Accessibility: this is how we make our products accessible to customers with disabilities

At Voys, we are always improving our products to ensure that as many people as possible can use them easily. Where user-friendliness makes products more pleasant to work with for many people, it is essential for our customers with disabilities. We call this the accessibility of our products. Want to know how we apply this within our products? In this blog I will tell you how we are working on accessibility within Voys and what our plans for this are in the future.

Accessibility in the digital world

Actually, you’ve come across accessibility situations quite often. This is because it is not only present in the digital world, but also in the physical one. Examples in the “real” (by this I mean the physical) world include: a sloping ramp or ramp next to a staircase for wheelchair users, well-lit spaces for people with poor eyesight, and wide walkways for people with strollers or wheelchair users. The above examples make public spaces and environments more accessible to different groups of people.

But accessibility is just as important in the digital world, so that people with disabilities can also use digital products, such as ours. Within the digital world, you could think of:

• Font sizes for people who struggle with bad vision
• Fonts that work well for people with dyslexia
• Color contrast for people with color blindness
• Keyboard navigation for people having difficulties using a mouse

Of course, these are just a few examples, because you can do a lot more.

Auditing the Voys app: how accessible are we?

At Voys, we are currently busy taking steps to make our products even more accessible to our customers. We still have a lot to learn, but step by step we are improving accessibility.

Recently, the Voys app was audited by a company specializing in accessibility to see how accessible the app actually is for customers with disabilities. This way we know which points we can still improve on. The application came out of the audit well, with many points that were more than sufficient, but also a number of points for improvement that we immediately started working on.

Right now we are also making accessibility a part of our development process. This ensures that it does not become an afterthought, but rather is considered from the beginning.

We have also made smaller improvements right away. Think of improving parts of the products so that users can easily navigate with their keyboard, for example. Or that our products work more effectively with screen readers.

An inclusive product contributes to inclusive world

At Voys, the usability of our products is very important to us. We strive to make our products accessible to everyone. Our ultimate goal is that diversity and inclusion is woven into the way we interact with our people, products, suppliers, partners and marketing.

It is only natural for us not to exclude anyone and therefore make our products accessible. Even if this is a non-functional requirement.

We think whether something is functional or non-functional (i.e., necessary for the platform to work) is a strange way to decidewhether something is necessary. We know this is sometimes used by other companies as an excuse not to work on accessibility.

Look at it this way: security is also a non-functional requirement. Without security, our platform works fine. But is it a good idea to not have it? No, definitely not.

Why minimize our platform to what is strictly necessary to run it, when we can deliver so much more value to our customers with a few extra steps? Especially when it comes to things we believe in, such as an inclusive and diverse world. It is up to us to not settle for what works for “most people”.

The European requirements for accessibility 

From the beginning of the development process, we keep the users of our products in mind. Here we already include accessibility for customers with disabilities in the designs we create and apply when we are programming. We also plan to have an audit done of our other products. Ultimately, we want to be ahead of the curve with accessibility and use it to inspire others.

Of course, what comes into play is the new legislation within the EU. Right now, government agencies here in the Netherlands have to make their websites and apps accessible and show that they are working on accessibility. Additionally, in 2025 there will be a new law for Europe requiring e-commerce websites to make their web shops accessible. This is called the European Accessibility Act.

Within Voys, we are exploring how we too can comply with this and how it will affect our products. We also think this is a great development, because it means that more and more products will become accessible and can be used by many more people.

Is your organization accessible to customers with disabilities?

Accessibility allows many more people to use our products. It creates more diversity and inclusiveness. Isn’t that wonderful? That’s why I’m curious: what are you doing about accessibility? Let me know via LinkedIn!