Accessibility Island, The Journey of Many Experienced As One

When I think of an island, tropical breezes, ocean surf and the warm sun-soaked sand between my toes is usually what comes to mind. Add in a blissful smile from memories of warm island beaches I’ve been fortunate to visit and for me the term island is generally a joyous one.

What then you ask do such happy ideas have to do with the term Accessibility Island? Yes, there is much that is joyous about both accessibility and islands but certainly not all.

I use the term accessibility island because of perhaps one of the downsides of island life. As marvelous as an island can be, you can be cut off from other parts of the world. Constraints, water in this case, can restrain you from all you want to reach.

So too with accessibility failings. You can be quickly cut off from achieving all you want, again through no fault of your own.

Several years ago I was talking with a good friend about the reality of working as an adult with a disability and how it differed from what we had expected before launching our careers. I don’t remember all the details of that conversation but now more than 30 years into my own career, the one thing I do recall being most surprised about hasn’t really changed. There are many, far too many in fact, times when you feel cut off or isolated through no choice of your own. I won’t lay claim to speaking for anyone other than myself here but suspect I’m not alone from various conversations I’ve had over the years.

At the start of my career, it was the meeting with paper handouts distributed to everyone. Oh and even me if I really wanted something I couldn’t read I could get the handouts also, to be read of course by that ubiquitous “someone can help you.” . Through all the technology changes, it is still far too common to end up in the functionally same situation. Sure you might get the PowerPoint deck, web site or app shared ahead of time but if the content itself isn’t consumable with a screen reader in my case it might as well be the same as those paper handouts.

This can be especially true in training or other learning activities. Accessibility Island is trying to learn the material in a class at the same time you are both educating the course creator about accessibility and figuring out how to use the technology in the course. Three for the price of one might be a great deal when shopping but is a disaster when trying to learn.

Anyone who has worked or lived around accessibility I’m sure can rattle off a long list of common failings. The point here isn’t to chronicle all that can and is wrong with the state of accessibility. Instead, it is to say that the truly unfortunate thing is that you are still left without a good alternative in far too many situations. Stay silent and you may not be able to contribute effectively because you are acting on limited information. Speak up and you are still far too often seen as complaining, not patient or counseled how you should have “handled that situation better” by someone after the fact. Please tell me how you should handle exclusion better other than feeling sad, frustrated, hurt and yes willing to educate still.

Meetings or training are not the point here. The examples are really illustrative of the entire workplace. What happens when a new software program, update or other technology is deployed? Has the organization ensured the experience is usable for everyone in the workplace?

Ask yourself how many workplaces are free from blocking accessibility issues? Now ask yourself what the new employee encountering these issues who is new to the organization, job or manager is supposed to do? Unless you have a policy in place ahead of time for how you are going to handle these sorts of situations, you are leaving the employee to potentially struggle and spend needless energy trying to figure out what they should do? You are also locking the employee out of opportunities and your organization out of all the employee has to contribute.

These are examples of finding yourself on what I’m calling accessibility island. You are alone, cut off and isolated.

Authenticity, the “lived experience” and such are the hot topics of the day in various diversity and accessibility circles. This is great but then do not shy away when people want to let you in on their true experiences. Don’t try and tell us all the things we could have done differently or how things will be fixed in a certain amount of time or to be patient. If you feel compelled to tell anyone anything, when you learn about people on Accessibility Island, tell those involved in sending people to such a destination what they can do differently.

Trust me, anyone who’s taken even one trip to Accessibility Island has likely tried dozens of creative problem solving techniques. Given the lack of alternatives I mentioned earlier I can also assure you that for anyone to actually show an outward sign that they’ve journeyed to Accessibility Island, things have to be quite problematic. The fact that is reality, is itself a problem too. It should be a safe space to acknowledge that you are experiencing such issues.

Educate about accessibility, ask if your organization has the right resources, not just policies, to ensure an accessible workplace. Do you have the right institutional policies and procedures in place from procurement onward to ensure what you are bringing into the workplace represents the values and qualities you want for your world? Are those policies backed with the resources and knowledge to ensure the policies are actually applied and working? Do employees have the necessary information and training to be successful and avoid sending their colleagues on unintentional trips to Accessibility Island?

I know for myself, I want to choose when I go to an island because I want to enjoy those tropical breezes, the sand and surf. I do not want to be isolated, trying to contribute and locked out. I’ve had more than enough visits to Accessibility Island.