IT system accessibility

For more than 20 years, YouCo’s digital team has been building sites, applications and platforms, guaranteeing full accessibility, with scores of projects under its belt and numerous awards.

An information system is accessible when it guarantees, without discrimination, the provision of information and services to all users, including those who, due to a disability, need assistive technologies for the exploitation of digital services and content.

The task of ensuring compliance with current Italian legislation (Legislative Decree No. 179 of 18 October 2012, Law No. 4/2004 and Legislative Decree No. 82 of 7 March 2005) and EU Directive 2016/2102 on accessibility is the responsibility of AGID, Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale, established in 2012 with the aim of promoting digital innovation and the use of digital technologies in public administration and the relationship between the latter and citizens and businesses, while respecting the principles of legality, impartiality and transparency.

In particular, with reference to the issue of accessibility, AGID monitors the implementation of regulations by the stakeholders, i.e., the Public Administration and, as of 28 June 2022, private entities with an average turnover in the last three years of more than €500 million.

Accessibility: ensuring compliance and market opportunities

While for public administrations and large private companies, accessibility is a duty, compliance with the law does not exhaust the reasons for “being accessible”.

• Accessibility is an important valuein terms of social responsibility and brand reputation, whatever the turnover level.
• Italian users with severe, less severe or temporary disabilities equal more than 10 million: an inaccessible website loses visits and conversions every day, with a negative impact on ROI and the profitability of the company.
• Accessibility and usability go hand in hand. An accessible website and app will be more user-friendly for all users, simplifying navigation in all those cases where limitations are not related to a disability but simply to the condition of use (such as only one hand free, slow connection or poor visibility).

Why put your trust in YouCo

Ensuring full accessibility of an IT system requires familiarity with AGID guidelines and specific skills that very few web agencies possess.

In this case, YouCo is one of Italy’s most qualified partners for the creation of accessible IT systems and the upgrading of existing websites, applications and platforms.

The development of projects aimed at the digital transformation initiatives of Public Administrations has always been YouCo’s main activity, with numerous projects underway.

This has led us to focus on accessibility since the entry into force of the law in 2004, developing a real specialisation in this field, with numerous awards and recognitions for the creation of accessible websites for Public Administrations, but also for companies that, although not legally obligated, do not want to miss out on significant market opportunities.

Not only. While on the one hand the subjects affected by the regulations must intervene on the containers (such as sites, portals and applications), on the other it is important not to underestimate the issue of content accessibility.

Whether it is the resolutions of a municipal council, the training offer plan of a school or the technical documentation of a consumer product, it would be paradoxical to make documents easily downloadable which are then inaccessible, for example, to a blind person.

The issue of accessibility of electronic documents is therefore closely linked to those of document management and digitization of archives, issues that have an important and transversal impact on all PA offices and all corporate functions: the recommendation is to avoid a do-it-yourself approach.

Expertise and planning

As mentioned above, YouCo’s digital team has been designing and developing accessible websites and mobile applications for over 20 years, providing support in four areas:

• Audit and analysisof minimum requirements, focusing and aligning with the customer on objectives and critical issues
• Design and Development of projects (creation and updating of websites, applications and IT platforms), ensuring full accessibility and regulatory compliance
• Testing, where accessibility is genuinely verified, in cooperation with associations and people with visual, hearing and motor impairments.
• Training, with courses that explain in a simple way what accessibility involves and how to maintain it over time after project completion.

Industries

Successful cases