Why Accessibility?

600 million people with disabilities in the world, 60 million in India alone.

“The Untapped Market”

Innovation and advancement in technology is enabling people with disabilities to realize their potential. Today, a visually impaired person can work with computers using a screen reader! Isn't that wonderful? But many of us are unaware about this fact. The reason being ‘lack of awareness’ about the needs of people with disabilities and how can technology be helpful in meeting those needs.

‘Accessibility’ is the only way to tap and explore this market. Accessibility is a practice to understand the needs of people with disabilities and create products, services, infrastructure, education and employment opportunities with optimum utilization of technology. In doing so, accessibility not only benefits people with disabilities but also people without disabilities especially the aging population, people with low literacy rate, and low bandwidth users.

Why should we bother about accessibility? The answer is simple, ‘Accessibility makes good business sense.’ Social, technical, commercial, legal and policy factors stimulate the need to implement accessibility.

• Social

  Accessibility is a social issue. Providing access and equal opportunity to everyone including people with disabilities is essential. People with disabilities must have access to information, education, training, and employment opportunities. Catering to the social factors of accessibility will help organizations and government bodies to fulfill their social responsibility and bridge the digital divide.

• Technical

  Adhering to accessibility laws and guidelines ensures that we can create technology which is device independent, compatible with advanced and future technologies, and reduces development and maintenance time.

• Commercial

  The business rule - larger the customer base, larger the revenue. Implementing accessibility increases the customer base; internal and external. Employing people with disabilities provides access to a wider pool of resources and higher retention rates. In addition, enables the organization to set an example for others.

• Legal and Policy

  Adhering to laws such as Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act, American with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) help organizations to reduce legal costs and uphold their corporate image by understanding the risk for non-compliance.

To conclude, Accessibility is the need of the hour, the sooner we realize the better it is!