Accessibility at ANWB: this is how to get it on the agenda

For most people, the ANWB is a well-known organization. Not surprising when you consider that it is the largest association in the Netherlands with 4.6 million members. The Wegenwacht is a well-known service, but ANWB also offers such things as insurance, energy contracts, vacations and hiking clothes.

Passionate colleagues start a working group

Together with his team, Erwin develops the building blocks that other teams on anwb.nl can use to create pages, applications or user flows. These building blocks are things like a button, an accordion component or a title for an information page. Erwin previously worked within the central government at ICTU, so accessibility holds few secrets for him.

Since last year, accessibility has been increasingly on the agenda at ANWB as well. How did that come about? “Late last year, colleagues from our UX team heard at an event that due to European regulations, all organizations must ensure that their channels are digitally accessible. Then they started talking to colleagues at other large organizations to see how that works and how they approach it. As a large organization with millions of members, we also have a social role, so we want to be accessible to our members. That led us to start a working group on accessibility internally. In it were UX colleagues, developers, front-enders and content marketers, because we quickly found that you need all those disciplines for accessibility. The first question I got from managers was what is mandatory and stated in the law in terms of accessibility. That's why someone from legal affairs was also involved,” says Erwin.

Accessibility as a 'must do': how does it get prioritized?

A working group is not enough. For that, accessibility has to be put on the agenda internally. Erwin and his working group colleagues started by sharing the importance of accessibility internally. “Within ANWB we meet quarterly with all the teams working on digital channels to discuss what we are working on now. I thought that was a great opportunity to get accessibility on the agenda, for example by working on alt texts. I had prepared my pitch for this well with the result that we were going to do this. But eventually it turned out that it got bogged down in all kinds of priorities and nothing happened. We then went to management and explained what was coming in terms of regulations. While there won't be an immediate fine, as an A-brand we do want to provide quality and not be at the bottom of a list. I also shared examples of what other large organizations are already doing with it. This is how the idea arose to start making sure there is sufficient knowledge internally.”

Erwin and his colleagues have put the most important topics about accessibility into a knowledge base. In addition, they have developed an e-learning program which will soon go live. Everyone working on anwb.nl has to follow it. So with that, was accessibility already part of the regular process? No, something more was needed.

To ensure that accessibility did not suffer because of other priorities, something else was needed. Erwin: “Within ANWB, we then refer to ‘must do’ things. If you want something to become a 'must do,' you have to argue that in a strategic meeting. That's what we did and that has ensured that from 2025 accessibility is a 'must do' for all teams working on anwb.nl. We also have a dozen apps and newsletters. We want to start working on those in 2025 with all the teams involved to make those accessible as well. So we have now achieved that it is really on the agenda.”

Collaboration with Swink

To know what was needed for accessibility, ANWB first had to know what the current situation was. To do this, our specialists did audits for the ANWB's website, apps and newsletters. “The audit of anwb.nl showed that we did not yet score sufficiently on almost all aspects. That helped us show internally what is needed and where we need to go. We still use those results in discussions.”

From his position at ICTU, Erwin already knew Swink. “I approached Swink because I know the expertise is there. Moreover, Swink consciously chooses to employ people who have a disability in one form or another. So it's not just telling, but showing that you really take it seriously. I also hear positive signals about Swink from my colleagues. They find that the audit reports are very clear and practical and logically put together.”

It's starting to come alive more and more

The commitment is there, now there has to be a plan to become accessible. “Right now I don't know what assignment I'm going to give to teams for early 2025. I will be working on that with Bram from Swink soon. I think that's another challenge. I do think it is very cool to see that a number of colleagues are starting to get accessibility. For example, the team responsible for the homepage will start working on making it accessible next quarter. That's even before it becomes a 'must do'. They feel that this is our calling card, so it should be made digitally accessible as soon as possible. I think that's very nice to see. Moreover, the newsletters already almost meet WCAG 2.1 level AA, so we can put a check mark on that soon. I'm happy with that.”