You know you have that difficult door to the studio that catches your fingers, or a cracked path that could be a tripping hazard. And there’s always the fact that your office is up some stairs with no other way to get access.
These problems of accessability might deter some volunteers, but have you considered that even your volunteer application forms or even your website – the first point of contact for prospective volunteers – might be difficult if not invisible to prospective volunteers because it hasn’t been made accessible?
According to WebAIM Million Report 98% of all websites have at least one coding flaw that renders them less accessble to people with vision impairments, learning disability or colourblindness.
- Visual: People who are blind need alternative text descriptions for meaningful images and use the keyboard and not a mouse to interact with interactive elements.
- Hearing: People who are deaf or hard of hearing will need captioning for video presentations and visual indicators in place of audio cues.
- Motor: People with motor impairments may need alternative keyboards, eye control or some other adaptive hardware to help them type and navigate on their devices.
- Cognitive: An uncluttered screen, consistent navigation and the use of plain language would be useful for people with different learning disabilities/impairments. (GAAD, 2021)
Fortunately digital accessibility can be easier and cheaper than the infrastructure works you’ll need to deal with a pesky staircase.
Vision Australia have put together a toolkit of ideas and links to help you get started on your road to becoming an accessible workplace:
https://visionaustralia.org/services/digital-access/services/accessibility-toolkit
Community Radio Inclusion Support Project (CRISP) 