Raising the ante on designing for accessibility

Electronics OEMs doing business with the federal government are already steeped in the accessibility rules for that market. But the market for accessible products appears to be broadening, putting design for accessibility on the agenda at many other OEMs.

First some background.

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. According to the government’s Section 508 web site, the law was enacted “to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals.”

In addition, Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires makers of telecommunications equipment and providers of telecommunications services to ensure that gear and services are accessible to persons with disabilities, if readily achievable.

Companies that sell services to the government and organizations that take federal money for research or other efforts, must also comply with these laws.

Leading organizations of disabled persons are lobbying for more accessible products, including cell phones, which are exempt under the 1996 telecommunications act.

Increasingly, the market for accessible products is broadening.

“There is growing demand,” says Danny Salinas, leader of product stewardship, who is responsible for design for accessibility and environment at Nortel Networks Corp. “It is starting to proliferate outside the federal government.”

Salinas cites several examples: Universities; the Canadian government, which is considering a U.S.-like law (Nortel is based in Canada); and states applying the federal rules and/or considering statutes. Some companies not in any way governed by federal rules are beginning to consider accessibility a trait of good corporate citizenship, he adds.

“Industry is paying more attention,” Salinas says. “In Nortel we have the disabilities business council that focuses on hiring disabled persons and so accommodating them whichever way we can to get these talented people into our population.”

There are 60 million people in the U.S. with some kind of disability, and about 600 million worldwide, Salinas says.

With no end in sight to the corporate talent war, companies can ill afford to exclude disabled workers because the work place does not offer accessible products.

Done properly, Salinas argues, design for accessibility does not – and in fact should not – add cost. With the right processes in place, engineers consider accessibility in the early stages of product design much in the same way they consider usability features.

Salinas believes – and we agree – that OEMs not already considering accessibility ought to add it to their design agenda.

What has been your company’s experience with the design for accessibility issue?

Posted by Bill Roberts, August 31st, 2007