Accepted wisdom suggests that information technology is meant to serve a business. The computers you use are meant to cut costs and increase productivity; they are supposed to lead to happier customers; they are supposed to protect you from legal risk and reduce frustrations. They are supposed to enable you; to make life easier for everyone who uses them.
But the reality is that IT often gets in the way. Systems are designed according to their own conventions rather than taking account of how colleagues or customers actually need to use them, and making changes can be expensive. Worse still, not making changes can be legally risky.
It’s common sense that as many people as possible need to be able to use your systems as effectively as they can. This helps colleagues perform better and it means that your customers can interact efficiently, improving sales and driving conversion rates.
What’s now more apparent than ever is that different people interact very differently with the systems they need day-to-day. Some of these interactions differ because of needs or technologies a visitor printing their own badge using a self-service terminal in your reception has quite different requirements to a colleague who is uploading content to your website or updating records in your CRM system.
However, some of these interactions differ because users have different abilities and skills and some have impairments that affect their ability to interact with technology.
Answering the call
You and your chief information officer need to respond to these issues, and so your technology your IT system needs to cater for the differences between users. There are two angles to this.
Case study: Lloyds workplace adjustment process
Lloyds Banking Group has always taken providing workplace adjustments for disabled colleagues seriously, but the process that was originally implemented in 2000 was suffering from weaknesses. In 2010, Mark Fisher, director of group operations, in his role as executive sponsor for disability, was determined to ensure the process was improved.
Working in partnership with Atkins Global (which manages the Group FM helpdesk) in March last year, Lloyds developed a process that aims to reduce the end-to-end time for even complex adjustments to 20 working days.
Once a colleague or their manager has identified that adjustments might be beneficial, the Atkins helpline serves as the first point of contact.
Every individual gets their own case manager from specialist supplier Microlink. The case manager works with a further specialist, AbilityNet, to ensure a full assessment of the colleague’s needs to establish what changes will be best for them and for the business.
Lloyds has pre-approved a wide range of assistive technology solutions, which are now part of its standard IT catalogue. If one of these technologies is the best solution for the colleague concerned, Microlink can order it directly from the catalogue: it is fulfilled and deployed through normal channels.
If the assessor recommends a product that isn’t in the catalogue, this triggers an individual approval process aimed at deploying the solution as soon as possible.
In all cases, if the colleague needs training (perhaps on new screen-reading or voice-recognition software), this takes place as part of the deployment process, as does a diarised three month follow-up and on-going support.
The new process has helped ensure the speedy implementation of adjustments and Atkins provides clear intelligence on costs the average spend on IT adjustments is just £126. “The benefits go beyond this relatively small investment”, says Fisher. “Users now feel genuinely valued by the organisation, are able to give their best and contribute to the success of the group.”
First, business performance: if every user can interact in a way that suits them, they are likely to be more comfortable, more efficient and more effective in how they use the technology they need. This is likely to help your colleagues do their jobs more effectively and your customers interact with you more smoothly. The business benefits may be difficult to quantify in cash terms, but are nonetheless real.
Second, there’s a legal requirement to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for employees and customers who have a disability, to ensure they can work or use your services without being disadvantaged. With IT services this might mean making sure a customer can increase the font size displayed on a self-service terminal, or installing voice recognition software for an employee who can’t type at speed.
This means thinking about differences every time you’re procuring IT products and services, and every time you’re providing them to users. In an ideal world, you’d start at the design stage, thinking about how different users need to interact with the system and how to remove the barriers that will get in the way of different groups. This might mean choosing a product you know will interact properly with specialist assistive technologies, like a voice recognition package.
Valuing your assets
In practice, at least in the short term, it’s likely to come down to how you can enable all your users to make best use of the technology you already have. Whether your desktop IT services are provided and supported in house or by an outsourcing provider, you need to understand what is possible and agree in advance who must do what.
Outsourcing your IT services does not transfer the responsibility for getting it right. You will get the business benefits from colleagues and customers who can use your services effectively.
However, you also risk bad publicity and a possible claim for disability discrimination if someone cannot do their job because you or your service provider has not made an legally required adjustment.
This need not be difficult. Many simple adjustments can take place just with features that are already built into every PC. Empowering users to manage these themselves is something that’s seen as good practice by the corporate members of the Employers’ Forum on Disability’s Business Taskforce on Accessible Technology.
Changing a screen or mouse or installing additional software, may be more complicated for an individual user. However, good practice is to ensure that even this level of change is simple for colleagues and line managers to set in motion.
Recognising that the most common adjustments include ergonomics (for example, chairs) and working hours, one model is for the facilities helpdesk to provide a single point of contact, and for the technology needed for most common IT adjustments to already have been tested and part of the organisation’s IT catalogue.
Ownership of the process should be defined, perhaps by sitting with a single case manager for each staff member involved, and thinking about cost implications. One option is to meet the costs of adjustments in house if this is the case, they should be managed centrally rather than each one being charged to a local manager’s cost centre.
No doubt the arguments for the costs to be met client side or by the outsourcing provider can be rehearsed in full during negotiations, but it’s clear that the price of adjustments is far less than the costs implied by poor performance, staff absence or the need to recruit when a member of staff is forced to leave.
Organisation profile
Employers’ Forum on Disability and the Business Taskforce on Accessible Technology
Employers’ Forum on Disability (EFD) is the world’s leading employers’ organisation focused on disability as it affects business. EFD has around 400 members who, in total, employ around 20 per cent of the UK workforce. The EFD supports them in mainstreaming their employment of persons with disabilities and their provision of services to employees and customers with disabilities.
EFD’s Business Taskforce on Accessible Technology brings together leading global ICT suppliers and corporate purchasers to mainstream accessibility across all ICT-enabled processes. For more information visit: www.btat.org.
Finally, the helpdesk should understand the implications of such adjustments where something goes wrong. An individual who uses specialist software can’t just switch to a different PC while their own is fixed: they would benefit from a tighter service level agreement to get them working again as soon as possible.
Working in partnership with your provider is vital to ensure that the services deliver on the needs of your business and your users, and this is just as important if you are procuring new systems. Simple design decisions, whether it’s for a website or for a desktop system, can make all the difference between the technology being accessible to all users, including those who can’t use a mouse or need to use screen reading software, or shutting out particular groups.
There are all sorts of standards that look at IT accessibility from a technical standpoint, but perhaps the most important thing is to judge how well your supplier understands the subject. Inevitably, it’s subjective, but it may be helpful to judge the quality of the supplier’s answer to open questions rather than asking them to complete a checklist.
If the supplier can describe their approach to IT accessibility, or outline any differences a user with an impairment will see when using the product, this suggests they have thought about what they and you will need to consider for your users.
Agreeing an approach at the outset can minimise problems and maximise the usability and accessibility of your systems in the future.
