Why Accessible Technology Matters in Clinical Research
Most of us whiz around the internet and various online applications every day to get work done and progress in our careers. But this is a very different experience for someone with a disability.
How difficult would it be to get simple tasks done if you could not see, hear or engage with the presented content?
As a company that designs software for clinical research and has a substantial user base, our teams are incredibly passionate about technology accessibility. Through careful examination, we learned that our products could improve in terms of accessibility. We set out to learn, grow, and modify elements of our software to make it usable for every person.
Today we will explore what accessibility in technology means, why it is crucial in clinical research, and how we are enhancing accessibility into our products.
What is Accessibility?
To understand accessibility, we first need to understand the different types of disabilities that affect individuals looking to engage with the online world. Each type of disability requires a different set of adjustments to create an accessible website/application and an effective online ecosystem.
WebAim breaks down disability into 4 categories:
- Visual – blindness, low-vision, or colorblindness
- Auditory – deafness or hard-of-hearing
- Motor – inability to use a mouse, slow response time, or limited fine motor control.
- Cognitive – learning disabilities, distractibility, or inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information.
A large part of the world’s population lives with a disability. Around 56.7 million Americans (18.7% of the U.S. population) and 15% of the population worldwide live with one of the above-mentioned disabilities.
Disabled people, more often than not, are engaging online and are customers of countless software applications. Building accessibility into online applications helps those with:
- low-vision or blindness be able to understand content with screen magnifiers or screen readers
- cognitively impairments navigate content structures more easily
- motor disabilities to independently engage with online platforms
- hearing impairments to understand audio content with captions and transcripts
Allowing online applications to be accessed by a larger percentage of the population increases product usage but, more importantly, expands the potential for user diversity.
Why is Accessibility Important in Clinical Research?
In general, accessible websites and applications have a more lightweight and efficient code. While it may take a bit more upfront work, accessible design often ends up being a better structure for everyone engaging with the platform.
Around 30% of individuals with disabilities from 16-64 are currently in the workforce.
When it comes to clinical research, people with disabilities are largely neglected in mainstream health research, and there tends to be a lack of diversity in the workforce. When minority populations are underrepresented in research, clinical outcomes do not accurately represent the affected population.
Creating accessible applications and websites in clinical research helps to accommodate more diversity in both the participant and workforce populations. By expanding the available population to reach a more diverse group, research is made more accessible, accurate, and impactful for all involved.
How Are We Building Accessibility in Our Products?
Earlier this year, we trained a customer group that had a blind team member. During this process, we learned that areas of our software needed accessibility enhancements. The blind user had some difficulty navigating certain areas of the platform as our screen reader was not reading elements clearly throughout these different views.
Our product and development teams jumped at the opportunity to learn more about accessibility and build better elements into our platform. We tackled building a more precise and linear screen reader during this project, allowing low-sighted or blind individuals to navigate the platform and complete needed tasks.
As we began to create this feature and inspect performance, we found several valuable tools.
- An online set of standards that verifies if a website or application is accessible or not.
- The Firefox accessibility inspector that identifies issues and helps with fixes.
- The Chrome Lighthouse tool that also identifies issues that need to be adjusted.
After building the element, it’s time to test – which is the most critical part. Ensuring the end-user finds the accessibility elements useful is the most vital portion of building a product that makes an impact.
Coming to a Close
Accessible technology, websites, and software don’t just benefit those with disabilities, they drive the creation of platforms that are easier to navigate for everyone. Prioritizing these changes and structures allows both participants in clinical research and the workforce to become more diverse and more accurately represent the broader population.