Although there are legal threats if you get it wrong there are many more very positive reasons for making sure you understand how accessibility affects you and your business. The accessibility carrot can be much more powerful than the sticks - but what are the benefits and how can you harness them? This presentation is from a webinar delivered by Robin Christopherson, Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet as part of a series of events run by the UK Digital Leaders network.

1. Digital Accessibility – Enjoying the
carrots and avoiding the sticks
Welcome

2. Webinar Chair
Robin Knowles
Founder Digital Leaders

3. Webinar Guidelines
1. Mute your microphone during the
presentation
2. Contact Robin Knowles through the chat
window if you have a question
3. Hold all questions until the end

4. Webinar Presenter
Robin Christopherson
Head of Digital Inclusion, AbilityNet

5. Digital Accessibility:
Enjoying the carrots
and avoiding the sticks
Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet
robin.christopherson@abilitynet.org.uk @USA2DAY
www.abilitynet.org.uk
@AbilityNet
sales@abilitynet.org.uk
+44 (0) 1926 465 247
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

7. Key Benefits of Accessibility
For your website:
•
Reach a wider audience – up to 20%
•
Makes your site more useable for everyone – by 35%
•
More mobile-friendly
•
Reduces page weight, bandwidth and maintenance
•
Improves search engine rankings
•
Easier to refresh
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

8. Key Benefits of Accessibility
For your intranet:
•
Cater for your disabled employees (of today and tomorrow)
•
Raise awareness and create an empathetic environment
•
Makes your intranet more useable for everyone – by 35%
•
Reduces page weight, bandwidth and maintenance
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

9. Mobile Means Inclusion
•
Mobile internet traffic routinely outstrips desktop traffic
•
Revenue increasing – Black Friday up 187%, Thanksgiving 256%
•
Mobile users constantly ‘temporarily disabled’ – e.g. good contrast
on sunny day or hands free use whilst driving
•
Use cases will only become more extreme – e.g. wearable
computing
•
‘Accessibility’ no longer a niche consideration
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

10. Key Risks
•
It’s the law – Equality Act, Disability Equality Duty, employment law
•
Potential cost of litigation
•
Lose employees, customers and clients
•
Cost of medical retirement, recruitment and retraining
•
Bad publicity/brand damage
•
Retrofitting accessibility more costly and more difficult
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

13. Case Study: Legal & General
•
Relaunched accessible site
•
95% increase in life quote requests online
•
90% increase in Life Insurance sales online
•
100% return on investment in 12 months
•
Saved 200k per annum on site maintenance (66% saving)
•
Speed/Effort required to manage content reduced from an average
of 5 days to 0.5 days per job
•
www.legalandgeneralgroup.com
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

14. Digital Accessibility: Web Essentials
We’ve cracked it!
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

16. Web Essentials: eLearning for Everyone
Take the simple route to awareness for every employee and make your
services and products more inclusive
•
Every member of your IT team
•
Every employee that posts to your intranet, or creates any electronic
document (such as an email or Word doc)
•
Guarantee base level knowledge of key accessibility issues
•
Just a few pounds to take the course - £35 to get certified
•
DAWE takes 80 minutes + an optional multiple-choice exam
•
www.abilitynet.org.uk/dawe
Accessibility Carrots and Sticks, January 2014.
www.abilitynet.org.uk/webinars

17. Q&A
Send your questions to Robin Knowles through
the chat window.
Robin will select you to ask your question.

18. Thank you for joining us
We will connect you to each other via email
after the webinar.
A copy of this presentation will be uploaded to
the Digital Leaders website shortly.