Your integrated accessibility plan is in good hands.
show Government of Ireland case study: “For us, David’s background in design strategy was very important. He approaches accessibility as an integral part of good design, not as an afterthought.”
The Republic of Ireland was one of first jurisdictions on Earth to establish accessibility legislation (the same year as Ontario’s AODA). Unfortunately, the regulations associated with the Irish Act were not as strong or enforceable as Ontario’s legislation, resulting in gaps between intent and compliance.
The National Disability Authority (NDA) wanted someone with international experience working with governments developing accessibility legislation to speak to key leaders within the government and within NGOs in Ireland to make the business case for accessibility and demonstrate how to achieve accessibility in ways that are culturally and financially sustainable.
NDA sponsored David Berman’s keynote at the 2015 global Plain Language International conference, at Dublin Castle. In the same trip, they also hosted a strategic presentation and conversation facilitated by David Berman for a gathering of leadership people in each of the major departments in the Irish government. The intention was for David was to be able to bring lessons learned from consultations with other governments, to identify discover what successes and techniques could be successfully adapted and adopted in Ireland. The meeting was so much a successful that NDA had David return a month later to speak at their conference in Dublin: a gathering of representations from government and NGOs from both Ireland and the UK. In addition, David gave a remote webinar months later to further NDA stakeholders, from our studio in Ottawa.
Our team provided full support to NDA, working in tandem with them day (and night, across time zones!) through phone calls and online screen sessions. For both our keynote speech and our small boardroom presentation to senior management from each top government department, we followed our best practice processes to ensure that nothing got in the way of the best strategy and messaging for NDA: effectively, impactfully, and with utmost professionalism.
We have been involved with Government of Canada Treasury Board standards on accessibility for over a decade, and authored the multi-year accessibility strategy for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. We have provided training and strategy to governments in Australia, Bahrain, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, and Oman. No matter where we’ve been involved, we know that when we design for the extremes—and we bring our decades of design thinking experience to that process—everyone benefits.
Your accessibility plan starts here.
We’re glad you’re here! Whether you heard about accessibility for the first time today or you’ve been embracing the topic for years, our unique experience and “no tradeoffs” philosophy could be just what you’re looking for.
We’re therefore perfectly positioned to help interpret precisely what you must do versus what you could do.
Our team includes experts in both IT and non-IT accessibility. Our approach is refreshingly different: as a firm that specializes in inclusive design, we’ve developed a library of techniques that allow us to promise you compliance with every applicable WCAG Level A and Level AA success criterion in a way that will enhance the UX and SEO for your entire audience. We call this “No Trade-offs” Inclusive Design™: it ensures that the UX for all users need not be compromised by the accommodations for those living with disabilities. Rather, it will improve the design for everyone, while remaining pragmatic with respect to guaranteeing your deadlines.
We offer arms-length analysis by professionals who hold the only accreditations available for online accessibility. Our third-party status combined with our extensive experience on hundreds of conformance audits lends further credibility to our reports and expert opinion letters.
Furthermore, our optional strategic research and planning services has us working with you to help you develop a custom accessibility plan for your organization, informed by our extensive experience across many industries. We’ll start with getting your most pressing issues divided and conquered … then build out a sustainable, renewable plan that will make you proud.
- Future services that may stem from the research and analysis, some of which could unfold in parallel to the most immediate challenges, could include:
- Orienting ourselves to your multi-year accessibility plan, research, technical discovery and analysis.
- Enterprise-wide document templates accessibility audit, remediation and/or design.
- Built-environment accessibility advice and formal auditing.
- Training plan document that will include goals, measurable objectives, and an action plan.
- Identifying training resource considerations regarding compatibility with other systems (e.g., LMS) and a comprehensive potential annualized training schedule.
- Identifying such candidate components as webinar series, videos, checklists, learning guides (electronic online and printed), and workshops potentially for your clients … all developed in an evergreenable way.
- Development of training resources, including “train the trainers” modules, supporting the goal of a sustainable cultural shift where both online and printed resources are inclusive (due to the trainees sustainably putting into practice what they’ve learned).
- Delivery of training sessions one of which could include a keynote presentation opening where you invite others you’d like to attend the keynote.
- Annual evergreening of your training plan.
- Develop an accessibility strategy as to you how legacy documents and future documents will become accessible (including who will do what and how, by source document type).
- Review, audit, and/or usability testing of websites and electronic documents for accessibility compliance.
- Review, audit, and/or usability testing of print materials.
- Improve the content of style guides and other standard operating procedures regarding publishing on all channels to address sustainable accessibility.
- Initiatives directed at instructional designers or instructors requiring in-person and/or distance education to be conducted in a way that takes accessibility into account.
- Guidance on providing or sunsetting TTY service, in alignment current regulations, standards, best practices, and IED considerations
- A second-tier support retainer for accessibility issues encountered by your users.
Your free 30-minute accessibility strategy consultation
We’re eager to help you get started. Whether it’s the first day you’ve heard of accessibility or you’ve been deep in it for years, contact us for a 30-minute consultation. We’re eager to help you figure out how to move forward. Book your consult today with David or one his experts. Call 800-665-1809, or contact us.