring and reporting on Government of Canada accessibility initiatives. The data collected under this Strategy could also help Canada meet its international reporting obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The purpose of this Strategy is to:

  • Develop consistent methods for collecting and analysing information across all organizations under federal jurisdiction; this will ensure progress in removing and preventing barriers to accessibility by different organizations can be compared,
  • Promote accountability to Canadians; this will be done by demonstrating how the Act is improving accessibility for all Canadians including persons with disabilities, and
  • Support evidence-based decision-making by ensuring knowledge is shared broadly; this will foster greater action in advancing accessibility.

There are an increasing number of accessibility standards and guidelines being employed across Canada as federal and provincial levels of legislation. Teh Canadian Roadmap for Accessibility Standards 2020 report (new window), produced by the CSA Group, identifies three key opportunities for future standards development, which related to Emergency services and response, Recreational and green spaces, and Wayfinding and navigation systems. For more information see Accessibility Standards Canada: Centre of Expertise for Standards and Research on Accessibility (new window)

Supreme Court Ruling

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which came into effect on April 17, 1982, already guarantees specific human rights and freedom from discrimination to all Canadians (including on the grounds of disability). For more information see:

  • Guide to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (new window). In 2010 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the federal government was discriminating against blind persons, and was mandated to make all government websites comply with accessibility standards.
  • Court orders Ottawa to make websites accessible to blind, Globe and Mail, November 29, 2010 (new window). This ruling has established an accessibility expectation for Canadian society. Organizations across Canada must prepare by developing a best practice inclusion strategy. The best way to prepare for and minimize risk is to adopt an accessibility compliance policy based on the current Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) accessibility standards.
  • The TBS Web Experience Toolkit (new window) conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) level AA. The Canadian federal government has established an accessibility expectation of WCAG-AA compliance for Canada. The objective of this standard is to ensure that a high level of web accessibility is applied uniformly across Government of Canada websites and web applications. It is highly recommended that Canadian organizations aim to follow the Government of Canada accessibility policy.

Provincial Rulings

Recognizing a history of discrimination against persons with disabilities, the province of Ontario in 2005 took a global leadership role in setting legislative Accessibility Standards for a more inclusive society. The purpose of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) 2005 Regulations (new window) is to benefit all Ontarians by developing, implementing and enforcing accessibility standards in order to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities – with respect to goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures and premises, on or before January 1, 2025. Following the Ontario lead, the province of Manitoba established the Accessibility for Manitobans Act (PDF) on December 5, 2013, and the province of Nova Scotia established the Accessibility Act (Bill 59) on April 28, 2017.

Ontario Laws

Ontario Accessibility Standards

The Martin Prosperity Institute report Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario, (new window) examines the potential economic impacts of increased accessibility in Ontario. the report finds that improving inclusivity and accessibility in Ontario provides both economic opportunity and benefits. Projected economic impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario, a more accessible Ontario, will accelerate the growth of prosperity in the province, by increased efficiency, productivity, and creation of new intellectual property enhancing the province’s global competitiveness. Ontario economic prosperity studies show that by integrating the Accessibility Standards into the Ontario fabric not only is the right thing to do, but that there are definite economic growth benefits; Stronger leadership and more productive employees, more effective talent recruitment, more innovative products and use of new technology, stronger customer relationships, and a better overall reputation.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Standards (new window) is a law that sets out a process for developing and enforcing accessibility standards.

Ontario Built Environment Standards

  • Buildings
  • Public spaces

Ontario Customer Service Standards

  • Accessible customer service policies
  • Practices and procedures
  • Service animals
  • Support persons
  • Customer feedback
  • Staff training

Ontario Employment Standards

  • Recruitment and hiring processes will accommodate disabilities
  • Human resource practices will accommodate disabilities
  • Develop and document accommodation plans for employees with disabilities
  • Create safety procedures and emergency response information

Ontario Information and Communication Standards

  • Make websites and web content accessible according to the W3C WCAG
  • Provide accessible formats and communications supports at no additional cost
  • Make feedback processes accessible to all persons
  • Make public emergency information accessible
  • Provide educational and training resources and materials in accessible formats
  • Provide educators with accessibility awareness training

Ontario Transportation Standards

  • Make information on accessibility equipment and features of vehicles, routes and services available to the public
  • Cannot charge a fare to a support person when the person with a disability requires a support person to accompany them
  • Provide clearly marked courtesy seating for people with disabilities
  • Do not charge people with disabilities a higher fare, or for storing mobility aids
  • Technical requirements for lifting devices, steps, grab bars/handrails, floor surfaces, lighting, signage, etc
  • Provide verbal and visual announcements of routes and stops on vehicles
  • Develop an eligibility application process including an independent appeal process
  • Provide the same hours and days of service as those offered by conventional transit

Some Legal Accessibility Resources