Improving ICT Accessibility For Job Seekers, Employees and Customers
The Business Disability Forum undertook, with the help of the consulting firm McKinsey, the first research into the many obstacles created by inaccessible online recruitment systems. McKinsey founds that 1.3 million disabled people in the UK alone were unable to apply for jobs with the vast majority of companies only recruiting via online processes. As a result, the group published the guidance on how to ensure online recruitment does not systematically exclude disabled and other disadvantaged job seekers, backed by the website: www.barrierfree-recruitment.com.
In addition, Business Disability Forum-facilitated Business Taskforce on Accessible Technology (BTAT) has created its own ‘Accessible Technology Charter’ to which companies can sign up. The signatories of the Charted commit to ensuring that the technology they purchase and use allows them to hire from, and provide products and services to the widest pool of people. The Charter also requires them to consult with disabled employees and integrate accessibility into procurement processes.
The Charter has been complemented with a business tool called the ‘Accessibility Maturity Model’ which enables companies to measure their ICT accessibility.
Public launch of these initiatives is due in late 2011.
The senior ICT directors engaged in BTAT are also contributing to the creation of a procurement protocol that can be adopted by any company wanting to ensure that all new ICT purchases make accessibility and usability an important requirement when deciding on ICT related purchases.
Read more about this topic: Employers' Forum On Disability
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