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Hi there!
Welcome to Loud About Inclusion where we discuss real-world disability inclusion for leaders: stories, strategies and next steps.
This month’s theme is Accessibility Is Not Optional.
With Safer Internet Day (11 Feb) coming up, a lot of organisations will push online training, policy refreshers, and security updates. That’s a perfect moment to ask a practical question:
If someone can’t access the training, the forms, the videos, the portal, or the “required” steps to do their job - how safe, compliant, or productive is that environment really?
Here’s the truth: accessibility is a baseline requirement, not a “nice to have.” And when it’s missing, the cost is paid daily by disabled employees and customers - through extra time, workaround fatigue, errors, and exclusion.
If you ever want to tell me where your workplace gets stuck, just hit reply. I read every response.
Melissa Ogden, Founder & Director of Inclusive Business Solutions
At a Glance
Big Idea: Accessibility is a baseline requirement—not a “nice to have.”
Lived experience: The hidden workload of navigating inaccessible docs, tools, and processes.
Inclusive Practice: Fix the top 5 digital barriers (docs, captions, forms) and embed accessibility into procurement.
New: I’m launching Loud About Inclusion Premium today to give you the worksheets and video tools to fix these barriers for good. Join as a Founding Member this month for a permanent discount.
Feature Article
Accessibility isn’t optional: the 5 fixes that remove daily friction fast
Alt text: A scene of converging railway tracks. switchbacks and multiple power poles
Most organisations don’t intend to exclude people. But exclusion happens when everyday tools aren’t usable: onboarding PDFs, HR portals, mandatory eLearning, meeting decks, forms, intranet pages, procurement decisions.
Why it matters
Inaccessible tools:
quietly block participation (people miss information, can’t complete steps, can’t contribute equally)
create risk (non-compliance, safety issues, process failure, reputational harm)
drive avoidable workload and burnout (“workarounds” become a second job)
Accessibility isn’t an “extra feature.” It’s how work gets done.
What to do (a simple 45–60 minute setup)
Here’s a practical way to start without a big program:
Step 1: Choose your “Top 3” everyday journeys (10 mins)
Pick the workflows people touch constantly, such as:
onboarding (forms + policy docs + training videos)
requesting adjustments / HR updates
submitting timesheets / expenses
accessing team updates / all-hands meetings
Step 2: Run a mini accessibility audit (15 mins)
Test each journey quickly for common barriers:
Docs: headings used properly, readable font size, clear structure, meaningful links, alt text on key images
Meetings/videos: captions on by default, accessible slides, agendas shared in advance
Forms/portals: keyboard navigation works, fields labelled, error messages make sense
Security steps: multi-factor options that don’t rely on one method only; instructions that are readable and not image-only
Step 3: Identify your “Top 5 barriers” (10 mins)
Don’t boil the ocean. Pick the five issues that cause the most friction and affect the most people (e.g., “training videos have no captions,” “forms time out,” “PDFs are scanned images”).
Step 4: Fix the Top 5 (start this week) (10 mins)
Aim for high-impact wins:
standardise an accessible document template
make captions default for meetings and recordings
replace scanned PDFs with properly structured documents
simplify or extend timeouts on critical forms
publish “how to request support” in plain language, in one easy-to-find place
Step 5: Embed accessibility into procurement (5 mins)
This is the part that stops the problem coming back.
Add accessibility requirements to purchasing decisions and renewals
Ask vendors what standards they meet and how they test
Don’t buy tools that your people can’t use
Final note: progress beats perfection—especially when you focus on the barriers that hit daily.
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A New Way to Go Deeper: Loud About Inclusion (Premium)
If you’ve been reading Loud About Inclusion for a while, you’ll know this newsletter has always been about practical inclusion — not just good intentions.
Each month, I share ideas, lived experience, and actions you can take. But I also hear a consistent question: “This makes sense, but how do I actually do it?”
So I’m introducing a Premium subscription for readers who want to go deeper and build inclusion into real systems, decisions, and everyday work.
Premium is designed to support implementation, not just insight.
As a subscriber, you’ll get access to:
A growing library of downloadable worksheets and tools
Practical resources you can use immediately — like accessibility audit checklists, templates, and planning tools — with new additions added regularly.Exclusive video content
More personal, in-depth discussions on each monthly theme, plus short “how-to” clips and (over time) interviews that explore what inclusion looks like in practice.Quarterly deep-dive sessions
Longer-form content that explores complex inclusion topics in depth. These will be shaped by reader input and requests, so the focus stays on what you actually need support with.
This is for people who want to move from knowing to doing — whether you’re working solo, leading a team, or influencing systems from within.
Founding Member offer
To recognise early supporters, I’m offering a Founding Member rate for a limited time.
Annual subscription: $149 p/a
Founding Member annual rate: $129 p/a (locked in while you remain subscribed)
Monthly option: $15 p/m
Founding Members help shape what this becomes — and your feedback will directly influence future tools and deep-dive topics.
How to join
Subscribing is simple:
Join via a secure Stripe payment link
Premium content will be unlocked and delivered through Beehiiv
You’ll continue to receive the free newsletter — Premium just gives you more depth, more tools, and more practical support.
👉 Become a Founding Member of Loud About Inclusion (Annual Discounted Fee $129)
👉 Monthly premium subscription of Loud About Inclusion ($15 per month)
Thank you for being part of this community — and for doing the work of making inclusion real.
My experience
The “Accessible” Seat I Couldn’t Book
Alt text: A large crowd at a concert with both seated and standing zones. There is purple lighting and a smoky haze around the stage.
I recently went to book concert tickets at a venue that proudly advertised a hearing-loop system for people with hearing aids. As a profoundly deaf professional, this is exactly the kind of inclusion I look for.
But when I opened the online booking tool, the "inclusion" hit a wall.
To book a standard seat, you could do it in seconds, online, at any time of day. But to book a seat in the hearing-loop section? The instructions were clear: "Please call our ticketing office."
I was instantly frustrated. It was just another hurdle to jump. For me, telephone conversations carry a heavy cognitive load and are often inaccessible. Because I was booking out of hours and didn't want to miss out on tickets while waiting for a business-day phone queue, I made a choice: I booked the non-accessible seats instead.
Think about the irony of that: I sat in a seat where I couldn't hear as well, specifically because the process to access the "accessible" seating was too difficult to navigate.
This is what happens when we treat accessibility as a "workaround" rather than a core requirement. When you force people into extra steps, phone calls, or "special" processes, you aren't being inclusive - you’re creating a friction tax.
The Lesson: If you have a service or a tool dedicated to accessibility, it must be as simple to use as the general version. True inclusion isn't a "call us during business hours" footnote; it’s building the solution directly into the tool so everyone can hit 'confirm' with the same ease.
This month’s Inclusion Play
Quick (10 mins): Make one document accessible today - use headings, meaningful link text, and add alt text to any image that carries meaning.
Team (30 mins): Test your top 3 tools as a group (meeting platform, HR portal, intranet). List the top friction points and assign an owner to fix each.
Leader (This week): Commit budget and set a rule: no new tool purchase/renewal without accessibility requirements.
Inclusion Win
Have you made an accessibility improvement—big or small?
Reply and share:
the change you made (e.g., accessible templates, captions rollout)
who owned it
what changed for people day-to-day
For example:
“We rolled out a new accessible doc template and made captions default in all-hands. Comms owns the template; IT owns meeting settings. Done by end of Feb.”
Coming Next Month
Next month: Neurodiversity at Work — moving beyond awareness to systems (clarity, sensory load, predictable processes, and reducing friction in how work gets done).
Watch this space: We will be expanding the newsletter to include exclusive content for paid subscribers… more to be revealed in February!
Work with me
If you want to quickly identify your biggest accessibility blockers and prioritise fixes that will actually stick:
Book a 30-minute discovery call and we’ll map the highest-impact starting point for your organisation.
About Melissa Ogden
Melissa Ogden provides leaders with practical insights into workplace inclusion. Combining lived experience as a profoundly deaf business professional with strategic planning and commercial management experience across multiple industries, she helps leaders through advisory, consulting and workshops tailored to meet the business exactly where it is in its journey.
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