We are delighted to continue Building a Free Internet of the Future, a monthly series of interviews with beneficiaries and consortium members of NGI Zero (NGI0) grants. Funded by the European Commission, NGI0 supports free software, free data, free hardware and free standards projects. It provides both financial and practical support in a myriad of forms, including mentoring, testing, security testing, accessibility, dissemination and more.
This month we present an interview with Eric Velleman, a professor at the HAN University of Applied Sciences and co-founder of the Accessibility Foundation. The university’s department of Inclusive Design & Engineering is a member of the NGI0 consortium, where its main role is to provide accessibility audits and other support for projects awarded a grant by the consortium. The Accessibility Foundation also collaborates on NGI0.
Eric Velleman has been working on digital accessibility for decades. With his research on the implementation of digital accessibility in Dutch municipalities he obtained a PhD from the University of Twente in 2018. He has also studied digital accessibility in sectors such as the Dutch government, business and healthcare, including case studies for the Ministry of the Interior and the Dutch Institute for Human Rights. He has built a large international network in the field of inclusive digital design and engineering.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What is at stake in your work as an expert and scientist on digital accessibility?
Digital tools have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. They influence the way we work, learn, travel and shop. And they are developing at lightning speed. But what if you can’t take part in the digital society or have trouble doing so because of a visual, motor or auditory impairment?
If we want the new digital world to be inclusive, we need to ensure that new media and technology applications are made accessible from the start. This means that we have to stand at the forefront of innovation. We need innovators to be aware of accessibility and include persons with disabilities from the start of their innovation process.
Reaching this goal requires time and attention. Time and attention for the individual citizens with a disability, so they can get the support they need to effectively use all these digital tools. Time and attention for companies to develop accessible digital products, so that everyone can use them. Time and attention for public authorities and institutions, so that all citizens, including those with disabilities, can be part of the next generation internet from the start.
Digital inclusion needs awareness and constant attention. By providing this for all NGI0 projects in the form of guides, audits, student assignments and presentations, we try to ensure accessibility from the start. But we need everyone’s help! Because without this support, we have seen that accessibility is quickly forgotten, with dramatic results for inclusion.
What do you do at NGI0 and what are the projects you work on?
We are looking into the many different technologies and subjects that have found their way into the NGI funding programmes that we support. For example, we have worked on accessibility of digital currencies, augmented reality, virtual reality, low code platforms, video and audio platforms, hardware and software for privacy and security, and more than 450 projects till now. Just have a look at the long list of projects that have been awarded grants to understand the variety of innovations we support with accessibility audits and other contributions.
Why did you decide to join NGI0?
The hundreds of projects funded as part of NGI0 would otherwise maybe not spend part of their budget or be aware of accessibility, security, privacy, packaging, etc. The consortium offers them this support without them having to use their own budget or resources. This offers the unique opportunity to make an impact in every project and save overall budget because all guides and information are being shared with all projects.
Every two months or so, around 40 projects receive a grant from NGI0. And there are 12 organisations involved in the NGI0 consortium. It can't be easy to get everyone on the same track towards digital accessibility. Would you have an ideal plan of action in this kind of context?
This is well organised in the consortium. Once a project receives funding, they also receive information about the support possibilities, guides, etc. If necessary, we [at HAN University] contact funded projects and ask at what moment they would best benefit from our help. We are at the forefront of technology, so sometimes we do not have guidelines and have to work with the projects and with persons with disabilities to find the most accessible solutions for their projects.
Creating awareness is an important task for the Accessibility Foundation and HAN University. NGI0 has been in existence for just over five years. Can you see that your work in raising awareness is bearing fruit?
Yes, we see that this concept is working well and that we have found a good way to support funded projects in different phases of their work. HAN is assisted by the Accessibility Foundation with expertise for the audits. They have the experts in the field of web accessibility. The end results are actually more inclusive and accessible than at the start. And we also learn ourselves, because a lot of technology is so new that we have to develop best practices on the fly.
What's the biggest surprise you've had since taking part in NGI0?
That we need to actively develop best practices because in many cases there are no existing and ready-to-use guidelines that are directly applicable to the technologies developed by the funded projects. We work together with the projects and persons with disabilities to develop them.
We can read or hear a lot of figures (statistics, percentages) about digital services that are said to be accessible, or that have accessibility problems. What exactly are digital accessibility issues?
That is an interesting question. Most accessibility issues can be covered by involving persons with disabilities in the different phases of your project. Problems include buttons without labels, images without description, bad contrast, strange element order, etc.
How many people in Europe are affected by digital access problems? What are the consequences for their daily lives?
It is estimated that there are around 87 million people in the EU with some form of disability. This influences schools, workplaces, infrastructures, products, services and information. Only about 50% of persons with disabilities are employed compared to about 75% persons without disabilities. A larger part of persons with disabilities are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. They have fewer opportunities in education and in many cases miss the feeling of being included in general.
If we want to work on digital accessibility and we're not in Europe, who can we turn to?
Give me a call at the HAN University of Applied Sciences. Seriously. In many countries, there are knowledgeable organisations that can help. Also, disability organisations in many countries can provide help. And I know that the Accessibility Foundation also helps organisations in other countries. Also, the AccessibleEU resource centre funded by the European Commission can help organisations wishing to comply with the European Accessibility Act, Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA) and Web Accessibility Directive (WAD). They provide information and learning. HAN is a national expert for AccessibleEU.
What are the relationships between digital accessibility and human rights?
Digital accessibility is a human right!
As part of the NGI0 consortium working alongside the granted projects with the Accessibility Foundation, what are your work priorities and what are your plans for the future?
Fixing accessibility afterwards (retrofitting) is expensive, time consuming and demotivating for developers and innovators. That is why we are working with the projects on best practices, guides and guidelines for new technologies. Also we continuously link users with disabilities and higher education – university students and professionals – with projects in a way that stimulates new initiatives and innovation. That way, we can support them and other innovation projects and initiatives to make future products and services accessible from the start.
Making the world more inclusive for everyone is a huge challenge with enormous work in progress. Do you have any secrets for doing this without getting totally exhausted?
Never give up!
Xavier Coadic is a consultant for the NGI0 consortium, and a free/libre open source software activist with 15 years of experience in free open source cultures and communities (software, data hardware, wetware, policy makers and political groups, research and development).