What is your commitment to digital inclusion?

If you’re wondering what digital inclusion is, people with disabilities are frequently blocked from websites, apps and content that are not designed and built to be accessible. These are rights protected by both the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Digital accessibility is a civil right that most businesses fail to provide.

And in case you’re assuming that your company’s website and other digital properties are accessible, you should not.

96.8% of the top one million homepages failed the Utah State University’s Web AIM Million annual audit. For the past 3 years the organization has tested the top million homepages against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which serves as the standard for ADA and 508 in the US, and most worldwide. Not only does this reveal the breadth of but also the depth. Each homepage had an average of 51.4 errors.

So if your company or organization claims to be committed to DEI, yet lacks a commitment to digital inclusion, they are missing a key component.

If you’re saying to yourself, well, “the website’s not in my department and not your responsibility”, realize it is everyone’s responsibility to look out for the civil rights of others. And selfishly, realize that as we all age, disability isn’t an if, it’s a when.