• Just like for in-person events and print materials, accessibility should be considered in an organization’s digital strategy.
• More people than you think need and enjoy accessible accommodations and alternatives.
• Many accessibility solutions are inexpensive and easy to implement.
• Increasing accessibility to your digital content will help your organization reach new audiences, better engage with current audiences, and convert more visitors into loyal donors, volunteers, and advocates.

Accessibility. Definition: the practice of making information, activities, and/or environments sensible, meaningful, and usable for as many people as possible.

When we think of accessibility, most think of physical accommodations such as wheelchair ramps, automatic doors, or handicap parking spaces. But accessibility comes in so many more forms, especially now in this highly digitized world.

Just as our technology has advanced, so too should our understanding and implementation of accessibility. As a sector that often serves the historically disenfranchised and overlooked, nonprofits more than any other organization have the opportunity to lead this charge.

More Than Meets The Eye

Before brainstorming solutions, we need to carefully consider what circumstances might need or be enhanced by alternative accommodations. Physical disabilities are usually the first to come to mind. This would include people who are hard of hearing, visually impaired, have a speech disability, or have a physical impairment (like a bilateral amputee) that makes scrolling through a website more difficult. Accessibility in these cases might be achieved through solutions such as subtitles, live captioning, audio descriptions, transcription options, ALT text on social posts, and simplified web pages.

But considerations shouldn’t end there.

Neurodivergent individuals, such as those with autism and ADHD, and people with mental health challenges like anxiety would also benefit from alternative accessibility options. Take social anxiety for example. Fifteen million (seven percent) of American adults have Social Anxiety Disorder. It’s highly likely that one of your potential donors is going to have social anxiety. They’re interested in finding out more about your cause, so they go to your website only to be faced with a phone number. This may seem normal and innocuous, but for someone with social anxiety, it might feel insurmountable. Rather than scaring them away, something as simple as providing an email option along with the call option could be a perfectly workable alternative. The best part? It’s beneficial for more than just people with social anxiety. It’s perfect for potential donors who are hard of hearing, have a speech disability, or prefer text over verbal conversations.

Aside from physical and mental disabilities, additional factors to consider are:

• More than half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below a sixth-grade level.
• Nearly 68 Million Americans speak a language other than English at home.
• And different generations have different preferred communication methods.

If more than half of the US is reading below a 6th-grade reading level, a web page written with college-level vocabulary is simply not going to connect with them. We recommend writing content in a direct, simple way using easy-to-understand language so that more people can not only read it, but understand and act on it.

This advice also applies to lingual diversity. The US is known for being a melting pot. In that melting pot are many citizens who speak English as their second or third language, not their first. Therefore metaphors, idioms, and local slang may be difficult for them to understand. We recommend using direct, easy-to-understand English, or if your services are for a specific demographic whose first language is not English, then translating into that language would be a wise approach.

Note: Make sure to use translation services from a native speaker who understands the nuances of the language and the local dialect. Just as American English, British English, and Australian English are all vastly different, so are Mexican Spanish, Colombian Spanish, and Puerto Rican Spanish. Dialects can differ from state to state as well, just as a New York accent differs from a Southern accent.

As mentioned before, having text or email options doesn’t help just one group of people. It also makes your content more accessible to younger generations. As long as you can commit to creating and maintaining them, having both online and offline options would make your organization more accessible to younger and older audiences alike. For a person seeking more information, this might look like having more information available on a webpage or downloadable PDF, an email they can contact, and a phone number they can call. For donation submissions, this may look like a QR code that leads to an online form, a downloadable form they can fill out and mail in, and an on-site, physical donation box.

More Than A Handful

As you can see, there’s more than just one or two groups of people we’re talking about when it comes to accessibility. And it’s more than just a handful of people.

Color blindness affects about 1 in 12 men. Almost 20 million Americans have visual impairments. More than half of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their life.

Making your organization’s digital footprint more accessible is going to open up your organization to hundreds of thousands of more potential clients, volunteers, and donors. And with society being more socially aware of organizations than ever, being accessible will be critical for long-term success.

Solutions

Before giving specific solutions, it’s important to begin with some research. Gaining a basic understanding of the spectrum of disabilities members of your audience might be living with and how they affect their daily lives will help you look at your digital content, webinars, and website through a different lens. Additionally, take a deeper dive into your audiences where you might come across additional considerations such as education level, language skills, communication preferences, and more. To better target key audiences, we recommend developing personas. Overall, awareness itself will help you start to recognize potential opportunities and pain points.

As for specific solutions, you might consider:

• Subtitles on videos (auto subtitles if lacking capacity)
• Audio descriptions on videos with visual elements
• Copy written in simple, easy to understand language
• ALT text on email, webpage, and social images
• Using a video service like Zoom that has live captioning capabilities
• Sending a follow-up email after a webinar including a transcript and materials shown on screen
• Simplifying web pages to make them easy and intuitive to navigate
• Offering written and verbal options for communication
• Offering in-person and remote options for communication, donation, and volunteering
• Providing translated materials
• Using icons instead of colors for legends and to differentiate information
• Making sure there’s a strong contrast between text and background color on images and webpages
• Using headings and subheadings to increase navigability of documents and webpages
• Making forms and surveys as short and logical as possible
• Making instructions as clear and straightforward as you can
• Putting clarifying key words in linked text
• Increasing font sizes on your website and documents

Below you can find some additional suggestions and resources provided by the Disability and Philanthropy Forum:

• Web Accessibility Guide
• A Guide to Document Accessibility
• ADA Compliance Guide for Nonprofits
• How to Plan Accessible Meetings and Events

Finally, it’s worth noting that some of these accommodations are becoming industry standards and how most of these accommodations will help more than just one group of people. Subtitles, for example, will of course be beneficial for those who are hearing-impaired or hard of hearing, but will also enhance the viewing experience for many others, like younger viewers who are four times more likely than older viewers to watch videos with subtitles. In the case of social media, it’s imperative to have subtitles since videos will typically begin playing muted by default until the user elects to unmute it.

While your organization might not be able to adopt all of these accommodations right away, there are always opportunities to offer some easy-to-implement solutions. It helps your organization, it helps your audience, and it helps society step towards a more empathetic and equitable future.

Accessibility just makes sense.