4. Creating Digital Accessibility Culture
Activity: Responding to Resistance
When implementing organizational change, there will inevitably be those who resist or even outwardly oppose the need for change. From senior executives with considerable power and influence to those “working in the trenches,” each person approaches change from their own perspective and will have different reasons for being concerned.
Readings & References: In the article Overcome The 5 Main Reasons People Resist Change, the author provides five main reasons people resist change:
- Fear of the unknown/surprise
- Mistrust
- Loss of job security/control
- Bad timing
- An individual’s predisposition toward change
Change can be uncomfortable, and, in hopes of avoiding this discomfort, people will often present arguments against it. In this activity, you will consider what arguments your colleagues at Sharp Clothing might make in an attempt to stop or hinder your efforts to introduce accessibility compliance.
Write three possible arguments a resistant employee may give in opposition to implementing digital accessibility, and write a convincing counterargument for each that would help reduce resistance. In each, indicate who the target employee is and/or their role within the organization.
Hints: You might search the Web for statistics or other evidence that demonstrates the benefits of an accessible organization.
Here are some example arguments against change. You may use these or come up with others.
- This has been the way we have always done it.
- We have no people with disabilities as clients.
- It would cost too much to make our website accessible.
- A blind person would not be able to access our website.
- We don’t have the time or resources to implement your accessibility plan.
- We can just use the auto-captioning on YouTube for our promo videos.
- The laws do not apply to us; we only have 25 employees.
