The document outlines the business case for accessibility, emphasizing the importance of inclusive design and the benefits of employing individuals with disabilities. It features contributions from various organizations, including Accenture and Intuit, discussing strategies for improving accessibility and inclusion in the workplace. Overall, it highlights that prioritizing accessibility not only fulfills social responsibility but also enhances business performance and innovation.

1. The Business Case for Accessibility
The Business Case for Accessibility
20 June 2021

2. The Business Case for Accessibility
Housekeeping
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3. The Business Case for Accessibility
Welcome
• Meet our panelists
• Introducing the Business Case for accessibility (Accenture)
• Measuring the impact of accessibility (BDF)
• Accessibility and the case for Inclusive Design (AbilityNet)
• A case study in Inclusive Design (Intuit)
• Panel discussion; building the business case for inclusive design
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4. The Business Case for Accessibility
Welcome to our panelists
Laurie A. Henneborn
MD within
Accenture’s
Research
organisation.
Lucy Ruck, BDF,
leads the member
organisations’
Technology
Taskforce.
Robin
Christopherson,
Head of Digital
Inclusion, AbilityNet.
Reuben Evans,
senior software
engineer at Intuit.
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5. The Business Case for Accessibility
A digital
world
accessible
to all
At home
In
education
Accessibility
services
Events:
TSP &
T4G
At work
• Pan-disability charity
• Free services to support
disabled and older people
• 20+ years offering accessibility
consultancy and expertise
• World-class accessibility
events alongside global
technology leaders
Introducing AbilityNet
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6. The Business Case for Accessibility
Find out more in
our impact report
for 2020
Accessibility: Our impact
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7. THE DISABILITY
INCLUSION &
ACCESSIBILITY
ADVANTAGE
WWW.ACCENTURE.COM/PWD

8. Laurie Henneborn is an Accenture Research Managing Director
who leads research and thought leadership development focused
on raising awareness and taking actions pertaining to disability
inclusion and equality in the workplace. Some of her past works in
this space have included Getting to Equal: Disability Inclusion
Advantage and Getting to Equal: Enabling Change. She is also on
the board of directors for AAPD and sits on the Disability Inclusion
Leadership Council at Accenture. Laurie is especially passionate
about coaching and mentoring colleagues with “invisible”
disabilities and chronic diseases, drawing from her own experience
since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2004.
Introduction
Laurie A. Henneborn
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading
capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched
experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries,
we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and
Operations services—all powered by the world’s largest network of
Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our more
than 500,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and
human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120
countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and
shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and
communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com and
Empowering Persons with Disabilities | Accenture
About Accenture

9. Evolution of Accenture’s disability inclusion
research
December 2018
Disability Inclusion
Advantage
The study established the
business case for employing
and including more people
with disabilities
May 2021
AI for Disability Inclusion
Elevates & extends the
discussion about AI as an
enabler for inclusion +
accessibility for people with
disabilities in the workplace
December 2020
Enabling
Change
Discover the 8 culture
factors that are closely
linked to enhanced
engagement and thriving
among employees with
disabilities
ALL CONTENTAVAILABLE AT WWW.ACCENTURE.COM/PWD

10. Persons with disability are
underemployed
15%
An estimated 15%
of the global
population have a
disability
However very few are
economically active, ranging
from approximately 44% in
higher income countries down
to 10-20% in lower income
countries
The employment rate for
persons with disabilities ranges
from 6.5% in China and 25%
in India to 31% in the US and
53% in the UK
[See notes for sources]

11. IT PAYS TO BE
INCLUSIVE:
THE BUSINESS
CASE

12. COMPANIES OUTPERFORMED PEERS
On average, Disability Inclusion Champions Achieved….

13. CHAMPIONS AND IMPROVERS WERE…
2xs as likely to have total shareholder returns
that outperform peers, based on historical
4xs more likely to have total shareholder returns
that outperform peers when compared to non-
improvers.

14. BARRIERS PERSIST

15. Even in employment, many feel excluded
Employees with disabilities
are 27% less likely to feel
‘included’ in the workplace
– and 60% more likely to
feel ‘excluded’ – compared
with the average
Source: GTE 2020; Total Employees N=30282; Employees
with disabilities N=5870
Employee: Which of the following statements best
describes how you feel in your team/organization?
See notes for more detail on options

16. Culture change hampered by perceptions gaps
67% of executives believe
they create environments
in which employees with
disabilities can thrive, but
just 41% of employees
agree – and just 20% feel
they are fully supported by
their employer.
Source: GTE 2020; Executives N=1748,
Employees with disabilities N=5870
To what extent do you agree or disagree that the
organization has all the right technology,
environment and support in place to enable people
with disabilities to thrive?
% Agree / Strongly agree
67%
41%
Executives Employees with disabilities

17. WHAT CAN COMPANIES DO?
Four key actions for attracting, hiring, retaining and advancing diverse talent:
EMPLOY ENABLE ENGAGE EMPOWER
ACCESSIBILITY

18. The Inclusion Playbook
Digital accessibility and other workplace accommodations are clearly
important areas of focus for any organization looking to advance
inclusion of persons with disabilities. At Accenture, for instance, we’ve
put in place:
• A central Accessibility Center of Excellence (CoE) to proactively meet the needs of our people with disabilities,
along with Accessibility Centers in seven different locations around the world. The goal of the centers is to
provide a space where persons with disabilities can interact with accessible technology, demonstrating our
accessible design leadership and best practices.
• Currently, 75% of Accenture’s technology applications are accessible
• Our Adjustment Request Tool, any employee with disabilities can easily ask for an accommodation such as
assistive technology, flex work arrangements, sign language interpreters, screen readers and more.
• And to inspire growth, we launched Abilities Unleashed, a unique internal development program for persons
with disabilities to become authentic leaders and effective role models and to explore career paths and
development opportunities.

19. 19
Accessibility Business Case
Lucy Ruck
20 July 2021

20. 20
20
We are Business Disability Forum
We believe the 26 million people in the UK and over 1 billion people
worldwide with disabilities and long-term conditions enhance the
social and economic health of our societies.
We exist to remove barriers in business structures and Government
that prevent disabled people from thriving and contributing in this
way.
www.businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

21. 21
21
The Technology Taskforce is
about organisations working
together to make technology
accessible for everyone.

22. 22
Five themes of the Accessibility Business Case
Innovation
Diverse ideas
create new
opportunities
Inclusion
Inclusive
design leaves
no one behind
Brand
An inclusive
brand
outperforms
Productivity
Accessible
solutions boost
productivity
for everyone
Compliance
Raising the
bar reduces
the risks

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Elevator pitch
Without accessibility you are excluding people with disabilities,
the largest minority group in the world that anyone can join at
any time. This will impact your brand, productivity and
compliance.
Companies that are intentional about accessibility have tapped
into a talent pool that sparks innovation; develop products and
services that are inclusive by design; improve customer
engagement; increase revenue and reduce the risk of litigation.
It’s not only the right thing to do, it makes great business sense.

24. 24
The Accessibility Maturity Model (AMM) what
is it and what does it aim to do?
• What does good look like?
• Developed by business for business
• Self assessment tool
• A free resource developed by world leaders in
accessibility

25. 25
Useful resources
• BDF website
• Accessibility Business Case outline
• Accessibility Business Case (slides)
• Accessibility Maturity Model (AMM)
• Technology Taskforce resources

26. The Business Case for Accessibility
Business case for Inclusive Design
Robin Christopherson

27. The Business Case for Accessibility
Why design inclusively
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28. The Business Case for Accessibility
Bad digital design = bad business
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29. The Business Case for Accessibility
Poor design disables us all
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30. The Business Case for Accessibility
The benefits of inclusive design
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31. The Business Case for Accessibility
Features out from under the hood
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32. Reuben Evans, Intuit UK’s Accessibility Lead
Intuit QuickBooks
Accessibility
July 20, 2021

33. ©2021 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. 33
Who are we?
Intuit
Intuit
Intuit is a technology company which specializes in financial software. Intuit is best known in the UK
for QuickBooks: financial management software for small businesses and the self employed. Intuit’s
other products include TurboTax, Mint and Credit Karma. Intuit has a stated mission of “Powering
Prosperity Around the World”. Intuit scales its accessibility expertise throughout the company via a
network of over 700 accessibility champions.
Reuben Evans - Software Engineer and UK Accessibility Lead
Reuben Evans is one such champion and is the UK Accessibility Lead for Intuit.
He joined Intuit in 2018 as a software engineer, helping develop the capability of
QuickBooks Online for taxes in the UK. In his role as accessibility lead he has
worked across the product teams with other engineers, designers and product
managers to help develop the expertise within the organisation.
reuben_evans@intuit.com

34. ©2021 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. 34
Accessibility First
Design
Accessibility First Design
involves designing for one,
and extending to many. For
example, designing a self
assessment submission
process for someone with
severe dyslexia. If you ensure
your design is easy for
someone with dyslexia to use,
it will also be easy for
someone without dyslexia to
use.
Inclusive Design
Inclusive Design is Universal
Design but including everyone
in the design process itself.
Interviewing people with
disabilities; people who work
three jobs; people who are
carers. The aim is to create a
design which is inclusive of
everyone.
Universal Design
Universal Design is design
which works for everyone. It is
the ultimate goal for our
designers: to create
something that anyone can
use.
Building products that work for everyone

35. ©2021 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. 35
Relevant links and blogs from Intuit
Intuit’s Accessibility Homepage
Details Intuit’s approach to accessibility and our commitment statement
Empowering global teams to deliver accessibility at Intuit - Reuben Evans
Blog post detailing the journey we have been on in the UK and at other global sites to build an accessibility community
Proving accessibility is worth it with analytics - Josh Harrison
Josh Harrison is the accessibility lead for QB Time (formerly T-Sheets). In this blog he shares an approach they have
taken to quantify how many users take advantage of what were initially accessibility bug fixes.
Building an inclusive experience: Why accessibility matters - Ted Drake
Ted Drake is Intuit’s Accessibility leader. In this blog post he shares why building inclusive products is important for your
customers, as well as an introduction to basic testing techniques and further learning resources.
Setting priorities for accessibility issues - Luis Garcia
Luis Garcia is a member of Intuit’s core accessibility team. He wrote this blog to share an approach to prioritising
accessibility specific bugs versus competing priorities.

36. The Business Case for Accessibility
Q&A
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37. The Business Case for Accessibility
Useful Resources
• Business case: infographic; 10 tips; download the business case for accessibility
• Find out more about our accessibility products and services
• Download a brochure about AbilityNet and what we do
• Download our training catalogue
• Find out more about role-based accessibility training
• View our rolling programme of free webinars
• Find out more about workplace services
• Find out more about TechShare Pro and TSP365
• For details of our Digital Accessibility Maturity Model +44 (0)1926 465 247
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