A Blog About Accessibility, Digital, Marketing, and AI
Today I'd like to talk about the crucial need to measure and manage digital accessibility. Concrete results and progress matters. Let's explore how to gauge the impact of your accessibility efforts, set key performance indicators (KPIs), celebrate achievements, and keep the momentum going.
As you journey towards fostering a more accessible digital environment for your business, it's essential to have access to the right resources. Here is a curated list of key accessibility resources that can serve as invaluable companions on your accessibility journey.
I was a speaker an Oct. 17, 2023 Nonprofit Quarterly webinar where I spoke on the topic of accessibility. You can listen to it here.
Some of the topics we covered included:
There are several popular marketing frameworks that can be very useful for non-profits to create compelling content. Let's take a look at the SCR framework.
The Situation-Complication-Resolution (SCR) framework is a storytelling and problem-solving structure that can be invaluable for non-profits in creating compelling marketing ad copy.
So what exactly is SCR? Let's break down an example of how a homeless shelter non-profit can use each component of the SCR framework for fundraising.
Many people tout the productivity benefits of AI, but there hasn't been much data to back that up.
This article from One Useful Thing provides some study data to show the benefit of AI, in this case for a consulting company.
Looking at 18 different representative tasks, the consultants using ChatGPT-4 considerably outperformed those who didn't use the tool. Specifically:
"Consultants using AI finished 12.2% more tasks on average, completed tasks 25.1% more quickly, and produced 40% higher quality results than those without." (Source)
The article goes on to show how productivity boosts with AI is somewhat dependent on how you choose to use it. AI is great for tasks like idea generation (see this related article), while other tasks that would seem to be easy for machines to do (like basic math) are challenges for LLMs.
See the full article, it is well worth a read.
I've seen several 'How Do Chatbots and LLMs Work?' videos, but I think this one is a perfect introduction video that you could share regardless of a person's technical knowledge. I like simple videos like this to help people understand that AIs like ChatGPT, which use Large Language Models, aren't some magical, sentient computer creatures.
When you get down to its basics, the AI is just guessing the next letter in a sentence using an amazingly large database. If you play around with chatbots for a bit, you'll soon see that the 'guess the next letter' technique works really well for some tasks (rewriting your messy notes from a meeting) but not others (doing complex math). Chatbots are also still apt to 'hallucinate' where they flat-out make things up.
Despite the fact that a chatbot is just 'really good at guessing', we still want to find guardrails to make sure chatbots and AI are used ethically and safely. Open AI (the ChatGPT folks) recently announced they were carving out 20% of their annual budget to find ways to put safeguards on their AI. I personally would like to see all knowledge workers get at least a basic understanding of AI so that we can use it responsibly.
“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”
— Eliezer Yudkowsky
Seeing all the new developments in AI takes me back to the glorious '80s – a time when big, frizzy hair-doos and mullets were in vogue, and when The Hoff (David Hasselhoff) graced our television screens in the iconic series, "Knight Rider."
I remember being glued to my TV watching Michael Knight and his trusty AI-powered car KITT embark on high-octane adventures. Each episode KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand model AI) showcased its futuristic features: KITT's self-driving prowess, voice recognition that always understood Michael's requests (even in the middle of an '80s power ballad), or its ability to make decisions to save the day. It was almost as if Siri and Alexa had taken vehicular form, decades before the first smartphone.
I was a guest on Pursuant's Aug 29, 2023 'Go Beyond' podcast where I spoke on the topic of accessibility. You can listen to it here.
Here's the description: "Steve Jobs famously wanted the iPhone design to be so simple that a child could use it just by picking it up. As a result, Apple set the standard for inclusive and accessible design. And in an age where our interactions grow more digital by the day, accessibility can't be overlooked. In this episode of the Go Beyond Fundraising podcast, we're talking with Stan Shinn, Mark Leta, Kacey Crawford, and Russ Chettiar on why accessibility matters and how nonprofits can achieve it. Now is the perfect time to ensure your digital campaigns and websites comply with accessibility standards. With end-of-the-year appeals being developed and sent out before you know it, you'll want to ensure that every piece is fully optimized for its target audience. Let's dig in."
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, ensuring accessibility isn't just a one-time project -- it's an ongoing commitment. To truly embed accessibility into your company's DNA, it's crucial to raise awareness and get your entire team on board. In this article, I'll explore effective strategies to bolster accessibility awareness within your organization and foster a culture of inclusivity.