At a Dutch public authority, (digital) accessibility is an important topic. They strive to be an inclusive employer. If they make sure they are accessible on the inside, their citizens recognize this on the outside. This leads to a wider awareness.
Accessibility refers to the practice of building digital content that can be used by people with disabilities. In many (but not all) cases, people with disabilities will use some kind of Assistive Technology to navigate their computer, mobile device, and their many applications. For example, people with visual disabilities may use a screen reader to navigate their computers and mobile devices.
However, these Assistive Technology tools won’t work if we are not all aware of the barriers that people with disabilities come across. It’s our collective job to create content that present as few barriers as possible. And this is exactly what the Dutch public authority did.
During the roll-out of Microsoft 365 the authority included an extensive adoption and training program by 1uur.nu. Within this program there is a special attention for accessibility. 1uur.nu helped employees make their online meetings, documents and presentations accessible for all employees. Our trainers provided tools for the participants on how to organise and join more inclusive meetings and create accesible content. We taught the employees to use the many options which are available in Microsoft Teams and we showed them how to check their documents on accessibility.
During the program the employees learned that those accessibility tools are easy to use and helped them understand the importance of doing this all together. It is not only an issue for the employees with a disability, it’s something that needs to be done collectively. Therefore it is necessary that all colleagues are involved and all colleagues understand how you can include everyone.
Let’s make the world accessible for everyone. Every step is a step in the right direction.
