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Awareness dates, Technology

Why accessibility is good for everyone

Lucy Ruck

Lucy Ruck

“What does good accessibility training look like and where can I find it?” This is the question the members of the Technology Taskforce were asking themselves back in 2020.

The Technology Taskforce had also reviewed their average scores against the Accessibility Maturity Model (AMM), our world-renowned tool to help you measure your digital accessibility, and this was an area where many of our members were getting lower scores, so something needed to be done.

The Technology Taskforce is a group of senior tech accessibility individuals, from leading UK and Global organisations, working together, to improve the use of inclusive design and accessible technology.

The Taskforce is action-orientated and likes to get things done, and the pandemic hasn’t stood in their way! They wanted to create a resource, where you could find a range of accessibility training, for a range of roles, at a range of costs, that would work for them, and will also work for you.

Accessibility doesn’t just benefit disabled people. It benefits everyone. Accessible businesses are more innovative, more inclusive and more productive. Accessible businesses have better brand awareness and better legal compliance. You can find out more in our ‘How accessibility benefits your business’ resources.

Accessibility training isn’t just for tech colleagues. Accessibility training is for anyone who communicates information digitally to others – and these days that means almost everyone. If you or your colleagues write emails, create Word documents, produce PowerPoint presentations or make videos, then you need to know how to make them accessible for the people reading or viewing them.

We’ve created the Accessibility training: A guide to available resources. This is a comprehensive guide, looking at the different types of training that will be useful for different roles. For example, we know that a receptionist will have different requirements to a website developer when it comes to accessibility, but they both need to know how to make their work accessible. One of the group said to me: “This resource is like someone has already done all the research on where to find accessibility training, and created all the bookmarks in my browser for me already – it’s great!”.

Cathy Steed, Business Engagement Manager at Unilever says: “I have been really excited having the opportunity to co-lead BDF’s Technology Taskforce team collating the best accessibility training resources to support our colleagues in making our technology environments more accessible. I am very keen to start building the skills and knowledge needed for Unilever to take the organisation to next level of competency. We have really big ambitions around making sure that Unilever is the accessibility employee of choice globally, and this will help us on our journey. The process really helped to strengthen the bonds between the accessibility tech support community and has provided a great pool of amazing, talented individuals to find alternative ways of supporting our colleagues.”

From PwC, Denise Wood, Digital Accessibility Lead, and Chris Holloway, Accessibility and Digital Inclusion Manager comment that “The launch of this resource will enable PwC to signpost our colleagues to predefined, high quality and trusted, learning pathways that everyone can take advantage of. We will embed this new resource into our digital accessibility upskilling training programme.”

We are really excited to share our free resources for Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD):

How accessibility benefits your business

Accessibility training: A guide to available resources

Find out more about the Technology Taskforce

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