2024 – An Opportune Time to Focus on Accessibility

The year of 2024 has begun. As the afterglow of the New Year begins to fade, many responsible for managing the corporate web are likely considering the projects and measures they have planned for the year ahead. Well, I would like to advise that this year, 2024, is an opportune time to either start working on web accessibility or to further consolidate efforts.

The reason is the enforcement of Japan's revised Act for Eliminating Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (in Japanese)- which is scheduled to come into effect on April 1 of this year.

As we have reported in past Columns (in Japanese), the application of the revised act does not make it a legal obligation for companies to make their websites and applications accessible. However, it's clear the need to proactively focus on accessibility will increase to an unprecedented level.

To support a proper understanding of the relationship between the revised Act for Eliminating Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities and web accessibility, we plan, on January 18, to re-host a seminar on the theme. So, for those not familiar with the revised act, or if you are a webmaster seeking reassurance in your understanding of the revised act, please consider attending our "Revised Disability Discrimination Elimination Act and Web Accessibility" seminar.

Having written the above, you may have a strong impression that accessibility is something for people with disabilities or something to work on for compliance. However, its rather more than that. Increasing accessibility improves usability for all visitors and ultimately contributes to maximizing the effectiveness of websites and apps.

In other words, accessibility is an essential quality of digital content.

The 2024 edition of our classic seminar Introduction to Web Accessibility (in Japanese) is scheduled for February 20 - the content will focus on the theme of "why web accessibility is necessary and important". As the seminar will introduce the fundamentals of web accessibility and its importance, we recommend attendance to webmasters unfamiliar with the theme.

In the above-mentioned seminar, one of the key points emphasized is that maintaining and improving accessibility is an ongoing endeavor. So, while this year presents a great opportunity, companies must not end their efforts at the end of December. Rather, when planning budgets and structuring organizations, they should continue to work on accessibility next year and beyond. Such an approach resembles the manner in which companies seek to ensure security.

Likely due to the approaching enforcement of the revised act, we have recently received a number of inquiries about accessibility. We are very grateful for such inquiries, however, dependent on inquiry nature and due to having a limited number of human resources, we may have to decline some support requests. Nevertheless, if you have any accessibility concerns or challenges, we would be more than happy to hear from you.