Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeProtectAvePoint Supports Global Accessibility Awareness Day #GAAD

AvePoint Supports Global Accessibility Awareness Day #GAAD

​Today marks Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Throughout the day, individuals worldwide will participate in in-person and virtual events to get people talking, thinking, and learning about digital accessibility and users with different disabilities.

As we continually – and increasingly – move more and more of our business platforms, processes, and systems online, it is vitally important that everyone has equal access to these systems, regardless of their physical abilities. According to a factsheet from the United Nations, approximately 10 percent of the world’s population (650 million people) – and growing – live with a disability. This percentage also increases as the population ages.

IT systems containing accessibility issues, broken links, improperly tagged or missing images, and slow-loading pages can create a negative experience for users. This can reduce how often individuals visit websites, which can then limit how much of an impact organizations’ product or solution messages have.

Want a dollar figure associated with this impact? According to the aforementioned UN fact sheet, in the United Kingdom, 75 percent of the companies in the FTSE 100 Index on the London Stock Exchange do not meet basic levels of web accessibility – which equates to missing out on more than $147 million in revenue.

Suffice it to say that including accessibility management as part of your development plans, quality assurance, and testing practices will have a tremendous economic advantage. Additionally, requirements for accessible system design are becoming a part of regulatory and statutory frameworks for countries worldwide. Some of these include Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments in the United States as well as the guidelines some of these frameworks point to as provided by the World Wide Web (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

At AvePoint, we’re undertaking multiple initiatives to provide you with a more accessible experience on our website and to continually work to ensure our own products and solutions are accessible. On top of that, we are aligning with like-minded organizations to offer and support solutions to ensure you are able to meet the current and future needs of all of your constituents.

· In April 2013, we announced our partnership with the Business Disability Forum’s Technology Taskforce and agreed to sign its Accessible Technology Charter, which means we are committed to ensuring the accessibility of any technologies used by clients, customers, and colleagues.

· AvePoint Compliance Solutions empower you to create, implement, remediate, and monitor compliance with accessibility requirements. Quickly assess and prioritize accessibility issues as well as identify non-compliance with corporate standards, industry regulations, and legislation concerning accessibility and other compliance issues.

· AvePoint also offers AvePoint Accessibility Accelerator (AAA), an optional add-on for AvePoint Compliance Guardian that provides accessibility and usability enhancements for Microsoft SharePoint environments. AAA helps provide a reusable framework to provide best practices for SharePoint accessibility and accessible design as part of the development process.

This is just the start – stay tuned for more updates from AvePoint on how we will continue to innovate with products and solutions to meet the global accessibility community’s needs both now and in the future.

What will you be doing for Global Accessibility Awareness Day? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Dana S.
Dana S.
Dana Louise Simberkoff is the Chief Risk, Privacy and Information Security Officer at AvePoint. She is responsible for AvePoint’s privacy, data protection, and security programs. She manages a global team of subject matter experts that provide executive level consulting, research, and analytical support on current and upcoming industry trends, technology, standards, best practices, concepts, and solutions for risk management and compliance. Ms. Simberkoff is responsible for maintaining relationships with executive management and multiple constituencies both internal and external to the corporation, providing guidance on product direction, technology enhancements, customer challenges, and market opportunities. Ms. Simberkoff has led speaking sessions at data privacy and security events around the globe. She was featured in Forbes, writes a monthly column for CMSWire, and was highlighted in the CSO Online list of “12 Amazing Women in Security”. She is a current member of the Women Leading Privacy Advisory Board and a past member of the Education Advisory Board for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Ms. Simberkoff holds a BA from Dartmouth College and a JD from Suffolk University Law School. LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danalouisesimberkoff/en Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/danalouise

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