There’s a steady movement of articles and opinion items discussing how the tech business may and will clearly work more durable at addressing the necessities of particular wants people and teams.
However whereas the business’s general document on accessibility might be higher, some particular person distributors, reminiscent of Lenovo, have made accessibility a central challenge organizationally and of their enterprise and improvement processes. Let’s contemplate the bulletins Lenovo made to focus on World Accessibility Consciousness Day (GAAD).
Additionally see: Rethinking Tech Design With an Accessibility-First Strategy
GAAD and the Tech Trade
So what’s GAAD? Initially, impressed by a weblog posted in 2011 by net developer Joe Devon, GAAD goals to extend consciousness and spark improvements that make know-how services extra accessible and helpful to the estimated 1 billion individuals worldwide who wrestle with disabilities, together with visible, audial, motor and cognitive impairments. GAAD supporters suggest following the Net Content material Accessibility Pointers (WCAG) that the Worldwide Net Consortium (W3C) first revealed in 1997.
With almost 1 / 4 century of planning, effort and funding behind it, you’d suppose that WCAG (now WCAG 2.0) has made quite a lot of progress, proper? Not fairly.
In truth, a 2020 WebAIM research analyzed a million house pages for accessibility points and located that 98.1 p.c of house pages contained not less than one WCAG 2.0 failure (resulting in vital errors). Moreover, the million house pages analyzed averaged 60.9 errors every, together with lacking and low distinction textual content and empty hyperlinks and buttons.
For unimpaired employees and customers, these errors are usually minor inconveniences. Nevertheless, such errors can create severe impediments for a large number of disabled individuals. In flip, as individuals, organizations, international locations and areas have turned an increasing number of towards utilizing digital providers and instruments in training, workplaces, authorities and industrial processes and recreation. Because of this inaccessible applied sciences are hindering tons of of thousands and thousands of disabled individuals from totally residing, studying and dealing.
In essence, accessibility is vitally necessary to people and organizations worldwide.
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Lenovo’s Range by Design and GAAD 2022
What has Lenovo been doing to make its options and providers extra accessible? In 2020, the corporate created a brand new Product Range Workplace (PDO) designed to make sure that Lenovo merchandise have been developed with “Range by Design” – that’s, in keeping with variety, fairness and inclusion (DE&I) objectives.
To attain this, numerous groups work in product planning and execution phases, and the PDO additionally consults with a broad vary of numerous customers to validate designs and supply suggestions. Lastly, Lenovo encourages partnerships with worker useful resource teams and variety companions like its accessibility and inclusion advisor, Haben Girma (the primary deaf/blind individual to graduate from Harvard Regulation Faculty).
These and different efforts led to bulletins coinciding with GAAD 2021. This 12 months’s GAAD 2022 impressed new Lenovo posts and bulletins, together with:
- A commentary by Ada Lopez, supervisor and program director for Lenovo PDO that options her ideas on vetting 38 firm merchandise for accessibility, and the launch of a brand new “Accessibility Session” course of and type. Lopez shares some examples of the advantages the corporate has delivered, as effectively her ideas on the way forward for Lenovo PDO.
- A submit by Thorsten Stremlau, CTO and government director of Lenovo’s Business Product Portfolio a couple of current collaboration between the corporate and Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan for Lenovo’s Sort Cities Marketing campaign– an initiative shedding mild on the necessity for kindness in all communities. Identified with motor neuron illness (MND) – often known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – in 2017, Dr. Scott-Morgan supplied insights to Lenovo and its companions on growing accessibility options to create higher experiences for people with disabilities. Stremlau additionally discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic has elevated Lenovo’s give attention to psychological well being and serving to these stricken by anxiousness, PTSD and different pandemic-related situations.
- An article exploring a partnership between Lenovo Turkey and BlindLook to turn into the primary laptop model in Turkey to cater to those that are visually impaired. On account of the partnership, all Lenovo notebooks and desktops will likely be suitable with audio simulation know-how designed to allow better entry for customers. These embrace 16 simulations in Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon Fashions which are designed to assist impaired customers be taught frequent duties, reminiscent of the right way to surf the web, the right way to use workplace apps and insights on utilizing the keyboard.
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Extra Productive Lives
The posts and bulletins celebrating GAAD 2022 paint a vibrant image of Lenovo PDO and the corporate’s efforts to develop accessible industrial services whereas persevering with to pursue its variety, fairness and inclusion objectives.
The broad focus of the corporate’s DE&I efforts displays its ambitions on this house, in addition to the extent of Lenovo’s worldwide enterprise. With supporting operations in over 60 international locations and gross sales in round 180 international locations, the corporate’s literal international attain signifies that the advantages of Lenovo PDO and its know-how accessibility technique can doubtlessly attain a lot of the 1 billion people fighting disabilities and assist them get pleasure from fuller, extra productive lives.
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