Across the world, laws and regulations require digital services to be accessible to all people, including those with disabilities. However, in practice, the majority of existing digital services still do not meet accessibility standards and legislation. As a result, millions of people with disabilities are excluded today from important digital services broadly available in everyday life. This is happening for a variety of reasons, including the lack of proper understanding of accessibility issues as well as the limited support and training in applying established accessibility guidelines correctly.

ACCESS4ALL (work in progress) provides a new methodological human-centered approach in developing accessible digital services ‘by design’. It offers an innovative online platform with easy-to-use tools and clear guidance to practically support the variety of professionals involved in digital service development, while also facilitating the effective engagement of end-users, including individuals with disabilities. The objective of the proposed solution is to render digital accessibility a ‘built-in’ part of a collaborative design process, empowered by cutting-edge AI technologies.

Access4All is based on the Human-Centered Design process, adjusting and extending this approach to conceptualize a concrete methodology that will ensure the accessibility of developed e-services, by guiding the involved stakeholders on how to achieve it. Most importantly Access4All makes available the necessary tools that enable stakeholders’ online collaboration, end-user engagement and final product validation and assessment.