Web accessibility initiatives undertaken by all production companies

Web accessibility for a production company Monosus is also a web production company, although we do a lot of things. We create and renovate various websites. As production professionals, our motivation to create higher quality websites is to improve site performance and create interesting designs, but improving web accessibility is the most important factor to consider.

With the implementation of new laws and various developments on social media, interest in accessibility is growing in society, and little by little, people within our company are starting to say, "Maybe we should do something."

We have now formed a working group and are beginning to gather information. Web accessibility needs to be considered not just in coding and design, but in all layers of website construction (management). Therefore, not only members of the implementation layer who are interested in web accessibility, but everyone in the web production company needs to think about how to address it at their own layer and create a policy.

For example, in order to take action to improve, we need to consider a wide range of issues, such as the business dilemma of whether web accessibility should be provided as a quality of service or whether it is optional, and the variation in what is provided for each project and the mismatch with customers that can occur due to an inability to clearly state a policy. This required us to act with a wide range of considerations, and I personally felt that this was a major challenge.

We invite Yuten Hirao to create time to think about web accessibility

Around the same time that I was feeling the need to address the issue, I happened to connect with Yuten Hirao, an accessibility specialist, on X. I actually approached him with the idea that I might be able to help out in some way, but before I knew it, I was in a position to help, with him asking me if I could speak on Monosus and him saying, "Of course I'd love to."

If we were to have Yuten speak, we wanted to do it in a setting where all the members could participate. So we decided to have him speak on the theme of "Web accessibility as a web production company" during the group work session "All members meeting" in the monthly company-wide meeting "General meeting."

At the design meeting on the day, besides myself, Yuten and Watanabe from D-Zero, Matsubara from Monosus, who has been involved in grassroots accessibility movements for a long time, and Harazawa, who always works with me to think about how to improve the general meetings, participated.We had a thorough discussion about Monosus from D-Zero's perspective, what kind of members Monosus has, and what kind of topics we should talk about to attract attention.

At first, I thought that if I invited him (as I knew about Yuten's past achievements), things would go well, but that meeting was extremely important.

We were also very pleased and impressed by D.Zero's action of not just appearing as a guest, but participating with the attitude of "We want to use this as an opportunity to work on accessibility projects together with Monosus in the future."

We were also kindly asked to hold a roundtable discussion after the general meeting, where we could have more in-depth discussions. Thank you so much!

On the day of the event, everything went so well that within two minutes of handing over the baton to Yuten at the general meeting, I thought, "Yes, we won!" Not only was Yuten's way of speaking wonderful, but I was also impressed from the start by how she had taken into account all of my unreasonable requests to Monosus: "I want to focus more on web accessibility than barrier-free access (even though Monosus has food-related members). But we also have members who are not involved in web production."

Especially at the beginning of the story.

The last thing you want to hear when working with clients is, "If I had known, I would have done it..."

I was consulting with Yuten-san,

(Harada) "When I say 'this is not accessible' to a client, it feels like I'm hitting them with a big axe, so I can't really bring myself to say that."

(Yuten) "It's information that needs to be communicated in the course of professional work, so I think it's best to communicate it properly."

It was a punch line that expressed that very succinctly. I felt like he had brought the members of the company up to the context I have in the shortest possible time, and I felt that "more people will definitely become interested in accessibility."

The talk started with basic information about accessibility, why it is important, and after small group discussions, moved on to the topic of how to incorporate accessibility into the quality offered by web development companies.

After listening to everyone's talk, we also had the more interested members gather together to listen to more in-depth talks. Members who attended offline had repeatedly voiced their expectations since the meeting was announced in March, and on the day of the meeting, we were able to see their excitement, something we had never seen before, and we felt it was a good thing that they came to the Yoyogi office instead of holding the meeting online.

Impressions of the plenary meeting and roundtable discussion

On the day, we all had a lively discussion, including Yuten, about accessibility and "Web development company issues" from the general meeting, roundtable discussion, and the launch party at the CIMI restorant (a restaurant attached to the Yoyogi office). From small questions that you might think are difficult to ask, to "So how should we implement it?", the half day where we were able to think about web accessibility together was a very valuable experience.

Later, we had an offline meeting with the members to reflect on the experience. Please take a look at some of the opinions and thoughts that came up during the meeting.

I felt relieved to be involved.

• (When it comes to accessibility efforts) it's okay to do it little by little, even if not on everything.
• If you work on the web, you're already working on accessibility.
• When I heard that simply using appropriate headings was one way of addressing accessibility, the psychological hurdle of trying to tackle it was lowered.
• I thought that there was a perspective to be taken from the idea that it is important to issue an accessibility policy and demonstrate your intention to do so.

Moving forward with the working group

• A working group has been formed. We will continue to move forward, even if it is just one step at a time, by getting everyone involved.
• I think it was good that we had this time to share what society needs, and have someone with the proper knowledge explain it in an easy-to-understand way. To help people understand what we are offering, we could have a production specialist hold a seminar on the responsibility of making things. In terms of how to help people understand, I think that could be one way to approach it.

Accessibility is quality

• If your physical condition changes, the quality and performance of the person will change, so it is important to create rules properly. I liked the idea that it would be good to have a function that allows you to produce a certain quality even if your physical condition changes.
• Let's do the obvious thing, not the extraordinary. We tend to leave it because it's not visible, and it tends to be a secondary thing, and we used to take the stance of doing it only if we're told to. I think it's quite big that this mindset has changed. It's about quality. I didn't intend to produce products that didn't meet the quality standards, but I realized that I was.
• The memorable phrase is that it's not a trade-off. I think it was from a designer's perspective, and came from a time when they wanted to create something with a lot of animation. That can also be said about the whole thing. It makes people understand that there are many benefits to doing it, and that there are no disadvantages.
• Before listening to the general meeting and panel discussions, I only had negative impressions of accessibility.
  While I thought it would be a good idea to try it out technically, it seemed like just one option in production, and I ended up working while checking the reactions of the people checking the accessibility and auditing, and I often lost sight of the purpose of doing it.
  I thought that by going and listening to what they had to say this time, I might be able to dispel my negative impression about accessibility, so I decided to go and hear more about it on site.
  What was particularly impressive during the general meeting and panel discussions was the focus on creating a robust site that can be used for years to come. It was a day in which we were able to shift the idea of "ensuring accessibility" from simply creating a site that is accessible to people with disabilities or easy to use to a mindset where accessibility equals quality.
  However, after some time has passed, I feel my enthusiasm cooling down, so I feel I need to do something, and I would like to start by changing what is in my own hands.

Before the lights go out

Immediately after attending a conference, study group, or seminar, I feel extremely enhanced and my sensitivity to "all accessibility in the world" increases. However, I feel that in order to continue this as an initiative, it is difficult to move forward with enthusiasm alone.
Still, thanks to Yuten's talk, I feel I was able to shift my focus from a personal issue to a company issue. It was a small opportunity to get something moving.

There's a phrase I love that I found on the internet a while ago.

This phrase expresses well that even if people understand the importance of "retrospection," they gradually stop doing it for various reasons. I think the phrase would have the same impact if you changed "retrospection" to "accessibility." I don't think that the "accessibility provided by a web development company" will improve even if the accessibility police and accessibility clowns go around making a fuss about it.
If it is not incorporated into the overall business system, including transactions, rather than just the production site, some projects and members will be left behind. That is why the theme of this event was "Web accessibility for all production companies."

While I was putting together this article, we had our general meeting in May and held a workshop on the theme of "Let's think about titles." I gave myself the title "Monosus Accessibility Advocate." I'm going to add it to my next business card.

As advocates for our own company's accessibility, I expect active participation from not only the members involved in the actual production, but also those who are not involved in the actual production, regardless of whether it is bottom-up or top-down. This is because we believe that the essence of our business is "to think about and implement communication between providers and users together with providers." If accessibility is not the first communication we think about and implement, then what is?
In other words, accessibility is not an add-on.
And knowingly excluding others is the same as unknowingly excluding others. Our goal is not to provide a compliant solution, but to provide an accessible solution.

If you even think for a millisecond, "Huh? What is Harada deciding?" then let's do this together!
Because it would be impossible not to do it.