Thursday, September 26, marked the 45th edition of Dialogue Thursday (DiDo). This time DiDo was all about digital accessibility and the legislation (European Accecibility Act (EAA)) coming up in 2025. Already we wrote about EAA 2025, but with DiDo we wanted to raise awareness of it even more. After all, it's an important issue that goes beyond meeting a ‘checklist.

Speaker 1 Shirley van Haalem

Our colleague Shirley knows better than anyone that digital accessibility is important. She herself has a visual impairment. Shirley shared how she gets by with some extra tools to navigate digitally and that many people with disabilities depend on how accessible digital channels are set up.

The inclusive practice of making digital domains usable by everyone, regardless of ability, context or situation.

That we still have work to do is clear. Out of the top 1 million homepages worldwide, 95% still has accessibility errors. Common problems include: contrast, lack of alternative text and lack of form labels.

Source: WebIAM Million 2024

Mythbusters!

Shirley busted three myths surrounding digital accessibility:
Myth #1: Accessibility is just a checklist to tick off. It's a mindset, a way of working.
Myth #2: Accessibility is a big and separate task from our regular work. It is not extra work, it is missed work that should have been there from the start.
Myth #3: Accessibility affects only a small group of people. In the EU alone, 1 in 4 people need accessibility support. This is 189 million users!!!

Speaker 2 Natascha Hoogeveen

Natascha, UX researcher at RTL Netherlands, shared how Videoland is on their expedition to Digital Accessibility. Back in 2018, they received the first complaint that Videoland was not accessible. This complaint came back again in 2020. This opened their eyes.

Natascha set to work to make Videoland an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Making the platform accessible proved to be a marathon and not a sprint, but with the right approach, it becomes a part for the whole organization. Natascha shared the steps taken by RTL Netherlands.

Roadmap

Step 1. Bring attention to the topic. Digital accessibility is about more than just what you see on a platform. Everyone in the organization can contribute from his/her expertise.
Step 2. Find supporters and influencers. Be sure to connect at all levels of the organization. Getting the leaders in your organization to think about this issue helps it spread more.
Step 3. Create a concrete action plan. Now that everyone is connected and thinking along, create a core group to work on all the changes.

Still Natascha and the team are working hard to make Videoland more accessible. They still have a lot to do. When you start working on this, sometimes it seems like a lot that needs to be done. Dividing and prioritizing helps. Everyone can contribute to making his/her organization more accessible.

Speaker 3 Steffi Kollen

Steffi is a consultant with Digitally Accessible. She helps organizations increase their target audience by becoming digitally accessible. Did you know that being accessible to everyone can get about 30% more people in your target audience? No marketing campaign can beat that.

Steffi shared that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) helps you make your website accessible on 4 principles.

• Is everything on your website perceivable? In short, can everyone see it? This is about contrast, but also using clear labels.
• Is your website workable? Are all parts of your website accessible and can it be used by everyone? Make sure people who can't use a mouse don't get stuck already at the cookie notification. Using videos or photo carousels is nice, but you have to be able to get out of them. So maybe don't use autoplay?
• Is your website understandable? Not only in language, but also in usage. When you get an error message within a form, it is good for someone blind to know which field is not filled in correctly...In short, include the name of the field in your error message.

• Is your website robust enough? Is your website usable by all browsers and (assistive) devices? When someone uses the read-aloud module, it's not obvious if it only says ‘link. Make sure everything on the back end of your website has a name too.

Think of everyone

So can we still make great things with all these rules? Absolutely! Make it a challenge for yourself. Look at good examples. NASA's website and also games like ‘The Last of Us’ make super awesome things that are also accessible to everyone. And when making things accessible, don't just think about permanent disabilities, there are also temporary (broken bones) or situational (bright sunlight) disabilities.

In conclusion

One thing is clear, there is still much to do. But this afternoon helped show why this is such an important topic and how to get started! View our checklist To know where your organization stands.

Can't wait for the next edition of DiDo either? Then sign up now before Dec. 12. The theme this time is ‘E-commerce & CRO trends 2025.