The Value of Digital Accessibility and Inclusivity in Cybersecurity
2025-09-05 , Second track

An insightful and practical talk about how accessibility and security are linked, how you can solve common problems that could arise for people using assistive devices or software, and what to gain from doing so.


Although cybersecurity and accessibility may seem like unrelated topics, they are closely linked. If people don't have the knowledge, resources, or energy to protect themselves against threats, who will? Often enough, people are ridiculed when they fall for phishing emails or are scammed over the phone. Even protecting your computer from viruses and malware is still too often left up to users. That is not a desirable situation. So, software and cyber program developers have a great responsibility to protect users. Digital accessibility is also very much about security. Can you let everyone log in safely? Does someone with a screen reader understand whether the website they are reading is secure? Does your software work well for someone who is blind and uses a Braille display? And what if someone has dyslexia or is functionally illiterate? In short: do you take into account people with disabilities, who may use non-standard devices and may have a different context than usual? In my talk, I will delve deeper into problems that can arise when you do not, or do not sufficiently, take digital accessibility into account. Of course, I will also provide some tips and tools to solve the most important problems yourself.

While studying ICT back in the day, Annelies discovered early on that ICT is not accessible for many (if not most) people. Even though after that she didn't go into hardcore IT, she always kept connecting to the tech industry in various ways, for example by having a blog about consumer tech. Since 2018, she has been diving into accessibility and what this means for businesses and the people who make the digital world. She has been spreading awareness and sharing insights and tools in several podcasts, webinars, (international) events and more for a few years now. Annelies is an accessibility expert at Accessibility Desk/Digitaal Toegankelijk in Utrecht, The Netherlands.