Digital accessibility is not a never-ending project.
And what I mean by that is not that you can start on digital accessibility and forget about it but that it becomes a part of your process it’s something that you learn and then it just becomes a part of what you do and it’s no longer the hurdle that it initially appears to be.
So, for example, when you’re content team uploads an image they know that they have to decide whether that image is meaningful or decorative, and they know that if it is meaningful that they need to provide an alt text description- an all text value that they accurately and sufficiently and concisely describes what that image is.
But that’s all- you know what I said there- there are a few layers to it, but once you learn it once your once your personnel and your contractors know what is involved there is no- there is no additional part of it it’s not something that you have to create this whole side resource for there can be guides and documentation.
But once those are in place and then more importantly once your team has the inherent knowledge it’s done with it’s just becomes a part of the process just like your brand guidelines become embedded as a part of the process so too does accessibility.
So while yes the initial start of accessibility- it does require resources, it does require training, you do have to spend time and make it making it a part of your process and then not only that but a streamlined part of your processes.
But once you do that everything is going to be in place for you to have an accessible experience going forward – it just becomes a part of what you’re doing and then you no longer really have to think about it and the resource- the amount of resources that are needed to make accessible experiences are much, much less than they were.
So this- this is because when you initially get started it can seem like there’s this enormous cost and it’s going to be an enormous cost on an ongoing basis.
And the initial cost is largely because there is there is a lot of upfront work to do when it comes to accessibility, particularly when you’re fully auditing and remediating a website or a mobile app or whatever other digital asset is involved, but once you get that in place as long as you are being thoughtful and diligent as you go along you can incorporate and make accessibility a part of what you do just naturally, like it just it just comes about and it’s not something that you have to think about.
Sure, it does you know because you are incorporating it there are some extra things that you have to consider.
So, for example, closed captions you have to make sure that you have closed captions, but you can streamline that process as much as possible and make it efficient and ineffective along the way.
So this video is all to say that digital accessibility does not have to be something where it’s an ongoing a tremendous burden and- and very resource intensive the whole way out.
You are going to get better at a digital accessibility as you go along and you’re going to figure it out and eventually your team will learn it and then your team- you will not your organization will not need to source out for services. Now whether or not you undergo ongoing audits.
For example, it is- it is a good practice to have your digital asset audited once a year particularly if there are significant changes to that, but that’s not necessary there’s no rule that says you need to get audits in on an annual basis.
Similarly with user testing, it’s- it’s the same concept right like you you don’t need to get user testing all of the time it can be helpful – I would also recommend it if there are significant changes but it’s not necessary so I hope this video helps and I hope it changes your mindset into embracing digital accessibility and really taking in when you do source out the initial training, the initial services that you’re paying attention to what is happening and what’s being done so that later you can make it a part of your process and you- you are less reliant upon third parties and you can start to streamline accessibility.
So where- whereby there is less cost involved and both in terms of time money and energy I shouldn’t say both but all in terms of time money and energy and then there it becomes more effective as you go along and there are less there are less accessibility issues that are- that- that result as of uploading content editing code changing the web design etc.
