Digital Accessibility: advantages, approach, tips
Pursuing digital accessibility is central to the inclusive path aimed at removing the barriers that prevent everyone from interacting with digital products and services
Digital Accessibility
Making a website/digital application accessible means developing and/or adapting it to inclusive practices for removing barriers that prevent interaction or access by people with permanent or temporary disabilities. In this article, we will provide an overview of the main advantages, the methodology and some suggestions to implement in order to provide accessible digital services.
Why We should care about accessibility
1. Brand Reputation
The commitment to inclusion and diversity is a key aspect for improving the brand reputation and loyalty. In particular, providing digital products and services that are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a must for making a brand inclusive and accessible to all users and potential customers.
It is a progressive approach, and it is important to focus on the commitment to improving.
2. Business value
There is a huge opportunity for businesses to serve a broader population through accessibility efforts.
More than a billion people all over the World and 3 million and 150 thousand in Italy, are affected by a disability that compromises their ability to use the web: 80% of disabilities are invisible. Color blindness, deafness, dyslexia, autism — there are many reasons why a person could have difficulty accessing a website that does not cater for their needs.
Furthermore, an accessible digital product helps not only people with disabilities, but all people with a certain condition, be it temporary/environmental or permanent.
3. Legal compliancy
The European Accessibility Act is a directive that aims to guarantee the accessibility of services and products within the European Member States.
The European Accessibility Act was approved by the European Parliament on 13 March 2019 and, all EU Member States had have now transposed the European law on accessibility into their national law.
Starting from 28 June 2025, all companies will have to ensure that the newly marketed products and services covered by the law are accessible.
In Italy, with Legislative Decree 76/2020, AgID (Agency for Digital Italy) has anticipated the steps by extending to private companies with an average turnover greater than 500 million euros in the last 3 years, the obligation to comply with the same regulations in place since 2020 for public entities. They must therefore publish on their site/mobile application an Accessibility Statement and update it every year. The Accessibility Statement is the tool through which the accessibility status of each website and mobile application owned is disclosed.
At the moment, the level of compliance required by the European technical standard UNI EN 301 549 corresponds to levels “A” and “AA” of the W3C Recommendation WCAG 2.1.
4. Overall User Experience
Inclusive design produces better experiences for everyone: being accessible does not only lead to better experience among users with disabilities but also among those who do not have disabilities or limitations.
Prioritizing digital accessibility can drive innovation and inspire new solutions to improve the user experience for all users, including those with disabilities.
How to face Accessibility within the organization
The adaptation of digital assets to accessibility requirements must be structured into several key activities:
1. Audit: An accessibility audit is an evaluation carried out by experienced professionals of how well a website or other digital properties meet the needs of people with disabilities, in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) technical standards.
2. Accessibility Statement: Once the audit is done, the Statement is the document that outlines the key guidelines and standards the website/App follows, it declares any known exceptions to the intended level of web accessibility and gives a contact information for reporting issues. Furthermore, it demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and to social responsibility.
3. Remediation: The accessibility remediation process involves copywriters, designers and developers in bringing the digital assets analyzed into compliance with accessibility standards. It can be a complex task; therefore, we suggest establishing a progressive approach guided by the prioritization of the issues encountered in the audit phase.
4. Testing: The accessibility testing verifies how the remediation activities have been effective in making the digital content compliant with accessibility requirements and therefore usable by people with disabilities and various assistive technologies such as screen readers. In this phase, involving users with disabilities is the most effective way to test and verify accessibility.
The approach described is an iterative process that involves continuously all the professionals: copywriters, designers and developers must be constantly updated and committed towards accessibility issues in their way of working.
How to do it better
1. Accessibility by default: Accessibility must be placed at the center of the end-to-end design process of digital products as an automatism. It’s more efficient to be accessible by default than chasing the compliancy with the accessibility guidelines with subsequent reworks.
2. Inclusive language: The adoption of an inclusive language is a fundamental part of accessibility. Using a language that doesn’t exclude anyone based on characteristics such as gender, physical or mental disability, or cultural background, you can make your content more accessible and show respect to the widest possible audience.
3. Design system: A good design system has accessibility embedded throughout and includes documentation, guidelines and implementation notes for accessibility.
Defining a common library of Color palettes, focus styles, text descriptions and accessible names enables teams to grant consistent and accessible experiences avoiding the effort to test the design again and again.
4. Continuous test&feedback: “nothing about us, without us” is the motto of the international movement for the rights of people with disabilities. It is essential to create opportunities for discussion and to involve people with disabilities in research, testing & feedback activities to better address their needs, with participation and inclusivity.
In summary, accessibility is not just a technical issue and should no longer be a project, but a requirement. It is an iterative and constantly evolving process in which the commitment of all actors is required, from the designer to the developer, and should directly involve people with disabilities from the very beginning.
To obtain long-lasting and valuable results, accessibility must become a structural aspect within the organization, changing people’s mentality and way of working.
