Tuesday 12th November 2024
Today is Purple Tuesday, a day which shines a light on the challenges disabled people face as consumers and the importance of accessible environments and services. In this blog post, our Head of Communications Jen shares what we’re doing at Challengers to improve accessibility on our digital channels, along with some helpful tips and resources.
When we think about accessibility, often our first thought is physical spaces, but with adults in the UK now spending more than a quarter of their waking hours online, digital accessibility is equally important to ensure that disabled individuals aren’t excluded.
What is Purple Tuesday?
Purple Tuesday is a global social movement, focused on improving the customer experience for disabled people and their families. Its founder Mike Adams OBE, a disabled man, was inspired to create Purple Tuesday after visiting a shopping centre where he and his partner were ignored by staff. He wanted to promote making accessibility ‘the norm’, highlighting the value of disabled customers, and improving their experiences.
Each November on Purple Tuesday, people are encouraged to reflect on what they can do to improve experiences for disabled people. The digital world should be open to everyone, and with some careful thought and a few tweaks we can ALL do something to reduce exclusion for disabled individuals.
How we’re improving accessibility at Challengers
Through our partnership with accessiBe, we have a web accessibility feature on the Challengers website which enables users to make adjustments to suit their individual needs. Not noticed it before? Click the blue circle icon in the bottom left corner of our website and explore all the amazing accessibility features it offers.
It’s a great start to making our website accessible, but we know there’s still room for improvement! We’re currently reviewing our channels to make our online content easier to access and navigate, as well as developing best practices for creating accessible email and social media content. We now use Alt Text on all of our social media posts, and we’re conscious of the colours, fonts, sizes and capitalisations we use to ensure our content is easy to read.
Want to know how you can make your digital presence more inclusive and accessible for disabled individuals? Here are some top tips and resources.
Digital accessibility top tips
- Purple Tuesday provides a brilliant free resource to help you create accessible digital content.
- Take a look at Scope’s brilliant accessibility guidelines for detailed guidance on making your digital content inclusive.
- Use the ‘Check Accessibility’ feature in Microsoft Office – this helps to identify suggested improvements for your documents.
- Writing descriptive Alt Text is essential for people who use screen readers and other assistive technology. Try using Ahrefs’ free Image Alt Text Generator, or make use of in-platform AI tools on social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite.
- Consider carrying out a digital accessibility audit for your channels. You can follow guidance like Digital Wonderlab’s step-by-step article on conducting an audit in the UK, or you can consult an external accessibility company to assist.
- Following disabled content creators on social media can provide valuable insights into their experiences and what works best for them. We love Nina (@nina_tame), Jameisha (@youlookokaytome), Nia (@the_chronic_notebook) and Ella (@purpleellaandcoco).
- Reach out to your audiences and ask disabled users for direct feedback. Asking them “What can we do better?” is the most effective way to learn and improve.
With a few thoughtful changes, we can make accessibility the norm and improve access to the digital world for everyone.