Accessible content and design doesn’t only benefit people who identify as having a disability or impairment – it’s for everyone. We might imagine a wheelchair user, or maybe somebody who's deaf. These are recognised disabilities, but many disabilities are invisible. Some are permanent (blind), disabilities can also be temporary (after eye surgery), or situational (distracted looking at your phone), and at some point, everybody is going to be in one of those categories.

We all see things through our own lens, but we need to broaden that perspective and pay attention to the barriers that are preventing others from being included. If you couldn’t easily read a document or access a building, how that would make you feel?

My outlook changed when I did lots of research around accessibility. Once I became aware of the issues, I started to spot them everywhere: from watching the TV to scrolling through social media. You start to really think ‘how would somebody access this content?’ 

This year I’ve seen a step change. Accessibility forms a central place within our diversity and inclusion strategy. We’ve created focussed ‘accessible’ templates to help colleagues create more accessible content, and we’re refreshing aspects of our brand. But more than that, I’ve seen there’s a real surge in action – especially around inclusion – and the ripples are starting to spread across WSP globally, not just here in the UK.  

Colleagues have embraced the challenge to make our content more accessible, from carefully choosing a colour palette to providing voice-overs for infographics. It’s starting to be woven into the fabric of all we do – and that’s our aspiration – each small step will only make things better.