Accessibility Experience Design (AxD): A Bi-directional Accessibility Perspective for e-Business Services

Abstract

This chapter proposes the idea of accessibility experience design for e-business services, as a bi-directional accessibility perspective for e-business growth in market share. The study is based on the needs for social justice, inclusion, and access on one hand, and business profit on the other. e-Business services have continued to grow with advancement of web and mobile business applications, which give better access to customers and influence the public. Awareness of the need for universal accessibility, to the services which are progressively being offered online, has also increased. Recently, accessibility policies and regulations have become more visible. However, even with the current COVID-19 situation and the shift to online mode, e-business services still lag in web and document accessibility. The resultant loss of access to the sub-population of impaired people results in missed business and market expansion opportunities. Therefore, this chapter explores the current drivers of accessibility practices, adoption by e-business services, and their market implications. The bi-directional accessibility perspective is proposed through the notion of accessibility experience design. The chapter is based on secondary research, which is complimented with demographic analysis of existing population data sets.