Zenyth’s Post

Curious about ADA compliance and why it matters for your company? It’s about making digital spaces accessible for everyone. Discover how it promotes inclusivity and benefits businesses. Check out our latest article and download our Accessibility Checklist to see where your site stacks up. https://hubs.la/Q02H8kGX0 #ADA #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #WebAccessibility

Accessibility isn't just about audits! We're approached daily by organisations looking to get accessibility work done, and I'll always go into a conversation with them on what their situation and specific needs are. The most frequent request is “we'd like to get an accessibility audit done”. But more often than not, that's not what would help them the most. Sure, afterwards you have a nice backlog of things to try to fix, but an audit turns accessibility into a checkbox. Your team has no real urgency on these issues because they just see a ticket but don't know the actual impact this issue might have and how that affects users. They see issues that they don't fully understand. Makes them think accessibility is hard because they weren't every taught how they should approach it. So they will pick other tickets they know they can resolve. And how will they validate any fix they attempt? They need to wait several more sprints before they can come back to you for the scheduled retest, so you can point out they've done it wrong, and you give them more homework? Or it's just a legal checkbox, they've got the audit and the statement, and now they're legally compliant. That backlog can wait, as long as we fix a couple of issues within a year, and we can push a meaningless update to our statement showing “progress” we're golden. Accessibility is not just about audits! Sure, they help you set a baseline of sorts, but, if you want to make real progress, accessibility becomes about understanding user needs, being compassionate and inclusive and about building maturity and capacity. #accessibility #inclusion #compliance #conformance #audit #compassion #AccessibilityMaturity

Are you ready to monitor your accessibility journey? The upcoming European Accessibility Act requires you to monitor your accessibility compliance, only further solidifying that accessibility isn't a one-off project, but it will require constant attention. That means you'll need to establish governance. Have a person or team that takes on the responsibility of monitoring your compliance and conformance status. Mandate them to make the needed decisions to ensure progress is made and attention to the subject is maintained. They can take care of the central reporting, tracking accessibility metrics across products and services and feed information back on how set KPIs are doing. The reason this monitoring is important is that your products and services evolve. They get expanded and updated constantly. There's also external changes. One of the reasons the European Accessibility Act exists is because we had too many differences across the EU in terms of accessibility regulations. Having it harmonised centrally means that updates get rolled out centrally as well. EN 301 549 gets updated because there's a new version of WCAG? Everyone follows suit. I talked about having an accessibility statement as your status report. This monitoring helps you ensure it stays up to date (as is required). As you find need issues and start working on them, or you've removed some outstanding barriers, this now can be updated accordingly and users can see your progress. Sidenote, but if you go with one person (because of company size etc) don't make this person responsible for executing it all. Find someone knowledgable in accessibility that knows the details to oversee. Someone who knows where to get a good audit or training partner and can judge their work. Because finding someone that can do it all, that's chasing the imaginary unicorn 🦄. #Accessibility #A11y #Compliance #EuropeanAccessibilityAct #EAA #RonnyTalksA11y Nomensa #Governance

Keen to know from the #accessibility network, who do you have in the room when doing Accessibility Consulting /audit scoping work? Then same question for these monitoring events?

How long does it really take to complete a VPAT accessibility report? Discover the key factors influencing the timeline and how to streamline the process for faster results. Perfect for organizations aiming to achieve compliance efficiently! Read our latest blog to learn more: https://bit.ly/3ZrlXgm #AccessibleMinds #VPAT #AccessibilityCompliance #DigitalAccessibility #VPATReport #AccessibilityTesting #InclusiveDesign #WebAccessibility #DigitalInclusion #AccessibilityMatters Accessible Minds

New federal requirements around digital accessibility are making it critical that local governments invest in technology that enables their legal compliance. Read our blog for tips on earning budget-holder approval to invest in needed tech now. @CivicPlus #Accessibility #ResidentExperience #GoodGovernment https://lnkd.in/eENhYTpk

Powerful insight! Accessibility isn't a checkbox or quick fix; it's a cultural shift requiring ongoing commitment. Neglecting it can lead to lasting damage, lost sales, and reputational harm. Embracing accessibility, however, fosters inclusion, customer loyalty, and long-term success. #AccessibilityMatters #InclusiveDesign #DigitalInclusion #UXForAll #WebAccessibility #A11y #AccessibleDesign #CustomerExperience

How do digital consultancies handle ADA compliance? We help our partners build websites that not only meet standards, but also create enjoyable, user-friendly experiences for people of all abilities. Learn more about our approach: https://bit.ly/40Uo11p #accessibility #inclusivedesign

Should digital accessibility really apply to all businesses? For those unaware, Europe has a caveat in the European Accessibility Act (EAA) that organization smaller than 10 employees and makes less than 2 million euros annually are exempt from the EAA. On one side, this is a welcomed carve-out to protect small business owners that are targeted by serial plaintiff attorneys, like we see so much of in the United States. On the other side, some may argue that organizations of all sizes should be held accountable to accessibility standards. Failing to do so would not only exclude people with disabilities and perpetuate the idea that accessibility is "extra" or "optional", but also create long-term growth issues for small businesses since they will eventually need to comply with the EAA, making future compliance more expensive and difficult. Naturally being in the accessibility space, I have my bias, so thought I'd channel the hivemind. Do you think exemptions like this undermine broader accessibility goals? To learn more about the European Accessibility Act, I've linked my blog below: https://lnkd.in/gqrJN7zM #accessibility #EAA #AccessibilityCompliance #Smallbuinsess