Have you ever thought about how digital accessibility impacts people with disabilities?

It's an issue that affects millions of people around the world. I recently attended a fascinating webinar hosted by Fable that explored the ROI of Accessibility. The panel of accessibility leaders from different corporations, including Dow, shared their insights on measuring and quantifying accessibility success. They emphasized the importance of understanding user experiences using feedback forms and in-house tools like Dow's Digital Accessibility Opportunity Form. The webinar also highlighted the benefits of early accessibility implementation and the role of a maturity model. It was truly eye-opening to learn about the impact of accessibility and how it aligns with your organization's values.

I created a FigJam with my notes. Please take a look and feel free to interact.

Don't feel like going to FigJam? No problem. Keep scrolling for important notes and takeaways.

Key Takeaways

• System Usability Scale (SUS) and Accessible Usability Scale: Tools to measure user experiences, especially for those using assistive technology.

• User Experiences: Understanding the experiences of all users is crucial.

• Feedback Forms and Tools: Useful for gathering qualitative and quantitative data.

• Early Accessibility Implementation: Can save costs and increase engagement.

• Maturity Model: Helps identify opportunities and benchmark against industry standards.

• Organizational Values: Understanding these can guide your approach to accessibility.

Expanded Notes

1. System Usability Scale (SUS) and Accessible Usability Scale: SUS is a simple, ten-item scale giving a global view of subjective assessments of usability. Fable has created a variation on this, the Accessible Usability Scale (AUS), which is designed to measure the experiences of people using assistive technology. You can find out more about AUS.

2. Questions to Ask: It's important to understand the experiences of both people using assistive tech and non-disabled users. You should also investigate how users are utilizing accessibility features, as this can provide valuable quantitative data.

3. Tools Used: Public feedback forms or emails can provide qualitative data about user experiences. Dow created a Digital Accessibility Opportunity Form to identify whether a website or app is accessible.

4. Maturity Model: A maturity model can be helpful to identify where opportunities or gaps exist. It can also benchmark how your accessibility and inclusion work compares with others in the industry.

5. Tying Metrics to ROI: Doing accessibility work early in a project can save costs. Increased engagement and positive sentiments from the disability community can also be seen as a return on investment. For B2B companies, demonstrating that you meet accessibility needs can lead to an increase in contracts.

6. Understanding Your Organization: It's crucial to understand where your organization's values lie in relation to accessibility and inclusion. This can guide your approach and help you make a stronger case for the importance of accessibility.