Accessibility Matters — Digital NSW
A video about the lived experience of digital accessibility and the work behind a government-wide accessibility capability platform.
Why this video matters
The perspectives in this video helped make accessibility more visible in the design and delivery of NSW Government digital services. The wider work established accessibility governance, guidance, user stories and practical resources across more than 50 public-facing services.
This case study shows how lived experience can move accessibility from an individual design responsibility into an organisational capability.
View the Digital NSW source ↗Video transcript
I've never been asked what can be improved for digital accessibility. It's never at the front of anyone's mind who doesn't live in the disabled community.
I think the biggest issue that I come across over and over again, it's an overarching issue, developers don't check about accessibility before they go and update or release a product, or they don't check hard enough
or they don't ask the people that actually need those features to work. Having every important option on the home page then you don't have to
click through multiple pages to get to what you need would be great. If you are going to have access points on your website or on your application,
put it at the start on the front, if you've put in this effort and want the disabled community to access this, make it clear that you are making an effort. So have it at the top bar or on the home screen.
Have a big online video describing what the website is. Don't have it on a sub page two clicks down because it just won't be accessed. I think that'd be great if there was a virtual a virtual suggestion box
where users with different types of access requirements could voice their suggestions for improvements. The things that would make the biggest difference to support me online would be changeable fonts on web pages.
Text to speech options that are embedded into the design of a website. Ability to express your access needs easily in a digital way is something that that I think is inclusive across the board. And I would absolutely love to see more of that.