Digital Accessibility: Implementing Prabowo Government's Asta Cita
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Every Thursday in the third week of May, the global community celebrates “Global Accessibility Awareness Day” (GAAD), a worldwide initiative aimed at raising awareness about digital accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities.
This significant day underscores how crucial digital access and ease of use of digital products and services are for everyone, without exception, including those with disabilities.
Technological advancements have transformed daily human life. Previously, the focus was on physical objects and direct interactions. However, thanks to technological progress, we have shifted towards using digital platforms.
The existence of websites to mobile applications has enabled all aspects of life, such as learning, meeting clients, and shopping, to be conducted from anywhere and at any time. Naturally, this is a positive development, particularly in promoting effectiveness and efficiency.
Nevertheless, sometimes one aspect is overlooked in technology development: digital accessibility. The follow-up question is, what is the meaning of digital accessibility? Why is it important to implement it?
For whom
Imagine you need to complete a task with a deadline using an application. However, in a certain condition, you struggle to read text due to disruptive colour contrast. Or a specific situation requires you to read text at a certain size, but you cannot access it because the size is inappropriate, either too small or too large.
Isn’t that disruptive? Furthermore, doesn’t it affect your work, thereby reducing productivity?
Or a visually impaired person who struggles to access a digital website because there are no accessible facilities. Doesn’t that violate equal opportunities to obtain information?
Therefore, it seems we need to reflect again on the meaning of digital accessibility.
Digital accessibility is a concept referring to the development and design of the web to ensure ease of digital or online access for everyone. The goal is for a website or application to be accessible, understandable, and easily usable by all users.
It should be understood that not all users access websites or applications in the same way. A website or application is considered accessible if it can be understood and navigated by various users (universal design).
Simply put, an application or website must also be comprehensible to someone with visual impairment. Every item containing information must be accessible to them with the aid of a screen reader. Additionally, the application or website must be usable without a mouse or trackpad, solely with a keyboard.
However, beyond being comprehensible to those with visual disabilities, effective implementation of digital accessibility can also help individuals access information more precisely. For example, users can adjust the text size or page colour contrast, making it understandable for those with specific needs.
Thus, if effectively implemented, doesn’t accessibility make it easier for anyone to access information?
Promoting accessibility
Internationally, there are digital accessibility guidelines that serve as standards for digital accessibility arrangements and have been adopted into positive law in several countries. One such guideline is WCAG 2.0, which provides guidance for achieving digital accessibility. This document was published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in December 2008 and introduced significant changes from the previous version of the guidelines (WCAG 1.0), which was officially released in May 1999.
Although updated by WCAG 2.1 and 2.2, the core principles remain the same, providing guidance on four accessibility principles.
These four principles are: perceivable, meaning it can be reached by users in an easier way; operable, meaning web or application developers provide ways to help users navigate and find content; understandable, meaning it can be easily comprehended by users; and robust, meaning it maximises compatibility with users and can be applied sustainably.
Although international guidelines exist to regulate digital accessibility, Indonesia lacks technical rules governing digital accessibility, including guidelines for its technical preparation. Yet, the right to information is mandated by Article 124 of Law No. 8 of 2016 on Persons with Disabilities.
The absence of standards, procedures, and clear regulations has consequences, including frequent digital accessibility violations in the government sector. Based on research by Suarise, more than 2,000 accessibility violations were found in a sample of 34 provincial government websites in Indonesia. Among these violations, the most common issues include low colour contrast, empty links, and images without alternative text.
In contrast to Indonesia, the United States has had accessibility guidelines implemented since the 1990s. Although implementation is not uniform across states in the US, some state jurisdictions have equated digital space with public space, as regulated in Section 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990.
Section 3 of that law also regulates the prohibition of discrimination based on disability in public places. As a note, in several US states