Chapter 2 | How to provide equal access to digital goods and services

Contents

• Introduction
• Business Benefits
• Implementing a strategic approach to providing equal access
• Accessibility in the development cycle
• Skills development
• Accessibility in the procurement process
• Accessibility and risk management

Introduction

This Chapter provides further information and adds consideration such as the business case for addressing digital accessibility and the need to include accessibility in a risk register like an organisation does with privacy and security.

Business Benefits

There is a considerable body of international evidence which highlights the economic, social, and personal benefits of providing equal access. The W3C’s Business Case for Digital Accessibility outlines the key benefits, as well as the risks of not addressing accessibility adequately.^[14] The key points are supported by industry case studies.

This is reinforced by the Centre for Inclusive Design’s (CID) 2019 report ‘The Benefit of Designing for Everyone,’^[15] which states;

Inclusively designed products and services that have edge users in mind, can reach and benefit up to four times the size of the intended audience and enable organisations to increase their revenue by growing the size of their target markets.^[16]

As noted by then Chief Economist at PwC Australia at the launch of the CID report.

Inclusive design is a no-regrets process that creates significant benefits which are currently being left on the table. It is an overlooked step in maximising the potential of business and ensuring a more productive nation. Designers, companies, and government all have a role to play, by designing, investing, and legislating with difference in mind, so that a design process that is inclusive becomes standard practice.^[17]

Advice from the W3C highlights that there are significant benefits in involving people with disability early and throughout different phases of research, designing, building, procuring or implementing digital goods and services.^[18] Early involvement of people with disability in the discovery, design, or procurement of a new or upgraded digital good or service:

• provides invaluable insights into people’s needs and current barriers they face
• informs thinking about including features that are essential for equal access and useful for all
• enables organisations to reach a wider audience from the beginning.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) confirms that it is more costly to repair any defect later in the development life cycle.^[19]

Figure 1: Relative Cost to Repair Defects When Found at Different Stages of Software Development (Example Only)

(X is a normalized unit of cost and can be expressed terms of person-hours, dollars, etc.)

Implementing a strategic approach to providing equal access

It is critical for accessibility to be considered at all stages of the development cycle and/or procurement process if the delivery of digital goods and services are to provide equal access of use.

Organisations and businesses should examine how their systems intentionally support or unwittingly hinder accessibility. Organisation policies, key business processes, organisational culture, and management structures need to work in a consistent, coherent, repeatable, and measurable fashion for accessibility to become sustainable and seen as business as usual.

To intentionally embed equal access, it is recommended that organisations begin by adopting an accessibility maturity model such as the W3C’s Accessibility Maturity Model.^[20] The use of maturity models provides a consistent framework that organisations of any size can utilise to evaluate, benchmark, and improve their business processes to produce or procure digital goods and services that are accessible to people with a disability be they staff, visitors or customers.

Maturity models align with and are supported by the implementation of several Australian and international standards that either relate to accessibility or to organisational governance. These are discussed in full in Chapter 3 and include:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG^[21])
• AS ISO/IEC 30071.1 (Information technology — Development of user interface accessibility, Part 1: Code of practice for creating accessible ICT products and services)^[22]
• AS EN 301 549 (Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services)^[23]
• AS ISO 31000 (Risk management - Guidelines)^[24]
• AS ISO 37301 (Compliance Management Systems - Requirements with guidance for use)^[25]

The implementation of the W3C Accessibility Maturity Model and Australian Standards could be included as part of an organisation’s Disability Action Plan. See the Commission’s guidance on developing Disability Action Plans. Most importantly, the adoption of these standards supports Disability Action Plans progressing from intentional to deliverables.

Importance of seeking expert advice

As individuals and organisations seek to improve accessibility of the digital goods and services they provide, it is encouraged to seek expert advice and up to date information when:

• embedding accessibility within the development cycle.
• including accessibility within the procurement process.
• developing and implementing a strategic approach to providing equal access.

Such advice can improve agility of adoption and implementation of mindsets and methods that consistently deliver digital goods and services that are inclusive by design and accessible by default. As part of developing policies, goods, services, and review mechanisms, it is recommended to always co-design with the people who are most affected by the work being done: people with disability. The goal is for organisations to have processes and practices that are designed to deliver a consistently accessible and inclusive experience for employees, customers, and stakeholders.

Expertise is available from many consulting firms that can be found through an online search, but also see:

• OZeWAI consultant directory
• IAAP organisational directory

Accessibility in the development cycle

Design, technical and usability advice on delivering digital goods and services that provide equal access will continue to change due to ongoing technical innovations as well as the evolution of standards such as the WCAG and AS EN 301 549.

As stressed earlier, taking account of accessibility throughout the process, rather than just at the end, is more efficient and cheaper. Consider accessibility and the needs of people with disability during:

• ideation and specification
• user research
• design
• content authoring
• technical development
• quality assurance
• usability testing
• maintenance

AS ISO/IEC 30071.1^[26] provides some guidance around this. If there is no in-house expertise to address accessibility during some of these stages, consider bringing expertise in on a casual, short-term, or longer-term basis.

Skills development

Free resources provided by W3C can help individuals, organisations and businesses enhance their skills in this area:

• accessibility fundamentals and in particular how people with disability use the web.
• guidance for writing, designing, and developing for accessibility.
• digital accessibility foundations online course which builds the foundations needed to make your digital technology accessible.
• resources to help evaluate accessibility conformance to determine how well content, applications or services meet accessibility standards.

The W3C’s guidance can and should be extended upon through establishing personal and organisational accessibility learning pathways that might incorporate:

• joining local digital accessibility community groups
• attending web and digital accessibility conferences and other events
• following accessibility discussions on social media
• leveraging the free advice many major technology companies provide on how to provide equal access of use utilising their products
• participating in public or in-house role-specific accessibility training – W3C maintains an accessibility course list.

Accessibility in the procurement process

Procurement can be a key enabler of equal access. Whether the digital good or service is created in-house, purchased ‘off the shelf’, or a hybrid combination, it must deliver equal access of use.

Governments around the world recognise this and are striving to achieve their social and economic objectives by ensuring the goods and services purchased are accessible by design, where possible, so that people with disability can use them without adaptation. Many private sector organisations are also recognising the importance of a diversified workplace – accessible ICT supports this.

The Australian Government’s Commonwealth Procurement Rules require considerations of any applicable Australian Standard. As a result, AS EN 301 549, Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services, should be required for any ICT procurement. Examples of action taken by other governments include U.S. Federal Government’s Section 508^[27] and in Europe the European Accessibility Directive^[28] and European Accessibility Act. 

Comparison of these regulations highlights consistency of global expectations for:

• vendors to deliver accessibility in their goods and services by default
• organisations procuring digital goods and services, to embed accessibility requirements in the procurement process.

Benefits of accessible procurement

There are significant benefits of embedding accessibility in the procurement process, including:

• attracting the best possible talent from the widest possible field
• retaining existing staff as their circumstances change with age, illness, or accident
• minimising and removing barriers to engaging with the customers they wish to reach and serve
• managing risks through achieving compliance with obligations under relevant standards and legislation.

Steps in accessible procurement

Organisations are encouraged to include an accessibility requirement as an integral element in all procurements of digital goods or services or when negotiating a renewal of an existing contract. This particularly applies to the procurement of any digital goods and services that have a user interface or control mechanism, as well as digital content. Accessibility requirements should be viewed and addressed at the same level and manner as privacy and security requirements in the procurement process.

1. Successful procurement processes for digital goods and services exhibit similar features such as:
   • including accessibility requirements in Requests for Quote/Purchase (RFQ/P) that reflect the function performance statements in AS EN 301 549. These statements are outlined in how equal access is defined
   • collecting and comparing verifiable evidence about how the digital good or service meets requirements
   • removing digital goods or services from the selection process that fail to meet core accessibility requirements. (Similar to removing goods or services that fail to deliver core cybersecurity requirements)
   • allocating a weighting or level of importance to accessibility as part of the overall procurement process
   • including end users in the procurement decision making process.
   • ensuring buyers are aware of their rights under Australian Consumer law and more broadly, the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) related to goods and services that are either not of acceptable quality, fail to match the provided description, or unfit for purpose.
2. In some situations, the procurement process may identify that none of the digital goods or services being assessed meet all function performance statements from AS EN 301 549. In these situations, a remediation procurement process could be implemented. This involves:
   • holding discussions with preferred vendors about their roadmap to address the accessibility gaps in the digital good or service.
   • identifying a vendor who agrees to resolve the accessibility gaps in their product within agreed timeframes.
   • implementing a phased payment schedule where payments are linked to delivery of the missing agreed accessibility features. This approach is like progress payments in the construction industry.

Major professional bodies and not-for-profits around the world including Australia provide advice on accessible procurement. Some examples include:

• CAUDIT’s accessible ICT procurement implementation guide. Whilst the guide was originally designed for use in higher education, the guide is highly relevant and applicable to any organisation undertaking ICT procurement
• University of Melbourne’s Project management – Procurement resource
• Australian Disability Network’s Procurement resource
• NSW Government’s Buying accessible digital products and services everyone can use
• G3ict’s Buy ICT 4 All Portal
• Disability:IN’s Accessible Procurement Toolkit .

Some digital accessibility consultancies can provide accessible procurement support and advice.

Accessibility and risk management

Inaccessible ICT is a systemic problem which can be approached by applying the principles of risk management.

AS ISO 31000:2018 ‘Risk management – guidelines’ outlines an organisational approach to dealing with risk. It breaks down risk assessment into a series of steps such as risk identification, analysis, evaluation and treatment. The language and principles of risk management can usually be understood by everyone across an organisation, regardless of whether they have subject matter expertise in accessibility.

Essential governance questions for leaders

An essential element of risk management is leaders knowing that they have systems and processes in place to deliver on obligations such as accessibility and knowing that they are actually working. Implementing a consistent governance framework is critical. The essence of good governance can be distilled to three fundamental questions.

1. What does ‘good’ (success) look like?
2. What systems and processes are in place to consistently deliver ‘good’?
3. How do you know those systems and processes are working? (What metrics do you have?)

Context

A good first step in the risk management process is to consider what are the organisation’s key activities and audiences. For an airline, that would be getting passengers safely from A to B. For a bank, that might be allowing customers to deposit, withdraw and transfer funds. For a university it might be teaching, learning and research.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment involves identifying, analysing and evaluating risk.

1. Risk Identification
   • Risk identification involves finding and describing risks that might prevent an organisation achieving its objectives. In the case of ICT, one basic objective is that everyone can access the products and services on offer.
   • Accessibility risks can be identified during procurement by including questions regarding the accessibility of the product, the vendors accessibility capacity and future plans in the request for proposal or quote (RFP or/ RFQ). You can seek to obtain a copy of any accessibility audits which have been conducted, often in the form of an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).
   • In addition, questions can be asked regarding the vendors processes for testing, logging and remediating accessibility defects, together with their timeline for compliance.
2. Risk analysis
   • Having obtained information from vendors, responses should be reviewed to establish what level of confidence the organisation or business can have in their ability to deliver an accessible product or fix outstanding defects.
   • An accessibility audit could be conducted, using a standard version of the system or undertake some usability testing with people with disability.
3. Risk evaluation
   • The information provided by the vendor and in the analysis should inform decision making and recommendations for next steps.

Risk Treatment

It is common for software products to have accessibility defects, and there are a range of approaches to treating risks.

1. Avoid risk
   An organisation can simply refuse to accept any products or services with accessibility defects, but it should be recognised that very few products have no defects.
2. Share risk
   Organisations could include accessibility clauses to the contract with product vendors. Some vendors will be reluctant to make guarantees in relation to accessibility. That should serve as a warning, especially if it contradicts the RFP response regarding accessibility.
3. Remove risk source
   Organisations may choose to fix the defects in the application, for example by customisation, or they might mitigate the defects, for example by creating guidelines for web publishers that minimise defects.
4. Change consequences
   Access can be provided to individuals via alternate access, or a ‘Plan B’. This might involve producing an Alternate Access Plan which details what will happen when someone is unable to access the system. Adapting to meet the needs of individuals is a reasonable adjustment.
5. Retain risk
   Retaining risk involves deciding that accessibility defects can’t be fixed or waiting for future fixes. Vendor claims that they are working towards accessibility compliance should be accompanied by a remediation roadmap with specific dates. Where risk has been retained, it can be recorded in an accessibility risk register.

Monitoring and Review

An accessibility risk register can assist with monitoring, planning, gathering information, recording and communicating accessibility risks. Ideally, accessibility risks should form part of an organisations overall risk treatment and audit activities.

Accessibility and contracts

This right to equal access exists regardless of whether the digital good or service has been procured from a third party as discussed in the Guideline. In short, organisations can contract out the provision of digital goods or services but they cannot contract out their equal access responsibilities. Accordingly, it is key that warranties regarding accessibility are included in the contract of service.

Alternate access

Despite best efforts during the procurement process, there will often be times when ICT is purchased that falls short of required accessibility standards. In these cases, as part of managing risk, it is important that the purpose and limitations of the ICT are clearly articulated, along with alternative means of access for affected users.

An Alternate Access Plan is a document that describes how information and services will be made available to individuals with disability until they can be made accessible. The plan does not require the person to have an identical experience but should offer an experience that can provide a similar service as that gained by people who do not have disability.

Endnotes