Week 28 - Accessibility, is it still just a tick box task in tech?
My experience observing digital teams commitment towards accessibility in central gov
Accessibility in digital. Inclusive Design. People love to drop it into a sentence, add it to their arsenal of UX buzz words but it doesn’t always go much deeper than that.
The Government service standard ensures government websites/platforms meets their accessibility standard in order to go Live. Even in an environment where they are driving a culture of inclusivity, accessibility is still sometimes seen as a tick box task.
Why?
I’m not trying to give the Made Tech recruitment team any ideas about adding this INCREDIBLY COMPLEX question to their application process….However, I can only speculate from what I have seen and experienced working in central government.
Assumptions, Assumptions, Assumptions ❓
Not to be that person that quotes TV but I’m about to quote TV.
There was one episode of Brooklyn 99, a comedy show about a U.S police force if you don’t know it, where one of the characters said something that always stuck with me. He said ‘perception can stain reality’. Probably lifted from some philosopher they mysteriously forgot to quote. In essence how I see the world isn’t necessarily how the world is. It is so important, as a researcher, to be reflective and understand ones perspective when approaching a problem space, however is really not that easy.
Assumptions can play havoc on a project, especially in relation to access needs testing. On the one hand, you may have people assuming that individuals with disabilities 'can’t be in certain roles like policing, so why does that mean we have to do accessibility testing for a police platform?’. Or you might come across some people who think ‘well we tested with that one guy with Zoomtech that’ll be enough’. These are both things people have said to me.
Research helps to bridge that gap between assumption and understanding but getting people to look outside of their own perspective, their assumptions takes time and people don’t always want to listen.
I just DON'T have time ⏳
The fear of wasting time. Thats a real doozy. There has been a few times I have seen people so disheartened by the fact they were only able to recruit a few participants on the first go, they loose all momentum, and massively reduce how much time they invest towards accessibility.
With any relationship you want to cultivate, it takes time. People may say no but you just listen to that Taylor Swift album, have a little cry, and start over. I've seen so many projects try recruit for access needs research and if things don’t meet or surpass expectations they don’t try again until they get to Beta and then its just a race against the clock until the final service assessment.
Time is a big pressure on projects, especially as contractors we feel that a-lot. However, that doesn’t mean we should exclude participants on the basis of their disability and the assumption that future efforts to recruit will provide little benefit.
Common practice 🗓
I moved quite a lot during my time in government. On some project there would be real dedication towards accessibility, requiring we do at least 3 access needs session in every sprint. While on other projects I was blocked at every hurdle for even suggesting it, hearing ‘its just not possible right now’ over and over again.
If teams don’t invest time in establishing common practice with access needs research and loop it in as early into the project as possible, those are the teams that more often than not leave it as a ’nice to have’ at the very end. There needs to be a real consideration during planning stages, budgeting and even risk assessments to support an effective roll-out.
I’m sure there are more complex reasons as to why accessibility may still be a tick box item for some traditional digital teams, I can only speculate from my own experience. That being said I have worked with some amazing people, researchers, designers, engineers the lot. They, and others, have made massive strides to bring accessibility to the forefront of projects and who continue to influence traditional product environments in government.
👥 I am a firm believer that people change when our values change. I do truly believe our values towards accessibility are changing in Tech which is amazing to see but there is still a ways to go to establishing it as the norm.