Jason Taylor - Let's Take Accessibility Seriously | #AccessibilityPlus2021

Published October 5, 2021

Kevin McDaniel speaks with Jason Taylor, Chief Innovation Strategist and Advisor to UsableNet CEO, and speaker for Accessibility.com's 2021 Global AccessibilityPlus Conference. Jason talks about his experience in the accessibility space over the last two decades, the biggest barriers to accessibility, and where he believes the industry goes from here. 

20 years in the accessibility space

When you speak to Jason, it is evident that he's curated the types of experiences over his career that is only possible with time. Having spent quite a bit of time researching his work and company, UsableNet, prior to our conversation, I was anxious to speak to him about how he landed in accessibility in 2001, before many professionals today knew there was a need to be accessible. 

"Our company name leads a clue to where we came from," he says. "Our original mandate was about driving usable design for developers, and as you are aware, accessibility is a core subset of usability. Simply put if you can't access it you can't use it [...] so we began working in accessibility when government agencies began asking if we could make code more accessible to help with Section 508 Compliance."

To appreciate Jason's experience in accessibility, we need to go back to 1998, when Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require Federal agencies to make their information and technology accessible to persons with disabilities − prior to this amendment, the law was largely ignored and rarely enforced.  

"This is when the Federal government began to take accessibility seriously [...] but during those early years, websites themselves were quite simple [...] things have changed dramatically since then." 

Today's customer is mobile

Ten years ago Jason spoke with Near Field Communication (NFC) on the future of mobile commerce, predicting that by 2013 over half of all mobile phones in the U.S. will be smartphones. In 2020, not only have smartphones dominated the mobile phone market, they now account for over half of all global online traffic

"The internet has changed a lot," Jason says. "In 2007, the iPhone came out, and you know, a lot of people were talking about the usability and accessibility of desktop sites, and essentially, we saw that the future was supporting people in both the mobile and desktop environment. And today, if you ask any blind user what they use the most, they'll say they use mobile."

Jason believes that the reason for this is the convenience and usability of native applications found in mobile devices. 

"The original use of screen readers on desktops was intended to help blind users access Windows-based applications, internet browsers, Word, Excel, things like that [...] but the mobile device has specific applications that improve the lives of persons with disabilities. So for example, a great partner of ours is a company I love called 'Be My Eyes' which connects the user to nearly 5 million volunteers globally, whoever is available, to essentially, be their eyes. Given how much more useful mobile applications are, the question is; what is the mobile activity of the user and how do we fit accessibility into the equation?" 

So how do we address barriers across desktop and mobile environments? 

Significant barriers to accessibility

Jason says that in his view, the most challenging barriers to accessibility are those that prevent users from living their lives independently. 

"For us, we focus on industries that can create significant barriers to living life [...] for example, if you cannot access your banking application to take care of your finances, we'd consider that a major barrier because it prevents you from doing something that is critical to living an independent life."

Think about how many applications you access from day to day, Zoom, ordering essentials, finance, government, if they are not accessible, that is the biggest barrier. 

Since the disability rights movement began, leaders and advocates in the community have pushed to remove barriers to independent living, including transportation, education, employment, programmatic access, and healthcare. From Jason's perspective, these barriers can be reduced or amplified, depending on how accessible the technology used to facilitate those services is. 

"If an application isn't coded properly − if accessibility isn't done well, you can marginalize people with disabilities [...] but you've also got to get people to see the empowerment if done right. In the olden days, a blind person who needed to take care of financial business had to visit a bank and rely on a financial advisor to tell them how to manage their money, which trades to make and so on [...] but if done properly, digital opens up a huge opportunity to improve the lives of persons with disabilities, many who before had to rely on others."

Relying on accessibility overlays

In July 2021, Accessibility.com detected that of the 176 lawsuits filed against websites for accessibility, 23% had overlays intended to improve the accessibility and experience of the user. Jason believes accessibility overlays may have a role, albeit limited. 

"Essentially what they are doing is facilitating discrimination," Jason says of Overlays, "without the company that owns the website knowing they are discriminating." 

"I mean, these overlay companies are trying to raise money [...] but I'd like to make a point, they exist because CMS (content management systems) do not do a good job of creating accessible websites [...] I mean, it's not expensive to create an accessible website [...] but the truth is, these companies exist because there are a lot of inaccessible websites." 

Jason believes that the solution lies in building accessible websites in the first place, rather than relying on aftermarket technologies. 

"The solution isn't outlawing overlays, if there wasn't a market they wouldn't be able to raise money. The market exists because a huge volume of small websites may cost less than $1,000 to build and those small businesses may only have $100 to add accessibility support. The answer is to ensure the millions of small websites built on CMS platforms start accessible, not need work after the fact. Adding accessibility to initial website build scope and contracts can make a huge impact in this regard.”

Where the industry goes from here

Despite the difficulties associated with implementing accessibility initiatives, Jason believes the future of accessibility isn't so complicated, but organizations need to do their parts by fostering cultures of inclusion. 

"Accessibility isn't something you add-on at the end, it needs to be part of your existing design and build methodology. Professionals new to the industry should focus on their organization's digital experiences, which are classed as places of public accommodation by the ADA because they provide a place to do business or live life, digitally.”

Accessibility needs to be the expectation. You know, you wouldn't go build a building and then check it for accessibility after the fact. Let's take accessibility seriously. 

"We are finally seeing larger organizations treat accessibility as serious as security, and place Accessibility under compliance. This delivers pre-build awareness and internal guidance to digital teams."
 

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