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Category: Accessibility in Business
Access Ready Business
When the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted in 1990, the Internet as we know it
today did not exist as the ubiquitous marketplace for information, goods, and services. Neither did
the information and communications technology-driven workplace. Today, the ADA's promise that individuals with
disabilities would be able to participate in all aspects of American, civic, and economic life will be
achieved in today's technologically advanced society depends on businesses understanding that their
success, as well as their legal obligations, depending on their information and communications technology systems being
accessible.
Today, the Internet and information and communications technology (IT) plays a critical role in the daily, personal,
professional, and business life of Americans. More and more, the Internet and IT are central to the
workplace and to how business does business.
Access Ready Inc. is a nonprofit cross-disability advocacy organization promoting a policy of
inclusion and accessibility across information and communications technology through education and best practices. It
shall be Policy One of Access Ready Inc. never to be a plaintiff in and/or financially support any
legal action or lawsuit related to the accessibility or inaccessibility of any information and communications technology
software, hardware or service. Further Access Ready Inc. shall make the results of its technical
findings, policy discussions and advocacy efforts available to the public through accessready.org, its
social media stream, and other public relations efforts. The Board of Directors of Access Ready has
deemed inaccessible information and communications technology to be a clear, growing, and present danger to the civic,
economic, and social welfare of people with disabilities and we would welcome your support.
Increasingly, many businesses covered under Title III of the (ADA) are using websites to market
themselves and to provide direct access to their goods, services, and activities. To support these
activities the internal or employee facing operations of the business is also driven by IT. Without
addressing the accessibility of both their internal and external IT, businesses risk losing out on the
approximately 20% of American customers and employees who have disabilities.
Access Ready policy advances accessibility across the web and information and communications technology.
Many business websites and other IT are difficult or impossible for individuals with disabilities to
use because the technology does not interface with the adaptive technology used by people with
disabilities. Being unable to access websites and information and communications technology puts individuals with
disabilities at a great disadvantage in today's society and starves businesses of potential customers
and potential workers.
Like curb ramps to sidewalks, building bridges between the standard IT and the assistive technology
used by people with disabilities is accomplishable and necessary to allow people with disabilities to
access the systems that are foundational to our workplaces and civic spaces. Also, like curb ramps,
these bridges benefit everyone – with and without disabilities. And including accessibility features,
like including curb ramps, from the beginning means they are affordable and seamless. The Access
Ready Environment is one where website and information and communications technology accessibility is designed from
the outset and is not an afterthought as it is so often today. Businesses that embrace an Access
Ready policy can accomplish this over a five-year budget cycle without real difficulty.
For many, it is now difficult to imagine a world without the unprecedented access to information
that the web provides. Businesses large and small are increasingly providing customers access to
goods and services through their websites. Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, often offer
consumers a wider selection and lower prices than traditional brick-and-mortar” storefronts. For
individuals with disabilities who experience barriers to their ability to travel, the Internet may be
their only way to access certain goods and services. The availability of these services online not only
makes life easier for customers but allows businesses to operate more efficiently and cost-
effectively, as it reduces the overhead costs of retail locations and on-site sales staff. Businesses to
ignore people with disabilities as a market for goods and services is a tremendous mistake. This
minority now represents twenty-five percent of the general population according to the Centers for
Disease Control. The disability community represents three hundred billion dollars plus a year in
disposable income.
Further, why would it be acceptable not to provide access to online goods and services to people
with disabilities? No other minority would stand for such limitations and society would not allow
such a thing. It is a fact that the Internet is dramatically changing the way that businesses serve their
customers. More and more customers with disabilities are asserting their rights to access through
litigation. By adopting an Access Ready policy business can achieve and maintain accessibility on
the web and through their IT.
People with disabilities also represent a vast untapped talent pool ready to join the workforce.
Accessible internal and back-office IT opens up many employment opportunities. Given the
competition for good employees in today’s economy, the availability of qualified unemployed and
underemployed workers with disabilities, the supportive services and accommodations offered by
state and federal tax-payer funded programs, such as Vocational Rehabilitation, and the tax and
business incentives in place for employing people with disabilities, it is foolish for business not to
seek out qualified individuals with disabilities. Making internal and external IT accessible is the
foundation that makes it possible for companies to increase their customer base and their employee
pool.
What is needed is the adoption of an Access Ready policy that applies to IT across the economy. An
Access Ready policy establishes a commitment, a framework, and clear roadmap to achieving
accessibility, increasing customers, and improving employee skill and productivity, as well as
fulfilling legal civil rights obligations.
