But what about internal software?
With panic levels about the European Accessibility Act rising, I keep encountering people who are certain this doesn’t apply to them because they work on internal tools or SaaS products. So let’s deconstruct that thinking a bit:
True, the EAA primarily covers tech hardware and its operating systems, e-commerce services, e-books, and anything needed to access transportation and banking services without having to rely on staff. In short, all the necessities for a self-determined day-to-day life.
However, the cool thing about the EAA is not that it forces you to build your application accessible (you should already be doing that), but that it doesn’t give you a specific instruction on how to. Which I think is brilliant! This forces you to actually learn about accessibility instead of just following a checklist.
What does that mean for internal systems?
In Austria, companies with 25 or more employees are required by law to hire individuals with disabilities. For every 25 employees, a company must employ one person with disabilities. That’s approximately 4% of the workforce.
Many companies don’t meet that requirement and pay compensation instead. “Let’s just keep paying the fine” is not really a sustainable business model. And definitely not a smart talent strategy. Especially given that the amount of compensation due per unfulfilled position increases with the number of employees. And I don’t know your clients specifically, but from my experience, the companies that need custom-tailored software or tools strictly for internal use, are usually not that small. So if you are ever told “We don’t have any employees with disabilities using that tool” you should reply “But you should” (level of sass adjustable).
From all of this, we can deduct that whatever internal tool or Software as a Service you are developing, you should always assume that 4% of your future users will have a disability.
What disabilities count towards those 4%?
Great question! Because as I keep typing over and over again here: Disability is a spectrum. And you don’t just wake up one day with a 100% maxed-out disability level. Okay, usually you don’t. Hypothetically you could, if for example, you experienced a stroke during your sleep. But you would still have to go through the boss battles of your social system, on the quest for official recognition to acquire the legendary artifact that is, a disability ID card.
Not just anyone with a disability can fill the mandatory 25th-employee quota position. That person also has to have a disability level (“Behinderungsgrad”) of 50% or more. Fun fact: In Austria, employees who use wheelchairs, or are legally blind count double towards the quota. Your company could hire one legally blind person as its 51st employee and would save 640€ per month in compensation taxes.
Footnotes:
In German it is referred to as “Behinderungsgrad”, hence I translated it here as “Disability Level” but if you have a more fitting wording, please e-mail me at Laura@HopeTech.Vision
