Why are we not getting across?

If you want to reach everyone you communicate with, you need to think about accessibility. It’s as simple as that. User needs differ, so we need to offer alternatives, in order for those who cannot see to have text read out, for those who cannot hear to have films captioned, and so on. But despite this being so obvious, most things in our world are inaccessible to large groups.

I still remember my first sales meeting when I had just started working with accessibility. I was convinced that it was all about unawareness; if we could just get the information out there, everyone would want to be accessible!

With the help of a personal contact, I had the chance to make a presentation to the management team of a long-established company selling food supplies. The target audience for food is definitely “everyone”, so the argument is a no-brainer, I thought. However, I didn’t get very far in my irresistible presentation before an senior male in a beautifully cut suit and a polite smile on his face interrupted me and asked “If that’s so good, how come none of our competitors have already done it?” I tried to counter that being first is a great opportunity… but quickly realised that I had already lost their interest. Perhaps, given the average age of the audience, I should have instead focused on the fact that we are all getting older. What do I know.

The majority has a different focus

Unfortunately, for most people, accessibility is not at all obvious. It still seems to be mostly individuals who have some experience with people with disabilities who think the topic is important. What is the reason for this? I still think a lot of it is ignorance, but that can’t possibly be the whole truth.

It is rare that anyone says, at least to my face, that “we are not interested in accessibility”. However, funnily enough, there is always something else that is more prioritised, both in terms of financial and human resources. There are of course idiots everywhere. But I don’t want to believe that they represent the vast majority of humanity…?

It fascinates me that smart and professional people with great empathy cannot see the consequences of excluding other people. A thought has been following me for a couple of years: Could it be that we humans do not want to recognise our weakness and helplessness, a kind of fear of ageing, illness and death? That many of us simply don’t want to realise that the accessibility we create today can help ourselves tomorrow?

Most of us probably don’t want to think about the likelihood that we will gradually lose certain abilities if we live long enough. It’s already pretty depressing when, still middle-aged, we start to realise that we don’t have as much energy as we used to, that it takes longer to recover, that it’s not worth partying a lot and sleeping too little, because the next day is so miserable…

Can it be that we are somehow wrestling with death? Or is there another reason that we in the accessibility community keep talking, writing, telling, showing, nagging and doing – and yet the world is still mostly inaccessible after all these years?

I am not at all sure, but I suspect that this is at least a partial explanation. That leads to the question how we instead should communicate – in order to influence decision-makers in the right direction.

Susanna Laurin, Chair, Funka Foundation