Accessibility should be an essential step, not an afterthought
As one of thousands of disabled people in New Hampshire, I’ve encountered my fair share of access barriers while interacting with Granite State businesses.
That’s part of the reason I began working as an accessibility consultant and founded Neighborhood Access, which has worked with dozens of businesses in New Hampshire and across the country to help them make their spaces and practices more accessible.
In the five years I’ve been doing this work, I’ve come across two major barriers for businesses that want to make their practices accessible: knowledge and funding.
A phrase I often find myself using with clients is, “You can’t know what you don’t know.” Most people have never had to deal with access barriers. They don’t have a trained eye for what makes a space accessible. They don’t recognize accessibility red flags in their language, processes or policies.
An accessibility consultant can help you with all of this and more. Many businesses think that merely complying with building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Designs is enough to make their operation fully accessible.
However, the legal bare minimum standards for accessibility leave much to be desired. For example, they do not address things like full communication accessibility for deaf, hard of hearing, and neurodivergent people, especially those who use assistive technology. They do not talk about ensuring a space has furniture available that is safe and comfortable for people with larger bodies or those with mobility disabilities. They do not talk about accessible social media practices like captioning videos and adding alt text to photos.
Businesses can and must do better for our disabled community members, and that means collaborating with disabled experts to ensure they consider all kinds of access needs. This type of collaboration yields meaningful results; as one of my recent clients in Keene said, “Our organization is stronger and improved for the long haul thanks to the strategic approach to the work we did together.” Additionally, a recent report from Accenture Research found that businesses who prioritize accessibility see 1.6 times more revenue than other businesses.
After working with clients on an accessibility implementation plan, their first question is usually, “How are we gonna pay for this?” Many access needs can be met through free or low-cost methods, but some changes like installing an elevator can cost a pretty penny.
While large businesses often have the resources to rectify access barriers and need to learn how to allocate them appropriately, small businesses have less pocket change to play with.
There are limited tax credits available for businesses that engage in certain kinds of accessibility work, but they don’t close the funding gap. This is why I am calling on investors, economic development incubators and corporate philanthropists to fund accessibility work. A stipend for a small business to pay for the expertise of an accessibility consultant and the remediation of access barriers not covered by tax credit programs would be a huge step in empowering New Hampshire’s small businesses to make their spaces and practices accessible to the disabled community.
We have been left out of the spaces that make our communities special for far too long. It is past time to collaborate on solutions that make accessibility an integral consideration in business operations instead of the afterthought it is now.
Jules Good (they/them) is a queer and multiply-disabled accessibility consultant, disability policy professional, and disability justice practitioner. They are the founder and consulting lead at Neighborhood Access, which has worked with organizations across the country to make spaces and practices more accessible to the disabled community. They are also the programs coordinator at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a grassroots policy and advocacy nonprofit run by and for autistic people. This column is provided monthly to NH Business Review by New Hampshire Businesses for Social Respsonsibility.
