Digital Accessibility
Challenge
Although individuals with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodations, employees who do not officially self-identify as an individual with a disability are less aware of available disability resources, in particular digital accessibility resources.
Actions
As part of our ongoing effort to create an inclusive workplace, we surveyed employees from our disability and caregiver employee resource group (ERG), Willing & Able (WILA), about how they navigated our intranet. Our user experience (UX) team also audited the intranet to determine our current level of WCAG 2.1 accessibility compliance. After the survey and audit, we found there was still more we could do to engage and support our employees with disabilities through our digital experiences.
Based on this feedback, we created an Accessibility Toolkit – the one-stop-shop for all things related to digital accessibility. The resources on the toolkit were curated to help employees of all abilities and include information about how to create accessible virtual meetings, request accommodations, adjust settings in Microsoft products and more. The toolkit and guides live in our DE&I Toolkit and are available to all employees.
Outcomes
The Digital Accessibility Toolkit has been a catalyst for many employees to better understand not only the importance of digital accessibility, but also how to manage their own digital accessibility journey. We continue to see increased excitement and engagement about developing our digital accessibility resources.
When every employee feels welcome to share their thoughts and is empowered to perform their best work, we thrive and achieve better results as a company. Diversity alone is not enough. We strive to create an inclusive environment where each employee’s voice is heard so everyone, no matter their education, experience, gender, race or ethnicity – feels confident to contribute their ideas.