Access all areas? A new tool to help make services more accessible for all
Accessibility is about providing equal access to everyone, especially people with disabilities. It promotes usability. It's the right thing to do. And often, its even the law. Many organisations are now putting accessibility and inclusivity at the heart of everything they do. They recognise it not only better supports those with access issues but, done well, helps improve services for everyone.
Translating good and well meaning principles into action can be challenging however. Read on to hear from James about the Empathy Lab - a new tool which can help organisations take a real step towards moving the theory behind better accessibility and inclusivity into real life action.
What is an accessibility Empathy Lab?
There are three types of empathy:
Emotional: the ability to physically feel what another person feels
Cognitive: the ability to understand another’s perspective
Compassionate: the ability to act and help others
The Empathy Lab experience combines all of these aspects. Providing the chance to start important discussions about the need for more accessible services.
The Empathy Lab gives hands-on experience of the barriers that people face due to poor accessibility. This is delivered by using a range of interactive equipment that replicates certain impairments. This gives a unique opportunity to put yourself in the shoes of others, by interacting in the same way as they would. These enlightening scenarios allow attendees to understand and feel the impact that poor accessibility has. The result being a sharper focus on inclusive design, improved motivation to remove unnecessary obstacles for people and better results for customers and organisations.
Why accessibility Empathy Labs are important
Accessibility is something that affects each and everyone one of us. We’ve all undoubtedly interacted with a service which seems unnecessarily cumbersome. However, for someone with a disability or vulnerability, an accessible experience is the difference between being able or unable to access information and services.
This affects users such as those who:
Are deaf or hard of hearing
Have cognitive impairments or learning difficulties
Are blind or have low vision
Have low mobility or neurological impairments
Are physically impaired or have a chronic condition
Have colour blindness
Though many of us hear that accessibility is important and know it’s something our organisations should do; many people don’t understand why it’s so crucial. The best way of gaining this understanding is through experiencing this first-hand.
The Empathy Lab equipment
To demonstrate how people with disabilities interact with services, the Empathy Lab uses the following interactive equipment:
Virtual Reality (VR) headset, simulating various visual impairments
Wrist weights to replicate some mobility impairments
Noise cancelling headphones to simulate hearing loss
Colour blindness tests
Colour contrast checkers
Assistive technology devices and software
Accessibility demonstrations on mobile devices
A range of thought-provoking and engaging videos
How this can help your organisation
Lots of staff members within an organisation can benefit from hands-on experience of what it feels like to have accessibility issues. This includes executive level staff, frontline agents and advisers and those who design and implement services. While the Lab has a core focus on improving digital services, it also cuts across telephone and face-to-face experiences.
Run by an expert team, the engaging experience immerses team members with VR technology. This helps to give a real-life insight into how those with disabilities interact with the digital world.
This helps staff understand customers better, making it easier to design services which reach and serve people in all sorts of circumstances. This in turn can improve outcomes for everyone.
During the Empathy Lab experience, there is also the opportunity for a Q&A session for team members. This gives the opportunity to engage and ask questions on topics such as inclusive design best practices.
Arranging an Empathy Lab for your organisation
Use the ‘contact us’ form on this website or email contactus@clearconsultancyservices.co.uk so we can discuss how the Empathy Lab can work best for you.
James Hall is an accessibility and web design expert, who has spent many years improving access and inclusivity for local authorities, education institutions and the private sector.