Maricel Cabahug, Chief Design Officer at SAP, explores how inclusive design and accessible technology can help everyone participate in business.
Accessible Technology
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that access to information technology is a basic human right. Enterprise software vendors like SAP must ensure that all of their customers and employees can use our software. Barriers that hinder a person from contributing their talents to their workplace negatively impact corporate and social progress.
SAP strives to create software that can be used by as many people as possible. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 1 billion people in the world currently living with a disability. Of those 1 billion, 80 percent of cases are acquired in later life, and our aging global population means the prevalence of disability is on the rise. This means at some point you may need options for interacting with your digital systems that you don’t use right now.
Technology for All
Accessibility covers the minimum set of requirements that must be supported to make information technology available for users with sensory disabilities. Accessibility includes aids such as screen readers, magnifiers, high contrast themes, and braille keyboards. Inclusive design practices consist of making accessibility workarounds as much of an exception as possible. Although exceptions do still exist, inclusive design lowers the barrier for everyone and improves overall user experience. When accessibility requirements are part of an inclusive design, we increase the overall experience factor and the number of users who can work with the system.
SAP provides several visual design themes for SAP Fiori. The standard theme delivers a highly legible and usable design. But, SAP offers several visual themes to accommodate user preferences, environmental circumstances, and visual acuities. There are others still who have unique needs from a design theme to work efficiently. This is why SAP offers a variety of themes and allow users to easily set their preferences.