Step-by-step for the small-scale: staying connected while working and studying from home

Note: At the end of this article we list supports and resources to assist with the following step-by-step advice.

Step 1: Assess the current situation

In the first days of orders to work / study from home, those people with disabilities who could not operate (with the available technologies and the organizational procedures that were in place) would have made it known to their support staff. Depending on the size of the organization, problems were likely addressed on a case-by-case basis. Even after weeks or months there may still be problems that need attention and/or new technologies introduced that present problems, on a case-by-case basis.

If solutions are not forthcoming, escalating the problem may be required by students (and parents or caregivers) or employees (see our related guide on escalating issues through customer support mechanisms).

Step 2. Address the quiet ones

While it is likely that you would have heard from those who cannot work, it is less likely that you would have heard from those who find it difficult or uncomfortable to work. In times of difficulty for everyone, people with disabilities may be less likely to complain than the general population (for the rationale for this, see out related guide on going beyond just offering a complaints process). So, in any large organization there are going to be people who are struggling along as best they can with difficulties that make work uncomfortable or even painful. For example:

• Those recovering from repetitive wrist injuries may be forced to work on small keyboard laptops, but they are talking painkillers in order to work;
• Some parents may not be as tech-savvy as in-classroom assistants of students who have disabilities, and are struggling through or improvising in inefficient ways;
• Some employees who have sighted assistants at work may be relying on family members to do the same kinds of support activities, but those family members have other household or work duties to attend to.

Taking proactive steps to reach out to all staff/students to make sure that you are covering all of those who are affected can pay dividends by preventing worsening issues over time. (These proactive steps should also cover issues relating to online meetings and presentations that are held at a large-scale, as described in the subsequent step-by-step guidance in this article.)

Note: If you think that all employees who need support speak up, think again. A 2016 report from the Center for Talent Innovation revealed that only 10% of those employees who have a disability self-identify to their employers. Many disabilities are hidden from view, and/or the employee has compensatory strategies. Those strategies may or may not be possible to use when working from home.

Step 3. Make plans for scaling up responses, if needed

Once you have assessed the current situation and addressed the wider group who also need help, plans for long-term support may be needed. If the 2020 pandemic runs into many months, it may be that there needs to be a dedicated help desk for those working or studying from home. Not all problems will be revealed and resolved in the first few weeks.

Step 4. Make plans for possible future events

As the ‘Keeping Accessibility in Mind’ article (linked to above) says, this time around we are all encountering new territory, and so we do need to be kind to those making the transition. However, given that we all know now that this sort of thing can happen, we should be prepared for it happening again. Even though we are thinking here in terms of ‘small-scale’ (i.e., individuals, and small teams), it is worth taking stock of the lessons learned, and then making a plan for the future, should this type of event recur.

For example:

• All new employees (and new students) should get a ‘dry-run’ teleworking day in order to assess whether they can work at home. If it is found that there are additional supports needed (peripherals, large monitors, furniture, etc.), then make a plan for how to get those or have them on standby, for emergency situations. If necessary, repeat the dry-run with those supports;
• Whenever new telework technologies are introduced, have them tested for accessibility (see our related article on how to test for accessibility);
• When those with disabilities are to be working remotely with others in small teams, provide training for all team members on how to use the technologies in an accessible way;
• Do the same thing with procedures, checking that those with disabilities can operate technologies while adhering to operating procedures. For example, some company login systems require two-factor authentication within a certain time limit, and some with physical disabilities may not have the dexterity to enter login information within the specified time limit.
• Assess your legal situation regarding employees or students with disabilities. Have a clear policy on what should be done and by whom (responsibility and accountability) in given scenarios (for a legal resource on communications, see the ‘Go In-Depth’ subsection below).

And… to repeat the message from above… please don’t stop here, no matter the size of your organization and the number of problems you have addressed so far. Next, we need to tackle some large-scale issues.

Step-by-step for the large-scale: staying connected while working and studying from home

Note: At the end of this article we list supports and resources to assist with the following step-by-step advice.

Step 1: Assess the current situation

In terms of large-scale issues, we are primarily thinking of issues concerning:

• Group or company wide presentations and meetings;
• Emails, and their electronic document attachments;
• Social media use.

If not already done so, gather a list of issues relating to the above list from individuals who have informed you of problems (step #1 in the previous section), and from your survey activity of those quietly struggling through (step #2 in the previous section).

Depending on how well you designed and executed your earlier activities, you may or may not have covered all of the possible issues that your employees / students are likely to encounter. Fortunately, there is an entire field of practice in testing systems for accessibility. Ensuring that your technology systems conform with the current guidelines for web accessibility is a good start. The easiest way to do this is ask your vendors whether their software and content delivery, such as your LMS (Learning Management System) meets established accessibility guidelines.

• If they don’t know what you’re talking about, then it’s a safe bet their technologies are not accessible;
• If they say that there are known issues, you can make a plan for addressing those issues while the vendor works on fixing them;
• If they say their systems are accessible (to the best of their knowledge) then that provides you with comfort in knowing that the system is accessible, but not necessarily that the content that your staff are delivering is accessible.

Note: Accessibility and conformance to standard guidelines is often a part of vendor service contracts. Your procurement staff may be able to help you assess this. If it is not part of contracts, then it needs to be in the future (see the final step, below).

The content being delivered includes things like:

• Adobe PDF format documents, ePUB documents, MS Word documents, MS Excel files, MS PowerPoint (or equivalents) and other presentation slides (these can be made accessible by following available guidance);
• The words and other sounds being generated (which can be made accessible by providing real-time captions and/or sign-language interpreting. Provision for this may need to be from an outside vendor);
• Having your presenters describe visuals (e.g., when talking about charts, “as you can see we’re doing differently this month to last month…” isn’t useful for non-sighted or low vision participants);
• Videos and animations being captioned and described in advance of the presentation (by following available guidance).

In practice, ensuring that content is accessible on a consistent basis requires enforceable policies, as well as the provision for appropriate training and support resources.

At the end of this step you should have:

1. A list of known issues for current staff / students, and current stop-gap measures in place;
2. A list of known issues in terms of accessibility guidelines conformance (lists 1 and 2 may have overlap, but not necessarily);
3. Draft policies and procedures for enforcement;
4. Training and links to guides for staff on how to make accessible content (see also our companion guide for higher education institutions on digital content).

Step 2. Ensure you have consistent, reliable technical support mechanisms

If you have a CEO delivering an all-hands meeting to 30,000 employees, then it’s a good bet that you have an online webinar tech-support team in place. Does that team know how captioning is / should be implemented? (Real life experiences with the current situation would suggest this is far from a given.) When you are conducting events at this scale, and considering the 90% (of the 30% of employees with disabilities) who do not self-identify, it is really like conducting a conference when you don’t know the make-up of the audience who will show up. In planning conferences, you need to offer accommodations to paying attendees, such as:

• Sign-language or captions/CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) services. (Note that these are not interchangeable – some sign language users cannot read captions, and vice versa. Also note that providing a script in advance or a transcript after is not equivalent access);
• Accessible electronic copies of materials, and visual descriptions of materials for those who have visual difficulties.

Just like in a conference, you should offer an accommodations request system, as well as provide trained support staff.

The first few times that you use services, you should do dry-run tests in advance. You don’t want to hold up the CEO for ten minutes because you haven’t learned how to connect the captioner into your system.

Ensuring that you have consistent, reliable technical support in place is especially helpful when there are still known issues with current technology systems and where content accessibility training is in its early stages. However, the known issues should still be tackled as part of a longer-term project, because accessible solutions for communications such as these already exist, even if they haven’t been implemented in your system yet.

Step 3. Establish a longer-term project to address known issues

To address known issues that affect enterprise-wide software, as well as corporate culture, you need to:

• be thinking long-term;
• establish executive level backing for your accessibility program and its projects;
• be conducting organization-wide maturity assessments to be able to assess and address risk as it relates to communications;
• have an understanding with your vendors as to what level of (measured, demonstrable) technology accessibility you require;
• have policies and procedures in place, as well as the means to implement, support, and enforce those policies.

If you do not have a current accessibility program, we offer companion guides for getting started as part of the Switchboard portal (see links below). We also offer guidance on how to revamp an accessibility program for those who are looking to make a bigger impact now to prevent problems from occurring in the future.