The person must be placed at the centre. This is one of the conclusions of the round table ‘Accessibility by use’, which took place on 28 November during Around 2024, the annual meeting of the AIS Authorised Entities.
The round table was moderated by María Jesús Conde, head of the Technical Department of Fundación ARS, and comprised Cristina Fernández, Associate Director of the technical area of Property Management at Savills; Ana Navas, Urban Planner in the Cities, Planning and Design department of Arup Madrid; and David Prieto, President of the association for the defence of the right to web accessibility (ADDAW).
‘An accessible design adapts spaces to the needs of all, guaranteeing inclusion and functionality’, said Cristina Fernández, who explained that “nowadays accessibility is not only one of the most important parts of the regulations, but also works according to use, and special emphasis is placed on the user of the building”.
‘It’s not just about applying general criteria but about focusing on the user, because in the end it’s the people who use the spaces,’ concluded the Associate Director of the technical area of Property Management at Savills.
For her part, Ana Navas considered that, although compliance with the Technical Code is important, ‘each of the uses has a type of user and we as consultants must help to guide how to make this space more usable, more accessible to all’.
In the digital sphere, David Prieto agreed with the analysis. ‘The key is to focus on people. ‘It is about understanding that the digital application is going to be used in different ways by different people, that it must be adapted to the needs of those people and that it must be able to be used on equal terms by everyone,’ he concluded.
Usability and accessibility
Also discussed during the round table ‘Accessibility by use’ was the relationship between the terms usability and accessibility, concepts that ‘are directly linked’, according to David Prieto.
‘When we talk about accessibility we go to extremes, for example, to the person who cannot use the mouse, but it is not like that, accessibility affects many more people. It is to understand that when you make something more accessible you also make it more usable,’ said the president of the Association for the Defence of the Right to Web Accessibility.
To this, Ana Navas pointed out: ‘Any space has to be accessible, but each space has to be understood as unique’.
