63% of the world’s current population utilizes the internet, according to Data Reportal. Humanity has become more reliant on computers, the internet, and mobile devices to work, communicate, and manage our daily lives.
Within this digitally-connected world, it’s critical that as many people as possible can take advantage of new technologies, especially in industries that lag behind in the digital transformation movement.
According to Mozilla, “Accessibility is the practice of making your websites usable by as many people as possible.” Without accessibility options within modern tech, a considerable portion of the US population is disadvantaged when utilizing the technology necessary to accomplish their daily tasks.
The CDC has found that nearly 25% of US adults live with a disability. And while accessibility options are critical for those with disabilities, it benefits other groups as it focuses on making technology understandable, usable, and creates a better experience for everyone.
To understand accessibility-oriented design, it is important to better understand existing accessible technology and why they were designed in the first place.
User Characteristics To Consider When Evaluating Accessible Technology
There are many user characteristics you should consider when evaluating different technology for your business, like those who:
- Have trouble seeing
- Are colorblind
- Are unable to hear
- Have limited bandwidth
Accessibility Options for Individuals Who Have Trouble Seeing
Individuals who are blind typically utilize two outputs, audible and tactical. Screen readers help these individuals read web and computer elements by outputting synthesized speech when their cursor hovers over certain words or web elements, like images and videos. Some popular screenreaders are ChromeVox and NVDA, which are compatible with Chrome web browsers and Windows 10/11 respectively.
Many also use tactical outputs, like a refreshable Braille Device. These devices work similarly to screen readers, but instead of outputting speech, it creates braille characters by moving small pins in and out of the device. Everyday Sight has an excellent article detailing the 5 best braille displays for those who are blind or visually impaired if you are looking for recommendations.
Colorblind Accessibility Considerations
People who are colorblind may have difficulty seeing the contrast between background and foreground colors and have trouble seeing certain color combinations.
According to the National Eye Institute, those who are colorblind often struggle with:
- Red-green: Individuals with red-green color blindness have difficulty telling the difference between red and green. This is the most common type of color blindness
- Blue-yellow: This less-common type makes it hard to distinguish the difference between blue and green, and between yellow and red
- Monochromacy: Those with monochromacy have complete color blindness, which means that they cannot see color at all
When considering a cash management platform, you want to ensure that individuals with these different types of color blindness have an easy time seeing graphs and illustrations, or better yet, have access to custom color options. This way, they can gain rich insights into your organization’s cash reports and forecasts without any limitations.
Accessibility Options for Individuals Who Have Trouble Hearing
Video and audio content, like podcasts, can become quite a headache for those who are deaf or have trouble hearing. For this reason, it is critical that your cash management platform, and the company’s supporting video and audio resources, are captioned and/or provide a transcript.
Many of Trovata’s webinars that provide rich insights into thought leadership topics, like Building the Treasury of the Future and Three Ways Finance Leaders Align Cash Flow Forecasting and Strategic Planning, feature full transcripts, making it easier to get webinar content in a more digestible format.
Limited Bandwidth
Sometimes disabilities don’t include conditions pertaining to our physical bodies, as technological disadvantages are also a huge issue regarding accessibility.
According to the FCC, “19 million Americans—6 percent of the population—still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population —14.5 million people—lack access to this service.”
Considering many platforms, including streaming services, banking, and cash management platforms, are now built in the cloud and still require the internet to access, it’s critical to make sure that web pages and cloud platforms are low-lift from a memory perspective.
If a cash management platform still requires a lot of memory to load, teammates who may be traveling or do not always have great access to broadband internet may not be able to utilize it.
Why Consider Accessibility Within Cash Management?
Knowing your automated cash management partner places importance on improving the accessibility of their platform demonstrates that they care that your organization has an overall better user experience.
Platforms that prioritize having multiple options for individuals, with or without disabilities, to consume comprehensive cash reports and forecasts make it that much easier to share rich insights throughout your entire company.
Accessibility Options Create a Better User Experience
Putting a focus on accessibility simply creates a better user experience for everyone. Our team continues to design Trovata to be more accessible by the week.
You don’t have to click much to navigate the platform due to our comprehensive, custom dashboards. These dashboards provide rich insights into your cash flow, empowering you with the data needed to make more effective decisions.
Makes It Easier to Share Rich Insights Throughout Your Entire Organization
If a platform requires a lot of steps or clicks, doesn’t work with screen readers, or fails to provide accessible color options, you may be limiting access to insights to those who are hard of hearing, have trouble seeing, or are color blind.
By ensuring your automated cash management platform is accessible to these individuals, you can make it easier to share these rich insights across your entire organization.
Automate Tedious Manual Processes with Trovata
Our team at Trovata is working constantly to make our platform more accessible to all individuals to ensure it is easy for businesses to automate cash reporting, forecasting, analysis, and money movement. We are excited to increase our accessibility options as we continue to build out the platform over time.
But for today, you can still take advantage of our analytics platform to automate the aggregation and normalization of your data across your multitude of bank portals, Trovata empowers you with a comprehensive suite of automated cash reports and forecasts enriched with powerful insights into your cash flow.
Eliminate tedious manual processes and learn about how Trovata is designed with accessibility in mind. Request a demo today.
