Building growth through accessibility

Antony Paul at Quadient argues that there’s more to document accessibility than meets the eye

In recent years, increased awareness of those living with disabilities and impairments has shifted attitudes and public policy around accessibility. Examples of this can be found in transport, where 95% of London bus stops are now wheelchair accessible, and in the UK Government’s 32-step Disability Action Plan, which aims to implement nationwide measures to increase the accessibility of public infrastructure.

However, emphasis also needs to be placed on fostering inclusivity for both visible and non-visible impairments. For instance more than two million people in the UK live with some form of sight loss, making it hard, or even impossible, to accurately read important online documents such as utility bills. To ensure low vision or non-sighted readers benefit from digital media such as PDFs, emails and websites, universal document accessibility should be a standard held by every business.

Fostering equal access to information can bring about multiple benefits, such as opening up your solution to new customers and markets. It also allows businesses to adhere to increased levels of regulatory document compliance, the rapid growth of which highlights the need for swift action.

Compliance is key

Widely regarded as the two north stars for producing accessible documentation, the Portable Document Format/Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA) standard and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) instruct businesses and individuals on how to comply with the standardisation of online content. The PDF/UA governs how to make a PDF document readable, using assistive technologies like screen readers for people with visual, hearing and mobility impairments. The WCAG is concerned with emails and websites, ensuring that web content can interact with assistive technology.

As increased digitisation across industries makes these standards even more widespread, regulatory bodies and governments have also taken action. The European Accessibility Act, set to come into effect in June 2025, will make it law for any business trading in the EU to adhere to tightened accessibility requirements – encouraging them to prepare now.

Not only is regulatory compliance important, but failing to reach all customers equally puts businesses at a competitive disadvantage. Globally, those with disabilities hold almost £1 trillion of the world’s annual disposable income. However, a recent survey of the top one million websites found nearly 96% had detectable failures in adherence to the WCAG. 

While research from Aspire found that two-thirds of companies plan to address accessibility issues, businesses need to ensure they have the correct tools to make document accessibility a reality.

Employing the right strategies

The majority of customer communication software can create accessible documents, but businesses often fail to make the best use of it. Ideally, documents should be accessible by design. Much like the ‘shift left’ approach where technology testing is performed earlier in a product’s lifecycle, the earlier accessibility is integrated into a document, the less exposed a company will be. 

Businesses can do this through customer communications management (CCM) tools that can track and fully audit communications trails and changes to documents, following an automatic approval process. For businesses, this can lift the weight of non-compliance off their shoulders if a document is altered externally, providing detailed evidence to regulatory bodies of document standardisation upon delivery.

Achieving document accessibility is also possible with inactive and archived documents. Under GDPR, companies are allowed to keep customer information for over a decade if necessary. This means that even archived documents on past customers need to be accessible in the event of a customer request. With most businesses retaining dozens or even hundreds of archived documents on each customer, retrofitting accessibility standards may sound like a time-consuming and costly process.

In this case, post-composition remediation software can overhaul any archived document from a partner, company archive or external source, with accessibility features such as text-to-speech or adjustments in contrast. CCM software capable of post-composition remediation has the ability to rapidly index documents like PDFs by text and legal importance, retrieve files rapidly, and deliver to multiple browsers, mobile devices and desktop environments automatically. Software scalability is an important consideration for smaller businesses as they grow. So too is software’s ability to handle a large volume of documents, as well as document formats like HTML5 for larger businesses.

By making universal document accessibility a lynchpin of corporate communications strategies, organisations are not only adhering to regulations, directives and laws but reaping substantial financial benefits. And with nearly one in four UK adults identifying as disabled, it’s an opportunity too big for businesses to deprioritise any longer.

Research from Accenture found that inclusive companies drive more revenue, net income and profit compared to their peers. Companies that demonstrate initiative in taking Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities seriously can also enhance their brand reputation considerably. With industries overflowing with competitors and diluting market share, customers can be sure of only one thing: they will never suffer from a lack of choice.

Business leaders should prioritise document accessibility and invest in the tools to allow them reach more customers, build trust, ensure legal compliance, and maintain a competitive advantage in 2024 and beyond. 

Antony Paul is Head of Global Product at Quadient

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Chansom Pantip