There’s a good chance that organizations are unintentionally excluding people

‘Accessibility can’t be tested with just a tool, you need people for that!’

Wim Nieuwenhuize has been working at Capgemini since 1997, initially in commercial roles and as a project manager, and these days as a coach. Wim is affected by a progressive eye condition that causes his field of vision to decrease over time. This impairment forces him to carefully organize his day – and be selective in the digital devices he uses. ‘I want to come home from work every day feeling good.’

Wim Nieuwenhuize uses digital tools, documents and websites daily – despite his ever-shrinking field of vision. That often works out fine – but certainly not always. Many websites don’t take people with visual impairments into consideration at all.

In this interview, Wim talks about the obstacles he encounters, about the simple solutions that make all the difference, and about why digital accessibility is much more important than generally assumed. ‘When I see dark gray letters on a light gray background, I leave almost immediately.’

‘I want to come home from work every day feeling good.’

Could you briefly introduce yourself?

“I work as a coach at Capgemini. I help my colleagues find direction in their work and development. This could mean helping them with career related matters, or personal issues. For example, I help colleagues who want to boost their self-confidence and people who are struggling with perfectionism.”

You previously worked in commercial and project management roles. Why did you switch?

“I was increasingly drawn to the human side of things: guiding team members, having conversations, connecting. That’s what makes my work so special. My vision also slowly began to deteriorate, so I had to think about what a good job in my situation would be and what gives me energy.” 

How did that work out?

“I have a hereditary and progressive retinal disease that causes my field of vision to get smaller and smaller. Normally you have a field of vision of about 160 degrees – mine is now reduced to just a few degrees, like looking through a narrow tube. If someone is in front of me and I look at their eyes, I can’t see their chin at the same time, for example. The sharpness of my vision also decreases.” 

“Driving a car became unsafe, so I stopped doing that back in 2000, and later I stopped riding a bike. I adapted my way of working step by step. In 2015 I made a permanent switch to coaching. I can put my passion, experience and energy into this work – and I can keep doing this, even with limited vision.”

What obstacles do you encounter online?

“Let me put it this way: I notice immediately when a site is not properly accessible. For instance, dark gray letters on a light gray background – not enough contrast is hugely frustrating for me. Reading texts like that takes a lot of energy. Or buttons that are nowhere to be found, let alone where you might expect them to be.”

“A second important point is that many people with visual impairments use the keyboard to navigate. If I hit Tab, I should be able to get to the right spot step by step. But on some sites you need to hit tab thirty times before you get there. It’s exhausting. If something simple like that requires that much effort, I give up.”

If a site is important to you, what do you do?

“I always use scaling – I magnify everything on my screen, to 155 percent with an external screen, and to 220 percent if I’m using my laptop. That helps, but also creates new problems: proportions change, buttons disappear, elements move around. It becomes difficult to keep an overview, or even to perform a simple action.”

Are there times when it becomes really frustrating?

“Certainly. There are websites that frustrate me because I simply can’t get through them. Some sites are so cluttered, garish and unstructured that I give up after just a few minutes. Everything is mixed up, there are too many buttons and too many visual elements, so I can’t get a clear overview.”

“On several occasions I’ve missed something essential, not because it wasn’t there, but because it was hardly visible. Once, when booking a trip, I couldn’t find the confirmation button. Or when I was requesting a refund from an online store, I accidentally clicked the voucher button instead of the cash refund button. The two options were using a very small font size… These things are really frustrating.”

“Some websites I have to use, like the Tax Department. In cases like that, I ask my partner for support, because I know that if I make a mistake, the consequences are huge.”

Until now, we’ve mostly talked about what doesn’t work. Are there websites that do a good job in this respect?

“I am always looking for contrast, overview and predictability. Sites that are well designed provide you with some footing: I see where I am, where I can go, and what is expected of me. A good example is the website of the Postcode Lottery. Well-designed buttons, bright colors, and you immediately see where to click. Everything interacts as you would expect – that inspires confidence.”

“Keyboard navigation works well too on this website: I don’t have to press Tab endlessly to get somewhere. That may sound like a minor detail, but it makes a huge difference.”

Are there other elements that work for you apart from color, structure and navigation?

“Yes, consistency in design, for example. If buttons look the same every time, are in the same location and respond in the same way, I don’t have to search. And it’s a relieve when the font is sufficiently large, uses a high contrast and is sharp – no bland, thin fonts or trendy colors.”

Besides these points, are there other things you would like to say to website developers and designers?

“Certainly! Test your website using people who live with an impairment. What seems logical to a designer is sometimes entirely unclear to a user. Someone with limited vision, like me, sees things differently. You can only improve when you take these matters seriously.”

“Secondly, incorporate accessibility in the design process from the get-go. Think about buttons, contrast, font size and navigation. If you get that right from the beginning, the technical foundation will be much better. That’s good for the website, and for target audiences.”

That advice is mostly about what you can do before you launch a website. Suppose you already have a site. What is the best way to find out if it is sufficiently accessible?

“Again: have it properly tested. Don’t just use an automated tool, but work with real people who encounter your site daily. Tools are useful for detecting technical defects, like missing Alt text or poor contrast. But they don’t see how someone with poor vision really navigates your site and where they get stuck. You only realize these things when you let people experience it for themselves.”

“You really don’t need to rig up an exercise that takes months, by the way. Invite two or three people with visual impairments, and observe how use  your site. Where do they click? Where do they give up? This gives you insights no tool is able to provide.”

What would you say to organizations don’t consider people with disabilities as their target audience?

“You are most likely, unknowingly, excluding a huge group of users. In the Netherlands alone, more than four million people have a moderate or severe disability, according to Statistics Netherlands. Not all of those people are affected by a visual impairment, of course, but it does give you an idea of the amount of users that would benefit from accessible websites.”

“Another important point is that accessibility is not just about people with disabilities. It’s about ease of use for everyone. If you think your target audience has no disabilities, then you are making it unnecessarily difficult for yourself and all your users.”

What happens when organizations don’t take accessibility seriously?

“Chances are that these organizations exclude people – besides customers, that could mean other users or even employees. Disabilities can affect anyone. Not just today, but later in life as well. Because of a condition, an accident, or simply due to aging. True inclusivity means that organizations are already taking that into account.”

“Yet you see that accessibility is often not even on the agenda until there’s an issue. For example, if people give up, submit complaints or reputational damage occurs. But then you’re too late. I am happy to see that at Capgemini there is an increasing focus on digital accessibility. The usability of tools and platforms is being taken more and more seriously.”

Finally, by June 2025, many organizations will have to comply with the European Accessibility Act. That law requires companies to offer digital services in line with WCAG guidelines – the international standard for accessible websites. What would you like to say to companies as that deadline approaches?

“The WCAG is the bare minimum. It’s a technical guideline that helps make websites accessible, but that doesn’t mean everything is taken care of. Accessibility is also about ease of use, about clear language, about intuitive navigation. Ask yourself: can everyone use my website in a satisfying manner? If you take that seriously, you are not only compliant, but more importantly, inclusive.”

Wondering how you can take steps toward a more accessible website today?

Check out our interview with Dionne de Vries, in which she gives practical tips for designers and developers. Useful for now – and indispensable with the June 2025 accessibility law on the horizon.