Towards cross assessment of physical and digital accessibility

Abstract

Our digital and physical worlds are becoming increasingly interconnected. Digital services reduce the need to physically move hence to have to face physical accessibility barriers, but it becomes then more critical to make sure they are not replaced by digital accessibility barriers. In order to assess the interplay of both worlds from the accessibility perspective, we collected available data and used automated tools from three different perspectives: one starting from physically accessible places and looking at the digital accessibility of their online services, the second going the other way and finally a representative sample of services inside a smart city. Globally, we found a good combined level of accessibility in about one third of the places. Mutual strengthening could also be observed, usually greater on the digital accessibility side and revealing that awareness actions in one field also contribute to improve the other.