From Theory to Practice: How to Promote Accessibility Awareness Within an Organization?

Accessibility is a process – we repeat this phrase at Kinaole like a mantra, whenever and wherever possible. Accessibility audits, digital product optimization, and training are good starting points for change. However, it’s easy to squander their effects if we don’t think of accessibility as a long-term process that requires not only new competencies but often a change in attitude as well.

Observing the bumpy road that both large and small organizations travel, we can see that it’s worth considering several aspects to make the shift toward accessibility more sustainable.

Awareness of Organizational Capabilities and Limitations

The first step in accessibility education is understanding the internal capabilities and limitations of the organization. Organizations have different resources, infrastructure, and cultures. Often, they must work within specific budgets and time constraints.

Understanding these internal conditions allows for setting achievable and realistic goals. It also facilitates planning and prioritizing actions, helping to focus on key areas. Adapting to the organization’s real capabilities helps avoid unrealistic expectations that could lead to frustration and demotivation among employees. This approach helps gradually build a solid foundation for accessibility.

Personalized Knowledge

Knowledge of accessibility should be tailored to the audience, to the specific roles they play within the organization. A personalized approach makes the information more relevant and easier to absorb. When training is aligned with participants’ daily experiences, it becomes easier for them to understand how to apply the knowledge in practice and connect theory with real-world applications.

What drives us to gain new competencies is the sense that it matters and has a real impact on some aspect of reality. We’re more likely to engage with something that directly affects us or what we do.

Involving People with Disabilities in the Process

Getting to know the perspective of people with disabilities makes the whole concept of “accessibility” less abstract and more tangible. It helps us understand the purpose of our actions and decisions. From experience, I know that individual stories and cases have the most impact. Numbers are persuasive, but the specific problems faced by specific people touch us more deeply.

If possible, involve people with disabilities in your team, organize meetings with blind auditors, or show videos of tests with deaf users. Their perspective is invaluable – they can share personal experiences and offer tips on how to implement accessibility principles in practice. This kind of dialogue bridges the gap between theory and reality.

Learning by Experience

Since we’re on the topic of theory, while important, let it take a backseat to practice as much as possible. Fire up your screen readers, increase the font size to 300%, try navigating an app with a keyboard attached to your phone. This experience will help you understand the perspective of people with disabilities and see the validity of top-down requirements like WCAG criteria. Insights and reflections that come from personal experience have a stronger impact on changing our attitudes and behaviors.

Showing the effects

Lastly, nothing motivates action like the satisfaction of seeing results. It’s important to regularly present the organization’s achievements in terms of accessibility. This could be progress reports, usability test results, or feedback from people who have directly benefited from the changes. Showing the path you’ve taken allows employees to see the purpose of the efforts and get engaged in future initiatives.