MD Systems is a member of the Swiss Digital Inclusion Alliance ADIS.
ADIS unites all committed authorities, companies, associations, educational and research institutions under one roof.
We are moving forward so that the momentum does not fizzle out, but instead creates impact through concrete results so that inclusive and barrier-free projects work better in the future.
For technology that serves people. To achieve this, it must be understandable, accessible and trustworthy - for everyone.
We are working in two chapters to bring about change:
Standards & Best Practices
Research & Education
Problem: excessive demands in the project
IT projects are the problem child of public procurement, as they often fail or at least only fulfill part of the requirements. The "additional requirements" of accessibility are overwhelming due to a lack of methodological and technical knowledge. There is often a complete lack of awareness of this requirement - including an understanding of the rights and obligations.
Attempts are then made to implement accessibility as an expensive additional service and entire components may have to be implemented from scratch.
From this perspective, accessibility is mistakenly identified as a complexity and cost driver and then optimized away in order to save money.
At the same time, procurers complain that it is difficult to find competent providers. Suppliers promise a lot but fail to deliver. But how is this possible?
Problem: laws and standards are toothless tigers
Although the eCH-0059 standard has made accessibility mandatory for all public procurement since 2020, implementation often fails.
The reasons for this include a lack of a market, a lack of enforceability and a lack of a penalty standard for non-compliance.
A look at the EU shows that things can be different with the Accessibility Act EAA: a breach can lead to high fines, which means the issue is being taken seriously.
Procuring accessibility correctly
Successful accessible projects are the result of an inclusive project culture and start with the basic attitude in the requirements.
At least three components are required in the tender to ensure optimal conditions:
- A suitability criterion can be used to ensure that only providers who have the skills to implement accessibility are considered.
- A qualitative criterion can be used to evaluate the various approaches to accessibility in the competition. An optimal result can only be achieved if accessibility is an integral part of the method throughout the entire project.
- A warranty clause can ensure that no unexpected additional costs are incurred.
The following applies to public tenders: no digitalization without inclusion, as this is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.
Is that enough to make my project accessible?
For an optimal result, inclusion must be systemically anchored in the project culture.
For private projects, we help to find an optimal barrier-free solution with an economic perspective of maximizing value creation:
Diverse teams are more innovative, more economically successful and their projects are less likely to fail.
And often the various marginalized groups are valuable growth markets. For example, the affluent senior citizens with increasing infirmity.
We are happy to advise on the development of requirements or offer workshops on the topic.
So that this time it really works and does not become an additional burden.
We live inclusion and accessibility in our project culture
All critical functions of our solutions and content are implemented in such a way that they can be operated using assistive technologies. Our projects such as unicef.ch and psi.ch often receive top marks in accessibility tests, although most of our customers do not require certification.
We are also happy to meet more stringent requirements such as certification in collaboration with the Access for All Foundation and other optimizations of assistive usability.
We also teach about inclusive project culture at the CAS Digital Inclusion & Accessibility BFH.
