What is the Social Model of Disability and how can you use it to improve digital accessibility?
In this article
Society should be designed to meet the needs of everyone living in it.
The social model of disability holds how people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their medical condition or disability.
A video from Scope explaining what the social model of disability is.
Adopting the social model empowers individuals with disabilities by recognising their right to access the same opportunities as everyone else. It shifts the responsibility from individuals to society, encouraging us to remove barriers and build environments that accommodate diversity.
The social model places the focus on barriers in society
Barriers can be:
Physical, like buildings not having accessible toilets.
Digital, such as websites that can’t be used with a keyboard.
Attitudes, like assuming people with disabilities can’t do certain things.
The social model helps us recognise barriers that make life harder for people with disabilities. Removing these barriers creates equality and offers more independence, choice and control.
Digital and the social model
With digital accessibility, the social model has a profound impact. Digital accessibility involves designing technology and using digital to remove barriers so that it is usable by everyone.
By focusing on creating inclusive digital environments, you can make sure that no one experiences frustrating barriers to accessing your content.
How can I avoid digital accessibility barriers?
Here are a few tips to get you thinking about the potential barriers that could be within your content.
2. Use a high colour contrast within your designs.
High contrasting colours can make information easier to read in both dimly lit and harsh lighting situations, as well as making sure it’s readable for people who experience visual barriers.
3. Display text in small chunks.
Large blocks of text can be difficult to understand, breaking it down into smaller sentences makes it easier to skim read and process information.
If you are using initials to refer to something in your content, don’t assume people will know what they mean, always include explanations.
6. Make sure you can use a keyboard to navigate (you may need help from your developer to fix any issues).
If you make your content keyboard accessible, you’ll also be making it easier to use with assistive devices like head switches or screen readers. Learn how to use a keyboard instead of a mouse.
7. Provide captions and audio descriptions for video content.
Captions and audio descriptions make video and audio information accessible for a wide variety of people, including those who experience visual or hearing barriers, or those who need extra context about the information, as well as people in noisy or quiet environments.
8. Offer alternative formats for your downloadable PDF resources like Word, as PDFs are often not checked for accessibility.
When creating downloads and resources, think about the formats you can deliver the content in, many people have a preferred format, or are unable to use PDFs.
Mobile app accessibility examples:
1. Offer voice commands.
Many people like to use speech to text solutions to navigate on their phones or computers, it is also useful for filling out forms or messaging for a lot of people.
2. Make sure text size is adjustable and can be made bigger.
Always check this feature works on a variety of devices like phones, tablets, and computers. Many people will enlarge text to make it readable.
3. Use large tap targets and button sizes.
Make it easy for people to click or tap your buttons by making them nice and big.
4. Allow people to pause moving content.
Moving content can be distracting so the option to turn it off can benefit many people.
Online learning platform examples:
1. Learning resource videos that include captions and audio descriptions.
Captions and audio descriptions make video and audio information accessible for a wide variety of people, including those who experience visual or hearing barriers, or those who need extra context about the information, as well as people in noisy or quiet environments.
2. Providing transcripts for videos.
Transcripts are useful for all sorts of reasons, as well as being accessible for scree readers, they are also handy for when your internet connection speed isn’t up to playing a video.
3. Providing descriptions of graphs and charts.
How often have you benefitted someone talking you through what a graph or chart is saying? This is often overlooked, it’s easy to include a short summary describing what it is telling us and how to read it. Here is a guide to describing graphs and charts.
4. Giving plenty of time to complete tasks or avoiding time-based activities.
Don’t assume everyone can fill in a form in the time you think is reasonable, it’s best to avoid content that will time out if an action isn’t taken in time.
5. Providing live captions and sign language interpreters for webinars and online events.
Create events and experiences that everyone feels welcome and can attend by including captions, and BSL.
Using the social model to create accessible digital content means we’re not focusing on whether someone is blind, deaf, or neurodivergent. Instead, we’re asking how our content, or the stories we are telling, can be accessed by our different senses. We are asking ourselves; “have we created an accessible environment that is fit for purpose?”.
The social model of disability challenges us to rethink the way we view disability by helping us to shift the focus away from individuals and onto the barriers in society and our environment that hinder accessibility. This model encourages us to create a more inclusive environment for everyone.
You can read more about the Social Model of Disability on the Arts Council England website, and discover how it is influencing projects like All In, an arts access scheme dedicated to improving experiences for people with disabilities when attending creative and cultural events.
If you’d like to explore this topic in more detail, feel free to reach out to our digital accessibility Tech Champion who can help you make sure your content is accessible to everyone.
Further support
The Digital Culture Network is here to support you and your organisation. Our Tech Champions can provide free one-to-one support to all creative and cultural organisations who are in receipt of, or eligible for, Arts Council England funding. If you need help or would like to chat with us about any of the advice we have covered above, please get in touch. Sign up for our newsletter below and follow us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter) @ace_dcn for the latest updates.
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