An empathy lab is the chance to start discussions on accessibility kickstarted by a collection of materials that encourage users to consider how users with a range of disabilities and impairments may interact with the world using assistive technologies and what kind of barriers they may face.

The All Able empathy lab is an in-person event where members of our team engage attendees in conversations around the services provided by our host organisation, their role, the kind of content they create and how they can get to the next level of making accessible content.

The event, as the name describes is about creating empathy. We do not encourage sympathy for disabled users, but instead focus on the blockers we as service or content creators put in place and appeal to attendees that small actions on their part can have big differences to the people that need it.

Time spent in an empathy lab can help users to understand the impact of their work that they may not have thought about before. This may then raise questions that they can follow up with their disabled user base to better tailor services to suit all their customers’ requirements.

All Able empathy labs are always a positive environment to encourage future good practice and deeper thought on how we all build services for everyone.

One of the hurdles to embedding accessibility into organisational practice is getting buy in from staff, not making accessibility seem like a chore and showing the important reasons why accessibility is so important. To do this, a positive atmosphere to help attendees learn more about the reasons why we want to be accessible and feel empowered or motivated to take action can be a great first step to easier adoption of future accessibility policies.

After Brent Tech week, the council has seen immediate change to how accessibility is considered at all levels including increased feedback from staff and practical activity on improving services.

Going forward, the aim is to make sure accessibility is considered a priority in work streams. When the council prioritise building accessibility into the plans now, it does not become a rush at the end of a project, but something that is considered and worked on the entire way through.