Why Online Accessibility Matters
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 16% of the global population—about 1.3 billion people—experience significant disability. For many of these individuals, the Internet represents a pathway to education, employment, healthcare, social connection, and civic participation. Yet too often, inaccessible websites, applications, and digital content create barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing these opportunities.
When we design online spaces without accessibility in mind, we’re not just excluding individuals—we’re depriving our global community of diverse perspectives, talents, and innovations that could help solve some of our most pressing challenges. As I’ve said many times, we need everyone engaged if we are to address the complex problems facing our world today.
Our Commitment to Accessibility
At the Internet Society and Internet Society Foundation, we take our responsibility seriously to ensure that our own digital properties, programs, and initiatives are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. As part of this commitment, our Board of Trustees approved a policy in April 2023 around building a culture of accessibility across our organizations, and in November 2024 the Board approved an Accessibility Operational Framework and a Website Accessibility Plan that we are now executing.
Over the past year, we’ve made significant progress in building accessibility into everything we do. Our main Internet Society and Internet Society Foundation websites now score very highly in automated testing, meeting WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance standards. This means the new content we’re producing is accessible from the start, not as an afterthought.
But our work goes beyond our own websites. We’re now prominently encouraging grant recipients for local Internet Governance Forum events to use the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD) Accessibility Guidelines, helping to ensure that Internet governance discussions around the world are inclusive of people with disabilities. Our Internet Society Foundation continues to fund projects such as Bangladesh’s first fully accessible online graphic design course for youth with hearing and speech disabilities.
We’ve also made our educational resources more accessible. Almost all courses in our learning management system have been reviewed and are Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) certified, with all new courses being developed for WCAG compliance. We even offer a specialized course called “Disability Leadership Training in Internet Governance and Digital Rights,” developed in partnership with our Accessibility Standing Group.
Our global chapters are deeply involved in this work as well. Just in this year, our Hong Kong Chapter hosted a day about cybersecurity and how AI can be used for scams, with sessions for people with disabilities. Our Benin Chapter collaborated with our Accessibility Standing Group to organize a session on “digital accessibility for people with disabilities.” Our Bosnia and Herzegovina Chapter organized Internet safety training for blind students. And our Zimbabwe Chapter has facilitated basic information technology skills training for over 598 disabled individuals in the Binga community. These are just a few stories of the many lives being changed by the work of our chapters.
Our commitment extends to how we work internally as well. Staff have fully-accessible templates for office products with guidelines for creating accessible documents, and we’re planning more detailed accessibility training for staff.