Accessibility is about everyone
The business and humanitarian case for creating inclusive digital tools.
A conversation with Ricardo Pla Cordero, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Protection Officer, Disability Inclusion — Division of International Protection, and Hans Park, UNHCR’s Innovation Service, Strategic Design and Research Manager.
Hans: Why is creating inclusive digital tools so important?
Ricardo: Making digital tools work for people with disabilities is not just the right thing to do: People with disabilities have the right to participate in society as others do. It also means greater inclusion for those who want to bring their talents to the organization — giving us a broader diversity of perspectives and skills — as well as the displaced people we are here to assist.
Before the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities was adopted by the UN in 2006, there wasn’t a unified approach or even a sufficient understanding of the rights of people with disabilities, which includes people with physical disabilities, psychosocial, intellectual (also called cognitive or learning disabilities), and sensory disabilities, which includes people who are blind or deaf. After the Convention, there was a progressive change that fueled recognition of the need for inclusion based on rights. For example, UNHCR broadened its understanding of disability and, more recently, the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy was created, a system-wide accountability framework that commits organizations to integrate and target specific actions for accessibility.
Hans: Do we include other UN groups as well as organizations that advocate for people with disabilities, and those people themselves, in our decision-making?
Ricardo: Regional and national actions have also been identified and conducted for digital accessibility in our operations with the contributions of regional and national organizations that advocate for people with disabilities. UNHCR personnel with disabilities also contribute their unique perspectives, such as an intern at UNHCR’s Innovation Service who is visually impaired and pointed out features of the website and other tools that were not accessible (see related story).
We’re making progress, largely through learning by doing — which is central to the kind of creative thinking needed to achieve full inclusivity — and cross-learning from other UN entities and organizations of persons with disabilities such as the International Disability Alliance. We’re also providing webinars to make people aware of the accessibility features in the systems we use.
Hans: Most organizations need to learn more about digital inclusion. How else are we finding these learning opportunities?
Ricardo: Learning can also come from recognizing when a platform or system simply isn’t accessible. For example, one platform that was supposed to provide simultaneous interpretation in different languages was not accessible to people with visual impairments because the features could not be read by screen readers, which convert text to speech.
Sometimes, we don’t realize a system isn’t accessible unless someone tells us about it. For example, a job applicant almost withdrew their application because of the accumulated frustration they experienced when finding inaccessible documents during the application process. Imagine that you’d like to join the organization but you hit this kind of barrier. What do you do? To truly embrace full inclusion, we must ask ourselves that same question and look for new ways of making systems accessible or provide accommodations.
Hans: What does providing accommodations or retrofitting systems involve?
Ricardo: Consider some of the mandatory online training sessions for UN staff, which aren’t always accessible. Retrofitting those systems is one option, but we can offer a second strategy the Convention provides, which is a reasonable accommodation: A person who is visually impaired, for example, can request an alternative way of accessing the training, such as a Word version with the same content they can read using a screen reader and complete the training. It is not perfect, as it often does not provide the full learning experience that the original e-learning offers, but it allows the individual to have access to an equivalent product.
The reality is that we still have many older systems that simply aren’t accessible. With that in mind, there are two ways to provide digital accessibility. One is to retrofit systems, which may seem daunting, but many times it is as simple as making better use of the platforms you have or finding providers with the right skills to bring them up to the UN’s accessibility guidelines, which often does not cost any more than using someone without those skills. The other is to design in accessibility from the start, which is actually less expensive than people think — and much more efficient.
UNICEF has, for example, launched an accessibility and inclusion curriculum for online learning that’s available to external users, which is one approach many other organizations could look into doing, too. We’ve already designed an e-learning program on working with people with disabilities living in forced displacement. We also deliver internal trainings with organizations for persons with disabilities, such as the Latin American Network of Non-Governmental Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (RIADIS; see some material produced here), but we could still do more. We have to not only consider building accessible systems — and doing so with the input of those who will be using them, both within UNHCR and among displaced people — but also find alternative ways of providing content.
Hans: What do you most want people to take away from this conversation?
Ricardo: There are two important messages to consider: First, we must recognize and acknowledge the importance of digital accessibility, even if it seems challenging. It is easier than we may think. Second, digital inclusion is only part of the story. We still have many physical spaces that are inaccessible for people of concern or our own colleagues with physical disabilities. Installing more physically accessible infrastructure is a way to respect people’s dignity, such as using hand rails in lavatories, or ramps or elevators that allow easier mobility, or accessible information displayed in these spaces. And physical, and information, accessibility is essential when it comes to establishing fire escape routes in case of emergencies. Building accessible is building safer.
Having committed to diversity and inclusion, UNHCR must ensure that people with disabilities — whatever they may be — have the opportunity to contribute their talents to our organization and feel fully welcomed as part of the team, so that there are no barriers to their success on the job.
The work on accessibility cannot be done by one organization alone, and it’s important that we all take a role in advancing both digital and physical accessibility in our organizations.
