In 2018, 4.4 million Australians lived with a disability.
Problem Statement
How might we enhance Telstra’s digital experiences for people with disabilities?
In order to provide equal access to digital content, Telstra is obligated to follow web accessibility laws and guidelines outlined in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1992, the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Ensuring inclusive access is not only morally right, but also beneficial in terms of increasing market share and mitigating legal risk.
Our Telstra teams lacked awareness and understanding about how people with disabilities interacted with digital platforms. Additionally, we did not have any programs that focused on promoting inclusion and creating psychologically safe spaces for open discussions, which could ultimately drive innovation.
The idea
Establish an inclusion advocacy program and create accessibility training workshops.
- To build empathy
- Increase awareness
- Provide education
The results
We hosted more than 25 workshops, with over 450 Telstra employees and Telstra now boasts a team of 17 dedicated accessibility experts.
These workshops laid the groundwork for the entire company to prioritise creating inclusive digital experiences for all users.
Impacts:
Accessibility embedded into Design System components
HR training modules revised
Developer capability uplift recognised
Since 2018, Telstra has remained steadfast in its commitment to meeting the WCAG 2.1 AA standards for all of its digital assets.
The Process
1. Understand
Using surveys, interviews and existing data, we researched various disabilities with people of lived experience to better understand the pain points experienced. We also looked into any assistive technologies available on the market and how they interact with websites and apps.
2. Define
We facilitated brainstorm sessions as a working group to identify the main challenges, unpack the intended learnings, discuss target audiences and address how we could best communicate the training in the most impactful and relevant manner.
3. Ideate
First sketched to visualise our ideas, then moved on to designing task cards to outline the activities that would help showcase the impact of poor digital accessibility build. We also created or gathered any physical props required to support the task card activities, such as blurred goggles, black out masks and any test devices with the relevant apps downloaded as required.
4. Execute
In order to refine our offering, we first tested the workshops with small groups, running retros after the sessions to capture feedback in order to iterate for improvement where needed. Every session was different, and we always learnt something new ourselves!
Deliverables
The Telstra Empathy Lab
A program dedicated to driving diversity and inclusion in design and technology at Telstra. Initiatives include workshops, presentations and guest speaker series to build awareness and promote advocacy.
Digital Accessibility Immersion Workshops
1 hour long interactive workshop sessions, aimed at fostering empathy by providing participants with experiential learning opportunities to see things from the perspective of people with disabilities. Through these sessions, our teams were provided with a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by people with diverse needs when navigating digital platforms.
Guest Speakers
We frequently invited professionals knowledgeable in accessibility, diversity and inclusion or have a strong interest and enthusiasm for these areas to deliver presentations. These experts may include accessibility specialists, D&I consultants and other external design or technology professionals.
Speakers included:
Adem Cifcioglu, Director at Intopia, Melbourne’s premier Digital Accessibility Consultancy
Matiu Bush, Bolton Clarke Business Innovation Senior Strategist who developed the One Good Street social networking initiative
Kat Bak, trans non-binary Product and UX Designer who advocates widely for empathy in leadership.
Data sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics