The UX-Conf Switzerland, held on January 16, 2025, in Geneva, brought together over 80 digital professionals—passionate men and women eager to explore the challenges of digital accessibility and engage with experts who spoke during a panel discussion and two conferences.
"It is essential today to design digital experiences that are accessible!" With these words, Simon Vogel, CEO of Smile Switzerland, set the tone as he kicked off UX-Conf Switzerland 2025. The topic of digital accessibility, at the core of this event, highlights the importance of including all users in the technical considerations behind digital tools. Specifically, UX-Conf Switzerland 2025 focused on individuals living with disabilities—a reality affecting one in five people in Switzerland, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.
From this perspective, "accessibility is a major issue for all our clients," explains Yann Cadoret, Director of UX-Republic. Nathalie Lambert, Director of UX-Republic Switzerland, reinforces this point: "Digital accessibility is much more than a regulatory obligation. It is a human-centered approach, a commitment to greater inclusion, and an opportunity to create truly universal digital experiences."
Living more independently with digital tools
Enabling millions of people to communicate, work, learn, and live more independently through digital tools—that is the ambition of digital accessibility. "For businesses and organizations, it is also a driver of innovation and a way to strengthen their social responsibility," notes Nathalie Lambert.
For Sylvie Podio, the first guest speaker at UX-Conf Switzerland 2025 and Director of Pro Infirmis in the Canton of Vaud—an organization that advises, supports, and assists people with disabilities—talking about digital accessibility for all requires a deep understanding of the many realities of disability. But how exactly is a disability defined? It results from the interaction between personal factors—such as physical, sensory, or cognitive characteristics—and environmental factors, which can create social or material barriers.
According to a recent survey by Pro Infirmis, people with disabilities feel restricted in many aspects of their daily lives, particularly in the workplace. "In this context, digital technology can either be an enabler or an obstacle," emphasizes Sylvie Podio.
Implementing participatory workshops
Pro Infirmis is particularly focused on digital accessibility through its website, www.info-handicap.ch , which aims to strengthen self-determination and promote autonomy for people with disabilities, including those with cognitive impairments. The website prioritizes simplified navigation and, whenever possible, the use of Easy-to-Read and Understand (FALC) language, while deliberately avoiding chatbots, which some users find intrusive.
Sylvie Podio underscores a key point, echoed by other UX-Conf speakers: truly accessible digital tools must be developed using a collaborative approach involving all relevant users and UX experts. One effective method is participatory workshops, where people with disabilities can share insights on what they find helpful in digital platforms and highlight persistent challenges.
Regulations, standards, and legal requirements
Olivier Nourry, digital accessibility consultant, builds on Sylvie Podio’s discussion during the second major presentation at UX-Conf Suisse 2025 by outlining several best practices for digital professionals. According to him, an accessible digital system must be perceivable, usable, and understandable. It should be designed from the outset with people with disabilities in mind, including those who use assistive technologies. “Designing a digital tool while considering the needs of people with disabilities from the very beginning is not only about respecting a human right recognized by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but it is also a major advantage: by being inclusive from the start, a digital solution reaches a broader audience and meets the expectations of a diverse range of users.”
Olivier Nourry also highlights several regulations, standards, and legal requirements related to digital accessibility, such as the ISO guidelines for Web Content Accessibility (WCAG), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States (which led to more than 4,000 lawsuits in 2024), the European standard EN 301 549, which specifies requirements for making information and communication technologies accessible to people with disabilities, the European Digital Accessibility Directive of 2016, and the European Accessibility Act (EAA), which comes into effect in 2025—requiring companies to be prepared, as all new digital services or products distributed in the European Union must comply with EN 301 549. In Switzerland, relevant legislation includes the Federal Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against People with Disabilities.
The complexity of modern digital interfaces
Beyond these regulations, standards, and legal requirements, the participants in the roundtable discussion following Olivier Nourry’s presentation at UX-Conf Suisse 2025 aimed to highlight why digital accessibility is an essential, useful, and beneficial approach for both public and private organizations today.
Léa Gambini-Loffroy, digital experience manager at TAG Heuer, emphasized the importance of clear governance on this issue from company leadership, as well as continuous training in this field for digital specialists, including designers, developers, testers, and content contributors. For Tristan Kohler, digital commerce manager at Nestlé Nespresso, “accessibility is essential to ensuring an optimal experience for all consumers.” He pointed out the complexity of modern digital interfaces and the need to simplify the user experience to enhance accessibility. Aziz Orfia, co-founder of Eyecap, a young Swiss company developing a prototype of a connected swimming cap that allows visually impaired and blind individuals to swim safely and independently, stressed the importance of integrating accessibility from the very beginning of any project. Finally, Julien Conti, an accessibility expert for the State of Geneva, lamented the slow progress in raising awareness and implementing concrete initiatives on these issues within administrations and organizations. As a blind person, he experiences firsthand the challenges posed by poorly designed digital tools, making their use particularly difficult for him and others with disabilities.
At UX-Conf Suisse 2025, he illustrated these challenges through a striking demonstration, navigating a website using a screen reader with high-speed vocal output and a braille keyboard. This hands-on example allowed the audience to grasp the often-overlooked difficulties faced by many digital professionals and the significant progress still needed to make accessibility a greater priority.
Understanding the different realities of disability
Digital tool designers, to promote accessibility for all audiences, must take into account the multiple types of disabilities that users may encounter. The impairments of people with disabilities can concern, for example, vision (blindness, low vision, color blindness, reduced visual field, etc.), hearing (total or partial deafness, auditory processing disorder, etc.), motor skills (paralysis, amputation, musculoskeletal disorders, tremors, etc.), cognitive and intellectual abilities (dyslexia, language disorder, concentration or memory issues, etc.) or mental capacities (depression, social anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, phobias, etc.).
What are assistive technologies?
Assistive computer and digital technologies for people with disabilities take various forms and range from screen readers, to captioning and written transcription options for oral expression, to adapted keyboards, voice assistants, filters applicable to certain content, or spell checkers.
