Accessibility and digital exclusion
Imagine if one day in your job, you have to ask someone to find the radio button on a Windows PC or a Mac that you are supposed to click, because your screen reader is unable to tell you where it is. This is the difficulty CIO, Suleyman Gokyigit, experienced recently when trying to use a file management utility.
While accessibility has improved significantly over the years for blind and visually impaired computer users, it is not often considered the main priority when we are tasked with developing the best user experience. Accessibility should not be an afterthought. Websites and application software should be designed to reach the broadest possible user base.
The conversation Computer Weekly recently had with Gokyigit illustrates the wider remit of accessibility in software. The GUI is not a natural user interface for humans; some people may find a mouse or trackball difficult to control. In fact, since a person using a screen reader does not use a mouse, Gokyigit urges developers to consider how they implement keyboard navigation. Then there’s the QWERTY keyboard, which evolved to prevent speeding typists causing mechanical typewriters to jam.
Avoid complexity
Beyond the user interface, we should also consider the level of complexity people face when trying to achieve something on web pages or GUI applications if they are presented with too many options or options they do not understand. Complexity in application software is an accessibility issue that needs to be addressed to ensure everyone has access to the digitally-enabled product or services they require.
In 2021, Citizens Advice reported that around 2.9m people – 1 in 20 adults – do not use the internet and about 11m people – 1 in 5 adults – lack some of the ‘essential digital skills for life’, like using email or search engines. “Having no or low digital skills can make it difficult for people to make full use of digital services,” Citizens Advice noted at the time.
A new Citens Advice poll in Scotland shows that the proportion of people being digitally excluded has jumped 60% in two years. With more and more public services and the contact centres of the organisations we need to interact with, using the web and online apps as the primary means of communications, there will be a growing number of the population who are being digitally excluded and, as a consequence, are receiving an inferior level of service.
As a society that is increasingly more digitalised, we should strive to make computers and computer software as accessible as possible, using the best technology we have available.
Science fiction depicts speech as the primary interface people use to interact with computers. Hopefully advances in artificial intelligence makes this a reality.