Yahye Siyad is the Range and Accessibility Lead at Cyber-Duck, a digital transformation company specialising in UX and digital optimisation.
Siyad joined the company in October 2021, and can also be the founding father of Inclusive Horizons, a Dubai-based accessibility, inclusion and life teaching consultancy, in addition to being a UNCRPD (United Nations’ Conference on the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities) licensed coach. In his position as Range and Accessibility Lead, Siyad helps to supervise range and inclusivity throughout the Cyber-Duck enterprise in addition to in its digital transformation work for purchasers. He additionally carries out person testing on shopper tasks.
Outdoors of labor, he’s additionally a former Crew GB Paralympian and holds the wonderful title of the primary visually impaired Licensed Scuba Diver within the UAE.
I just lately spoke with Siyad to be taught extra about his work in accessibility and inclusion with Cyber-Duck, his ideas on the state of digital accessibility in 2022, and whether or not he thinks companies do sufficient to place accessibility on the coronary heart of their digital transformation tasks.
The place are we on digital accessibility in 2022?
In terms of accessibility and inclusivity, Siyad’s remit at Cyber-Duck is a wide-ranging one, overlaying the organisation’s inner strategy to range and inclusion in addition to the accessibility of its merchandise and shopper tasks.
“My position with Cyber-Duck is because the Range and Accessibility Lead, so I have a look at various things to do with range and inclusivity usually,” says Siyad. “Whether or not that’s making recruitment extra inclusive; trying on the insurance policies that now we have; or trying on the merchandise we design with our purchasers, and testing how accessible they’re, selling finest practices, and creating considerate management programmes on accessibility.”
A number of the purchasers and digital transformation tasks that Siyad has been concerned with embody Quick Stream, an evaluation programme by the Civil Service that Cyber-Duck helped to rework right into a distant expertise through the pandemic; Sport England, with whom Cyber-Duck has labored on quite a few tasks together with its Unifying The Motion technique and the This Woman Can motion; and Sanctuary, a not-for-profit housing and care supplier whose digital presence Cyber-Duck revamped and made accessible.
I requested Siyad how he perceives the state of digital accessibility in 2022. Broadly talking, how accessible is the net in the meanwhile, and has this improved lately?
“It actually depends upon whether or not your glass is half full or half empty – and whereabouts on the earth you might be,” Siyad mentioned. “General, I’d say it’s undoubtedly improved rather a lot; the G3ict [Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs] State of Digital Accessibility Report for 2021 interviewed greater than 1,000 organisations all over the world in nearly any business that you can imagine, they usually mentioned that they’ve seen quite a lot of progress.
“What’s putting for me about this report – and I feel it highlights the place accessibility is in the meanwhile – is that 78% of individuals mentioned the explanation why they’re accessible is as a result of they need to help individuals with disabilities. And whereas that’s good on the floor, it’s not sufficient to actually push the accessibility agenda to a stage that’s parallel with different subjects of range, like race and gender.”
Siyad identified that the significance of accessibility goes past the expertise of people who find themselves formally disabled and ought to be about creating an expertise that’s inclusive to all. “It wants to return from an understanding that it’s one thing that impacts everyone at completely different factors – whether or not it’s a brief state of affairs or everlasting,” he mentioned.
“It could possibly be {that a} video with captions helps somebody who is difficult of listening to, but in addition someone who’s on a practice and doesn’t have a headset with them. It’s bringing that to mild extra that helps [promote awareness of accessibility’s importance].”
A extra encouraging discovering on this entrance was that 62% of organisations reported that they have been addressing digital accessibility to offer “the perfect UX for all customers” – making it the second most frequently-cited cause after the inclusion of customers with disabilities, and displaying {that a} majority of organisations do recognise the broader significance of making an inclusive expertise.
Siyad additionally famous that accessibility legal guidelines have an actual influence on the creation of accessibility packages: G3ict discovered that public sector organisations had essentially the most mature accessibility packages with 52% having packages that have been no less than seven years outdated, and 17% having been working in direction of inclusion for greater than 20 years. Within the UK, public sector organisations are required by the Equality Act 2010 and in addition the Public Sector Our bodies (Web sites and Cell Purposes) Accessibility Rules 2018 to make “cheap changes” for customers with disabilities and to make their internet and cell presences accessible.
In america, authorized fits (in addition to the People with Disabilities Act, or ADA) have additionally resulted in additional organisations taking motion on accessibility, whereas in Europe, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) got here into impact in 2019 to enrich the EU’s Internet Accessibility Directive. In different phrases, each the will to create an inclusive expertise and the will to keep away from authorized reprisal are efficient in serving to to widen digital entry. “That actually offers me hope … Accessibility requires a unique strategy and completely different reasoning for it to be taken critically,” mentioned Siyad. “It wants each the ‘carrot’ and the ‘stick’ strategy, so to talk.”
What are some widespread misconceptions about digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility efforts inside organisations can typically fall sufferer to myths and misunderstandings attributable to a lack of understanding about what measures are actually useful, why they have to be taken, and the right way to put them into follow. I requested Siyad if there are any widespread misconceptions he has encountered about digital accessibility.
“One is that it’s costly,” Siyad replied. “Individuals assume it’s going to price an arm and a leg, and that we don’t have the finances.
“I feel this false impression must be clarified as a result of it’s actually not costly till you scratch your head on the final minute attempting to make issues accessible – as a result of you then’re retrofitting accessibility. Think about you construct a pleasant home, and realise on the final minute, ‘Oh, this home has points – how do I get into it?’ It’s going to price much more cash than for those who accounted for that within the first place. That’s primary.”
Common person testing all through the method of constructing new digital programs, instruments, or platforms may also help to avert this example, significantly if the expertise is being examined by customers with a various number of entry wants. “More often than not, to be trustworthy, these web sites and functions are developed by non-disabled individuals,” mentioned Siyad. “Or are developed by people who find themselves not impacted by that individual expertise. It must be examined all through, so that you don’t construct one thing based mostly on an assumption.”
The opposite main false impression that tends to crop up in relation to accessibility is, as talked about beforehand, that accessible experiences are solely wanted by individuals with disabilities – when in actuality they’re wanted by everybody. “Accessibility remains to be correlated with incapacity – which is partially right, however our notion of incapacity must be broadened. It’s not simply somebody who’s registered completely disabled; it’s anybody who’s experiencing a limitation of some type in a selected second,” Siyad mentioned.
One of many points that Siyad mentioned he not often sees mentioned is the “ripple impact” of constructing issues accessible – basically, the constructive knock-on impact that accessible providers and web sites have on individuals’s lives. “In case you make your web sites, merchandise, providers, extra accessible – how many individuals can actually unleash their potential and contribute extra to society and the financial system total when issues are accessible to them?” he requested. “Individuals will have the ability to acquire employment, they’ll have the ability to excel in training, they will spend extra into the financial system – and so forth, and so forth.
“The ripple impact is one thing that I feel actually must be checked out to compel the enterprise case for accessibility.”
Accessibility in digital transformation
Whereas digital accessibility could have turn out to be the next precedence for organisations lately, does Siyad assume companies are doing sufficient to construct accessibility into their digital transformation tasks from the bottom up?
“The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated digital transformation usually, for lots of organisations – and we’ve seen that throughout every part from retail to healthcare,” mentioned Siyad. “However once more, the problem of correlating accessibility with incapacity particularly makes it not essentially a high precedence.” Digital accessibility remains to be a “good to have” for companies, he mentioned, quite than being seen as indispensable. “For lots of organisations, it’s nonetheless a CSR initiative – and that should change.”
That is even though, even for those who do solely think about customers with disabilities as those that are being shut out by an absence of digital accessibility, within the UK alone, this quantities to 22% of the inhabitants in keeping with statistics from the Division for Work and Pensions Household Assets Survey. Within the US, the share is even increased, at 26% in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention – greater than 1 / 4 of the inhabitants.
These are enormous swathes of the populace to be excluding – however Siyad’s level is that it’s additionally necessary for companies not to think about digital accessibility as a set of measures solely geared in direction of one group of customers (these with disabilities), however as a method of widening entry for everybody.
For instance, Cyber-Duck’s accessibility work with the civil service Quick Stream evaluation programme – a scheme to draw graduates and career-changers in addition to these within the civil service who need a quick monitor into management – was designed to create an accessible and inclusive expertise for all customers, no matter background, and concerned usability testing by candidates with a spread of various disabilities in addition to neurodiverse candidates. This in the end led to a rise within the success charges for all under-represented candidates.
An organisational house for accessibility
One sticking level that organisations typically encounter on the subject of accessibility, Siyad mentioned, is that accessibility doesn’t have a pure “house” inside an organisation’s inner construction. This was one other key discovering from the G3ict State of Digital Accessibility Report – as Siyad recalled, “different compliance points are led by a particular division, whereas accessibility had been floating round CX, UX, HR, IT, et cetera.” This additionally leads to accessibility missing a devoted organisational finances.
Siyad added that the problem wasn’t essentially that accessibility wanted to be centralised inside a single division. “There’s no hurt, and actually it’s very useful, for the duty to be unfold throughout all completely different capabilities, as a result of everyone must be concerned in accessibility at a sure stage of the mission.” Nevertheless, he emphasised that there must be a gaggle or particular person devoted to overseeing progress on accessibility and advancing its agenda. “For lots of organisations, there isn’t an recognized individual or a division that screens the progress of accessibility and is ready to push its agenda in several conferences.”
Ideally, Siyad thinks that accessibility ought to fall underneath the remit of a Range and Inclusion division – as a result of accessibility and variety and inclusion every have such an influence on the opposite that it’s unattainable to really separate them out, and measures to advance one must also advance the opposite. “We have to make it possible for accessibility doesn’t stay the ‘poor cousin’ of range,” he mentioned.
Accessible digital experiences: which manufacturers are main the best way?
Though many organisations have a technique to go in prioritising digital accessibility, there are others which have made clear efforts to create an inclusive digital expertise. Reflecting on the manufacturers and companies that he has encountered with standout accessible experiences, Siyad mentioned,
“The general public sector is main in that house: the NHS actually has some of the accessible web sites I can consider in the meanwhile, from a person viewpoint – I’ve examined it myself – which is nice to see.
“There’s additionally a sports activities charitable social enterprise known as Higher UK, which I simply found just lately – it’s extremely accessible, from the inclusive memberships that they provide to how simple the app and web site are to make use of.”
Within the personal sector, Siyad named Simply Eat as having a really accessible and easy digital expertise. One other model that stands out in prioritising digital accessibility is Tesco: “It’s gone by way of an enormous revamp within the final couple of years and their web site and app are very, very accessible.”
Certainly, a case research writeup from March 2019 about Tesco’s accessibility-focused grocery app included a number of glowing evaluations from visually impaired customers who discovered it reworked their expertise of buying groceries. One wrote, “It has allowed me to browse and do my very own searching for the primary time since going blind.” One other wrote, “A lot simpler to navigate and use than earlier than … As a very blind person it’s refreshing to see simply how a lot effort and time has been put into the entry skill [sic] and I want to supply my thanks for this.” One other person who was “recovering from main surgical procedure” wrote in to reward the app – underscoring how accessible experiences can profit individuals in all kinds of circumstances.
One factor that many manufacturers – even those that are in any other case very dedicated to accessibility – overlook, nonetheless, is that creating an accessible expertise isn’t a one-off job: sustaining additionally it is extraordinarily necessary. “[Organisations] attain a sure level the place they assume that the accessibility is not required to be maintained, and in consequence, any replace to the applying will typically have one or two options that aren’t accessible,” mentioned Siyad.
“Similar to you keep any product regularly, accessibility must be a part of the upkeep – that’s one thing actually value highlighting. It’s a steady course of.”
For its half, Cyber-Duck has taken steps to make sure that accessibility is embedded within the end-to-end course of for its digital transformation tasks – quite than being an add-on or, as Siyad put it, a “good to have”. All employees have undertaken broad accessibility coaching with the Royal Nationwide Institute of Blind Individuals (RNIB), and the organisation can also be a member of the Worldwide Affiliation of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP), which is a division of G3ict that helps organisations in integrating accessibility into their providers, merchandise and infrastructure. “The explanation we joined [the IAAP] is to contribute into that house – to reinforce the usual of how accessibility is embedded,” mentioned Siyad.
The company additionally makes a degree of publishing sources like guides and webinars that educate concerning the worth and advantages of accessibility to be able to increase consciousness of its significance. “Once more, I am going to the ripple impact,” mentioned Siyad. “I really feel pleased being in a job like this with a digital transformation company as a result of the influence is actually enormous – we’re not simply making their web site accessible, we’re creating a greater finish person expertise for everyone.”
The accessibility of web3 and the metaverse
Quite a lot of commentary over the previous yr has targeted on the emergence of the subsequent iteration of the World Huge Internet, web3, together with the metaverse, which is extensively hailed as being the “subsequent web”. The 2 are usually not one in the identical, however each ideas revolve round a significant shift to the best way that we work together on-line, with web3 promising a extra decentralised internet, whereas the metaverse guarantees a brand new stage of integration between the bodily and digital worlds.
However are these new digital frontiers being developed with accessibility on the fore? In spite of everything, a web3 or metaverse that isn’t designed to be inclusive from the phrase ‘go’ might be ineffective to a big section of the world’s inhabitants, and do nothing to enhance on their experiences with Internet 2.0. I put this query to Siyad, who was ambivalent.
“I feel it’s early days, however what’s necessary is that as we transfer into this house in any form or kind – whether or not it’s internet 3.0, the metaverse, or no matter you need to conceptualise – what’s necessary is that we don’t make the identical mistake that we’ve been making for the final 30-40 years, which is designing for the quote unquote ‘regular’,” he mentioned.
“The notion of ‘regular’, the notion of a ‘typical person’, must be as vast as doable to actually take into consideration what the accessibility capabilities of [web3 or the metaverse] have to appear like.”
Whereas many may not be thrilled by main know-how giants like Meta or Microsoft placing their stamp on the subsequent internet, that is one thing that makes Siyad extra hopeful that accessibility might be integral to web3 and the metaverse, as a result of the tech giants are more likely to think about accessibility a aggressive benefit and never an non-obligatory further. The likes of Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet are additionally extra more likely to view accessibility as necessary to their picture, and need to present that they’re main the best way with accessible know-how – as evidenced by, for instance, Microsoft’s April 2021 weblog submit asserting that it was “doubling down on accessibility”, or Meta’s perception into the way it constructed accessibility right into a redesigned Fb, and its annual Accessibility Summit to coincide with World Accessibility Consciousness Day.
Nevertheless, there’s a drawback with the underlying precept of web3, which is envisaged as being largely decentralised, in distinction to the centralisation of Internet 2.0. With this decentralisation comes an absence of accountability: who’s accountable for making certain that the general expertise is accessible?
“The concept is that individuals create their very own content material, and personal that – however due to that shift within the paradigm, how can we guarantee it’s accessible?” requested Siyad. “Fb can say, ‘It’s nothing to do with us; it’s not owned by us, it’s owned by the customers.’”
“There’s no hurt in blue-sky considering,” he concluded. “However as somebody with first-hand expertise of those points, I feel we actually have much more issues to restore in the meanwhile than worrying concerning the metaverse.”
Accessibility specialist Elisabeth Ward on incapacity in digital and the influence of the pandemic
