Inclusion through digitalisation

A brief history of equality for people with disabilities

Attitudes towards people with disabilities have changed considerably over the course of human history and in different cultures. In many societies of the past, people with disabilities were stigmatised and marginalised. In antiquity and the Middle Ages, disability was often seen as a punishment from God or a sign of possession.

With the Enlightenment and growing social awareness of human rights, society began to take a closer look at the problems of people with disabilities. The first charities and institutions for people with disabilities began to emerge, although often with the aim of segregation rather than integration.

After the devastating effects of the world wars, public awareness of the situation of people with disabilities increased. In parallel with the civil rights and women’s rights movements of the 1960s in the US and Europe, disability rights movements also emerged, campaigning for equal rights for people with disabilities and the removal of barriers. These movements laid the foundations for modern equality legislation and inclusion policies.

Major milestones on the road to equality for people with disabilities:

• 1973: Passage of the Rehabilitation Act in the US, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability in federal programmes.
• 1990: Introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the US, a comprehensive anti-discrimination law.
• 2006: The United Nations adopts the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), which comes into force in 2008 and strengthens the rights of people with disabilities worldwide.

Gradually, many countries have adopted laws and policies that protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been legally ratified by more than 180 countries. However, there is still social stigma and a lack of awareness of the needs of people with disabilities in many areas.

Participation in digital life

With the advent of digital transformation, the scope of gender equality efforts has broadened considerably. Digitalisation affects almost every aspect of our daily lives – from the way we communicate and share information, to education, work and social interaction. For people with disabilities, this opens up new opportunities for participation, but also creates new barriers.

The transition to digital equality requires a rethink of our society. It is about using technological innovation to break down barriers. Technologies such as visual aids, screen readers, voice control or personalised user interfaces can play a crucial role. This shift offers the opportunity to take equality for people with disabilities to a new level. Companies that actively embrace this change can benefit from an expanded customer base and a positive public perception.

History shows that progress in equality for people with disabilities has only been achieved through legislation. Most companies are not proactive in the area of accessibility, for many reasons that I won’t go into now, but it shows us how crucial political decisions and legal regulations are for progress in accessibility.

Digital accessibility, which aims to enable people with disabilities to participate fully in society, is defined internationally by the W3C’s WCAG guidelines. The first version of these guidelines was published in 1999 and has since become the basis for many national digital accessibility laws.

EU standards and guidelines are also based on the WCAG specifications. These are transposed into national law by the member states independently. Germany, for example, implements the EU directives through the Disability Equality Act (BGG) and the Barrier-free Information Technology Ordinance (BITV 2.0). In Switzerland, accessibility is regulated by the Disability Equality Act (BehiG) and the associated Disability Equality Ordinance (BehiV).

However, the WCAG and the legislation derived from it have been criticised for not taking sufficient account of cognitive disabilities. There are certainly historical reasons for this gap. It stems primarily from a working world in which work was still predominantly physical, which has already led to some improvements for people with physical disabilities. For people with cognitive disabilities, however, there is still a great need for support.

Situation in Switzerland in 2024

After a thorough review in March 2002, the «UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities» came to a sobering conclusion: Switzerland violates the rights of persons with disabilities in many areas, and the inclusion required by the Convention is still not sufficiently practised at all levels of government and society. There is still a great need for action in Switzerland with regard to all the equality directives listed.

For example, most adults with cognitive impairment in Switzerland are not free to choose where and how they live. Children with cognitive impairments often attend special schools. And information about elections and voting is often too complicated for many people with cognitive impairments. (Source: https://insieme.ch/thema/inklusion/uno-brk/)

In addition, most guidelines in Switzerland are not binding, but only recommendations. As a result, implementation is slow and hesitant.

Groups of people who benefit from accessible services

About 35% of the Swiss population depend on accessible services in many areas. The rest of the population also generally benefits from improved accessibility and usability.

Accessibility offers only advantages, not disadvantages

The number of people who benefit from accessibility is much higher than most people would expect. In Switzerland, around 22% of the population is considered disabled under the Equality Act, but in reality many more people benefit from accessibility.

Accessibility affects not only people with disabilities, but also older people, migrants with insufficient language skills or functional illiterates. Including these groups, at least 35% of the population directly benefits from accessibility measures. But everyone else also benefits from accessible solutions in special situations such as poor lighting or noisy environments.

Businesses should not wait for legislation to force them to be accessible, but should see it as an opportunity to expand their target groups and customer base. Accessibility improves the user experience for everyone and creates competitive advantage.

As mentioned above, some improvements for people with physical disabilities have already been achieved through the implementation of existing directives. Many public sector websites are already optimised for people with visual and hearing impairments, but access to digital life is often still inadequate for people with cognitive impairments. For example, very few websites offer content in “easy or plain language” – and when they do, it is mainly on the pages of organisations dedicated to this topic. Cultural or commercial offerings, such as online shops, that cater to the needs of people with cognitive impairments are rare. However, there are already tried and tested concepts that could make it easier for many people to access information (see also my blog post «Easy-to-read and plain-language design»).

From June 2025, the ‘European Accessibility Act‘ will also require private companies in the EU to ensure accessibility. Companies that fail to make their digital services accessible will face fines and even closure. This will affect more than 3 million website and mobile app providers in Germany alone, as well as many companies in Switzerland that offer their products and services in the EU.

I expect that these legal requirements will bring movement to the hitherto hesitant implementation of accessibility guidelines.

So designers and developers of digital services have a lot of work ahead of them.

Appendix

The extent of disability worldwide:

The following estimates are based on global data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international organisations.

1. Visually impaired and blind: Approximately 1.2 billion people worldwide (about 15% of the world’s population) live with a visual impairment or blindness that cannot be fully corrected by visual aids.
2. Hearing impaired and deaf: More than 1.5 billion people worldwide are living with a hearing impairment. Of these, about 430 million people (about 5% of the world’s population) have a hearing impairment that is considered ‘severe’.
3. Motor disabilities: About 2% of the world’s population has a severe mobility impairment. These people are permanently dependent on walking aids or wheelchairs. Mild and moderate motor disabilities are much more common. It is estimated that between 15% and 20% of the world’s population has a physical mobility impairment and has difficulty walking long distances, climbing stairs or using vehicles or public transport.
4. Cognitively and psychologically disabled people: According to WHO estimates, 15 to 20% of the world’s population is affected by cognitive or psychological impairments. Cognitive disabilities (intellectual impairments) affect around 1 to 3% and psychological disorders around 15% of the world’s population. Studies show that around 20 – 25% of people with psychological disorders have difficulties using the internet or other social resources, especially during periods of acute illness or without sufficient support.
5. Illiterate people and people with significant reading and writing difficulties: About 14% of the world’s adult population is illiterate. In addition, about 25% are functionally illiterate, able to read or write only a few sentences.
6. Migrants with poor language skills: According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 281 million people will be migrants in 2020, representing about 3.6% of the world’s population. Assuming that around 35% of the world’s migrants have language integration difficulties, this would affect around 1.5% of the world’s population.
7. The socio-economically excluded people: This group is highly dependent on regional and socio-economic conditions, so their numbers vary considerably depending on where they live.
   • People living in extreme poverty: It is estimated that around 10% of the world’s population live in extreme poverty (defined by the World Bank as living on less than USD 1.90 per day).
   • Social exclusion: War, political and religious conflicts lead to the social exclusion of people around the world. It is estimated that about 32% of the world’s population (about 2.4 billion people) experience significant social restrictions and have very limited access to education, information and social participation.

Notes:

• Temporary disabilities: Short-term disabilities due to illness or accident increase the number of people affected. Almost everyone is affected by one or more of these disabilities for at least part of their lives – due to illness, accident or age.
• People without disabilities: Taking into account overlapping and temporary disabilities, the proportion of people with no disability may be less than 50% of the world’s population. In particular, extreme poverty, functional illiteracy and mild disabilities such as visual and mobility impairments affect a large number of people.
• Age-related disabilities: As the average age of the world’s population rises, the number of people with disabilities will continue to increase because the proportion of people with disabilities increases with age. To illustrate: In Switzerland, only about 10% of young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 have a disability as defined by the Equal Opportunities Act, while the figure is around 40% for people over the age of 85.

Sources:

• https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health
• https://dequeuniversity.com/resources/disability-statistics
• https://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/report/en/
• https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment
• https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss
• https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability
• https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity
• https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/
• https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202
• https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240036703
• https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/efa-achievements-challenges
• https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Gesundheit/Behinderte-Menschen/_inhalt.html
• https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/wirtschaftliche-soziale-situation-bevoelkerung/gleichstellung-menschen-behinderungen/behinderungen/individuelle-merkmale.html
• https://migrationdataportal.org/
• https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/migration-and-citizenship/data/database