Mindset Matters: What Businesses Seem To Miss About The Nature Of Accessibility
Beginning in the previous Mindset Matters column, the goal was to embark on a journey to highlight the trend lines within the global Disability Economy to gain a greater understanding of the social forces that are amplifying the disability narrative and becoming an influential player within the ever-changing economic landscape. By providing some scope to the concept of Accessibility in the previous piece it is now critical to continue this conversation further and recognize that businesses' full appreciation of the very notion of Accessibility is limited and the argument can be made that it is simply obsolete.
The problem lies in the fact that modern-day organizations are often constrained by seeing Accessibility through a lens of compliance. Perhaps this is a byproduct of over 181 countries passing various Disability Civil Rights laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act and The Equality Act in the UK to the Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities in the Philippines. While no one is denying that these laws serve as critical guardrails of protection, the speed at which technology and culture are moving is so fast that businesses must rethink the meaning of Accessibility to even stay competitive. As new voices are emerging across the disability community from content creators to young entrepreneurs there is an opening for a referendum around our core understanding of disability and its relationship to the fabric of the larger culture. It also serves as a starting point for businesses to identify a change in and around the concept of Accessibility itself.
As technology is a touchpoint for many of the social and cultural changes happening, key stakeholders from C-level executives to entrepreneurs must pause to truly embrace Accessibility for what is and what it needs to become. No longer should it be seen through the limitations of compliance but rather as essential to the fabric of human progress. Modern leaders must recognize that the circumstances of Accessibility have been with us throughout human history, and to be a business that wants to be a true disruptive force in their space, this is one of the most essential lessons to learn for the digital economy of the 21st century. Throughout our evolution people have been constantly tinkering to design around the shifting landscape for billions of people to accommodate their changing lifestyles. The reality is, a business must see that Accessibility will matter to the consumer, and it is time for corporate leadership to get on board!...
Read more: Forbes
