Assure accessibility
/Assure accessibility
Another important consideration as you choose a digital participation platform is to assure that there are no barriers to use.
Access for those with disabilities
Over 1 billion people globally live with disabilities, according to the World Health Organization. That number is even higher when you consider the aging of many populations around the world, as well as how many of us experience temporary disabilities at various points in our lives.
Any inclusive participatory process should strive to serve these communities. Designing for inclusivity often ends up benefiting all of us in ways we don't expect. For example, the transition from door knobs to accessible handles didn’t only help people with disabilities. Anyone carrying something using both hands benefits by being able to use their elbow to open a door. In addition, consultants at Accenture found that accessibility-minded companies also perform better financially.
We've noted platforms' descriptions of their accessibility in our comparison matrix. You should also check if your government or institution has its own accessibility-compliance requirements. Some of the common accessibility guidelines include those adopted by the:
U.S. government (Section 508, last updated at the end of 2017).
European Union (Directive 2016/2102, last released in 2016).
World Wide Web Consortium (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 (published as a working draft in 2021).
Technology advances faster than regulatory bodies. The WCAG 2.2 working draft is the most up-to-date guideline. Compliance with WCAG levels A and AA counts toward U.S. Section 508 compliance, so this may be a good place to start.
Even if you aren't required to fulfill specific accessibility requirements, we still recommend you choose a platform that prioritizes it. While guidelines like WCAG can be intimidating in their length, one study found that the vast majority of accessibility errors fell into just six categories:
Low-contrast text (picture a white font against a light gray background).
Lack of alternative text for images (descriptions for screen-reading software).
Missing form-input labels (telling assistive software which information a form field is asking for).
Empty links (the document links to other resources without text, so it can't be read).
Missing document language (a simple tag that denotes which language a page is presented in).
Image-based action buttons that aren't legible by assistive software.
One way to evaluate platform accessibility is to perform some quick tests. Accessibility expert Karl Grove suggests that you load the demo site of a platform you're considering and try to interact with it in high-contrast mode (on Windows or MacOS), using only your keyboard and no mouse (navigating with the tab key). At the same time, disable images in your browser.
You can also use an all-in-one accessibility testing site like WebAIM's WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. Just enter the digital participation platform URL into the tool and it will let you know the accessibility issues it finds.
An example of the WAVE tool's automated evaluation of accessibility on Wikipedia.org.
Slow, intermittent, or expensive connections
Many digital participation platforms assume that users have uninterrupted internet connectivity, or that they're using a computer rather than a mobile device. These assumptions affect key user-experience choices, like placing a button too far down on a page. For example, in one case, one platform offers a poll feature, meant to be used at in-person meetings, that requires an internet connection to function. But field teams attending community meetings won't always have connectivity.
Some of your key participants may have internet connection, but it’s slow. For example, people in rural Kenya often must rely on 3G cellular data networks. To test how a platform operates for users with slower connection speeds, try loading the URL for the demo site into Google's PageSpeed Insights tool. It will automatically analyze the page and give it a score. The closer that score is to 100, the better the experience will be for your users with slow connections. The tool also provides recommendations for improving page speed.
Cost of internet connection and electricity are additional barriers to participation on digital platforms. Faster-loading sites tend to require less data transfer. This saves money for participants who pay for metered data plans.
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