Accessibility - Not Just For Apps Any More

A huge part of what we believe in is supporting communities around us. While it might sound odd for a recruitment agency to say that without an ulterior motive, it’s true for us. Our company has grown and succeeded because of the community around us, so our way of giving back is to help other communities grow.

Ladies that UX is a global community founded by Lizzie Dyson and Georgie Bottomley, both UX professionals. They noticed that across the industry, there was a real lack of women, both at a mid-level and more senior roles within the industry. They had no role models, so LTUX was created in 2013 as a space for all women to get support, encouragement and inspiration.

Last night, Hannah Chang Hui Ross spoke at LTUX Dublin about building an accessibility culture and eliminating bias in UX decisions. I’m not a designer (although it’s something I think about a lot!), but that didn’t matter. The talk itself was inclusive and accessible, even for those not within the UX landscape.

So much of what Hannah spoke about resonated with me, and I was furiously scribbling notes the whole time! As a people professional, while Hannah spoke of accessibility and bias in design, I was applying everything she said to the workplace itself. She shared a quote from Kat Holmes;

“Our brains evolve to take shortcuts, but when we design for today’s World; those shortcuts leave people behind’.

Every person in a team is different and has different needs, but it’s not often that we take the time to ask ourselves “who does this not work for?”. In this day and age, we should not be leaving people behind, and I feel as People professionals it’s our responsibility to do our best for everyone around us to the best of our ability. Empathy plays a part here, we need to not only listen to what people are saying, but actually hear it.

Hannah shared a statistic from the United Nations that, I have to be honest, I wasn’t aware of. 1 in 5 people in Ireland have a disability. 80% have an invisible disability.

This is only taking our island into consideration, and I’m still gobsmacked. If we look around at our teams, are we providing an accessible culture where nobody is left behind?

Nothing is done overnight of course, and we can’t have a perfect workplace immediately, but what’s important is that we take action when we recognise something needs to change. Not only because it’s part of the European Accessibility Act, and therefore mandatory, but because it’s a basic human right.

There are certain phrases that always stay in my mind. Years ago (at another design Meetup!) a speaker said “Who are we not designing for?”, and Hannah has actually added another two more for me from her talk last night:

“Accessibility makes an experience open to all”
“Products should work for everyone, not just some”

Again, I know I’m not a designer, but I really feel that all of this can be applied in so many different ways. As I look back on building out our HR function, I have tried to consider the needs of everyone in our company and make adjustments. That’s not to say everything is perfect (yes, I’m the one who needs the light to be as bright as the sun! And no, that absolutely does not work for everyone, so we do try to make adjustments to the best of our abilities so that everyone is comfortable), but what matters the most is the effort and iterating until something works. A huge aspect of this, though, is people being comfortable to come forward with their needs, particularly when it comes to hidden disabilities.

As People professionals, we need to be approachable, non-judgemental and take action when a team member shares something they need to do their job - that is our responsibility. We might not get it right the first time, but we can keep trying until we do. Even if you look at the various titles for people within our roles - Human resources, People operations, People partner etc. People are the centre of everything we do.

There is no point, or need, to cast blame on any person or company who may have missed some aspects of creating an inclusive workplace, but what we should do is encourage awareness and make improvements for the future. As they say, the best time to improve something is years ago, but the second best time is now.

We need to be mindful of unconscious bias, and not assume that something is done intentionally, because as humans we learn and grow. This is why communities coming together to create places for discussions about things like accessibility is so important - we learn and can then apply what we have learned. Choosing to ignore something adds to an issue, but making an effort towards improvements paves a path for equality.

Needless to say, I’ve taken a LOT from last night. Hannah shared so many incredible insights and I speak for all of nineDots when I say we’re thrilled to sponsor such an incredible community in LTUX Dublin.

I’ll finish off with another quote from Hannah (that makes three added to my list!);

”Everything is anchored with empathy”

Thank you to the team at LTUX Dublin for arranging such a great event, and thank you to Hannah for sharing so much knowledge with us!

We'll be sharing Lee's entire talk next week, so keep an eye out!