Digi-Digest | Making your digital workplace inclusive

Video transcript

Making your digital workplace inclusive

How can we make everyday digital tools like Intranet and Enterprise Social Networks (our “Get-Stuff-Done” tools) more accessible? Lead digital consultant Tony Stewart shares the hows and whys of digital inclusivity.

Companies with established diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes perform better across the board. An inclusive team can improve performance by up to 30 per cent.

Digital is a key part of our world of work – it’s how we collaborate, communicate and stay productive. So to help every employee succeed, we have to make these tools accessible to everyone.

Accessibility is more than just convenience, it’s a necessity for many employees, such as those with visual impairments, hearing difficulties or neurodivergence. Inclusive technology gives everyone the tools to do their best, and also feel seen and supported by their employer.

So here are five things you and your team can do right now to have a positive impact.

1) Text accessibility

Your employees with impaired vision often rely on screen readers or text magnification tools. On platforms like Microsoft Word or your intranet, make sure that your content is clearly written and formatted for easy navigation. Use proper heading structures, alt text for your images and contrasting colours.

2) Captions and transcripts

For employees with hearing difficulties, captions and transcripts are super important. Microsoft Teams and Enterprise Social network platforms can create live captions on videos and add subtitles to pre-recorded video content. Always make sure your important presentations – including town halls, all hands, strategies or business updates – have them. In fact, this should be a given on all your video content.

3) Clear, consistent structure

For your neurodivergent employees, clear, consistent and structured content is essential in digital workspaces. Internal communications should always use plain language. And give your people the option to read with reduced visual distractions by creating alternative, easily accessible content (our Mosaic content approach is perfect for that).

There’s also Microsoft Office’s ‘Focus’ mode which can reduce visual distractions. It also helps you to manage your notifications (goodbye pings!) and better process information.

4) Customisability

Customisability and accessibility go hand in hand. Office 365 has a range of accessibility tools that let you adapt navigation to suit your specific needs, so your internet should be able to do the same. That’s adjustable text size, colour schemes and shortcuts. By putting these considerations in place, not only will you improve productivity, but you’ll create a space where your employees feel supported and included.

5) Accessibility isn’t an afterthought

Accessibility should be part of our everyday digital experience. When we take the time to make our technology more inclusive, we empower every employee to do their best work.

The best way to do that is in combination with HR, IT and members of those affected communities to make sure the technology we use is built for everyone. Whether it’s on our Enterprise Networks, intranets or the collaboration tools we use every day, accessibility matters.

Start making an impact

If you want to make your digital workplaces as accessible as possible, give Tony Stewart and the scarlettabbott team a shout.