We talk about technology as the great equaliser. It connects us, empowers us and creates opportunity. But for millions of people living with disabilities, digital spaces can still feel like locked rooms disguised as open doors.
Imagine applying for a social grant on the SASSA portal, only to find that the online form cannot be navigated using a keyboard. Imagine relying on a screen reader to check your NSFAS application status, only to find the interface filled with unlabelled buttons that announce nothing but “click here”. Imagine trying to access a municipal billing system on a feature phone, without captions, without alternative text and without any concession to the fact that not every user interacts with a screen in the same way.
These are not hypothetical scenarios. They are the daily reality for a significant portion of South Africa’s population. Today, on the 15th Global Accessibility Awareness Day, they deserve our full professional attention.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), observed on the third Thursday of May each year, was founded in 2012 by web developer Joe Devon and accessibility professional Jennison Asuncion to focus the technology community’s attention on digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities. This year’s theme, 'Design, Develop, Deliver', challenges us to make accessibility an integral part of everything we build, not an afterthought we promise to address when there is more time, budget or capacity.
Globally, approximately 1.3 billion people, 16% of the world’s population, experience a significant disability, according to the World Health Organisation. In South Africa, Census 2022 data from Statistics South Africa recorded a disability prevalence of 15.7% of the population. The South African Constitution, in its equality clause (Section 9), explicitly names disability as a protected ground against unfair discrimination. The White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2015) further commits the government to ensuring that people with disabilities can participate fully in society. Yet the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) still only recommends, rather than mandates, that government websites conform to even the most basic level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2 Level A). Between the constitutional promise and the digital reality, the gap is wide.
The cost of 'phase two' thinking
Accessibility is too often deferred until the end of development projects, tucked away between “future enhancements” and “next sprint”. It becomes a promise to revisit when deadlines ease. But deadlines never ease, and inclusion does not become less important as a release date approaches. When digital public services, grant applications, healthcare portals, banking platforms, education systems and recruitment websites are inaccessible, people are not merely inconvenienced. They are excluded from employment, education, financial participation and the basic services the Constitution promises them. That is not a usability issue. It is an equity issue.
Good design should not require people to adapt themselves to technology. Technology should adapt to human needs.
This matters acutely in South Africa, where digital inequality already exists across multiple dimensions. Access to stable internet, affordable data, reliable devices and digital literacy remains uneven. For someone living with a disability in an under-resourced community, a poorly designed digital service is not a minor frustration. It is another layer of exclusion, compounding already formidable barriers.
Accessibility is engineering, not charity
The encouraging reality is that accessible design rarely requires radical reinvention. Clear heading structures help screen readers interpret content accurately and enable all users to scan a page. Captions make video content accessible to deaf users and to anyone in a noisy environment. Strong colour contrast supports users with visual impairments and improves readability for everyone. Keyboard navigation assists users with mobility limitations while also serving power users who prefer efficiency. Accessible design does not lower the standard. It raises it.
As a software developer, one might encounter this not in a textbook but in a code review. A senior engineer returned a pull request with a single comment: “If a screen reader can’t parse this, it’s not done.” That sentence can change how one thinks about “finished” code. Accessibility is not a separate work stream. It is the hallmark of the engineering discipline, the same discipline that demands clean architecture, tested edge cases and documented APIs. The question is not whether we can afford to build accessibly. The question is whether we can afford to call ourselves professionals if we do not.
Who builds decides who belongs
When the teams building digital products lack diversity, blind spots become structural. Inclusive technology is far easier to create when teams include people with varied lived experiences, perspectives and ways of engaging with the world. This is precisely where the work of organisations like Women in IT (WIIT) intersects with the accessibility conversation. Building a more representative technology sector is not separate from building more accessible technology. It is part of the same imperative.
Research consistently shows that diverse teams, including gender diverse teams, are more likely to anticipate a wider range of user needs, challenge assumptions about how “typical” users behave and design for edge cases that homogeneous teams overlook. When more women are in the room where technology decisions are made, the technology that emerges is more likely to serve the full spectrum of people who will use it. Inclusion in technology is not only about who gets hired. It is also about who gets considered when solutions are built.
There is also a commercial reality that reinforces the ethical one. Accessible products reach broader audiences, reduce legal and compliance risk, strengthen brand trust and consistently improve overall product quality. The equity argument stands on its own. The business case reinforces it.
GAAD plus one: What you can do tomorrow
Awareness matters. But what matters more is what we do with it. Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Tomorrow is the day that counts.
If you are a developer, run your current project through a WCAG 2.2 audit, even an automated scan, which will surface issues you did not know existed. If you are a designer, prototype your next interface with a screen reader running. If you are a tester, add accessibility to your test plan before the next release, not after. If you are a team lead or a CTO, put accessibility on the agenda for your next sprint planning session and ask: who are we unintentionally leaving behind? If you are a technologist at any level, take one hour this week to explore the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, not as a compliance exercise but as a professional development investment.
As South Africa continues its digital transformation, inclusion cannot be optional. Not for businesses. Not for public services. Not for educators. Not for any of us who build the systems that other people depend on.
Innovation is not measured only by how advanced our technology is. It is measured by how thoughtfully it serves people. A truly innovative digital future is not one that works brilliantly for some. It is one that works for everyone.
Share
Editorial contacts