In this episode of The One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy is joined by accessibility consultant Danielle Stephens, who sheds light on the urgent need for digital accessibility and its impact on both entrepreneurs and users. Danielle Stephens discusses the widespread lack of accessible websites, how this oversight not only leaves out millions of potential customers but also everyone with different learning and sensory needs. She shares practical, actionable changes entrepreneurs can implement to make their digital spaces more inclusive, and discusses the transformative power of small tweaks—from transcripts and font choices to AI tools and accessibility statements. The conversation highlights how making these changes isn’t just good practice—it’s essential for growth, connection, and equity.

Guest Bio:

Danielle Stephens is an accessibility tester and consultant, working as an independent contractor for Make It Fable Technologies. Living with a visual impairment herself, Danielle Stephens leverages her lived experiences and tech expertise to help companies make their products and websites accessible to all users. She is passionate about digital inclusion and regularly speaks on the intersection of accessibility, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Chapters:

00:00 "Small Changes, Big Impact"

05:36 "Unnoticed Accessibility Challenges"

06:29 "Top AI Tools for Accessibility"

09:34 Learning Preferences and Website Accessibility

16:02 Inclusive Business Opportunities

19:31 "Podcast: Growth, Tips, Transformation"

20:37 Prioritize Accessibility for Growth

Quote from the Guest:

"Accessibility, it's not just a box that you check, but it should be at the forefront and the center of your business."

Link:

Connect with Danielle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-stephens-0809b1113/ 

Welcome to the One Small Change. I am thrilled that you're here with me

today on this journey of exploration, transformation. I'm your

host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience, and I have a passion for discovering

growth through the power of seemingly small change. And every

week, I try to, you know, bring into your world somebody who's got

an amazing story, and they're going to share how

a small, unexpected, or insignificant

decision sparked a remarkable transformation and growth in

their personal or professional life. And this week

we have Danielle Stephens. Danielle, thank you for giving us some of

your time today. Yeah, no, I really appreciate it, and I'm glad

to be here. So this is not the first time we've talked,

and I want you to tell everybody what it is that you do,

because I think they're going to be amazed and how you got to

do what you do. Awesome. So I am an accessibility

tester consultant, and I

have been a independent contractor for the past

three years for a program, a

company called Make It Fable Technologies. And they hire people

with disabilities, like myself to help

different help companies to make their products,

insert products and websites accessible for people

with disabilities. And you have an amazing

statistic. So I want to say this up front and at the beginning of

this so people know how important this is.

Yeah. So the statistic is that

there are 15 million people in the United States that are blind and

visually impaired. However,

those. That's not the statistic that is, like the

most jarring, but the one that is the most jarring

to me is that there are millions of websites that are out

there. Of the millions of websites that are

out here today, that

only 3% of them,

3% are fully accessible

for a person like me, which means that 96%

of them are either partially

accessible or in some cases,

not accessible at all.

And I think one of the things you said to me and one of the

things that I thought was so important, it said, not only are you leaving

money on the table, but you're really leaving people on the table as well.

Yes. I think that is so important to know. But I was.

When you first said this, I was totally blown away, because

this is a problem that entrepreneurs have that

they don't know that they have. And I think

when they hear this, they will be amazed at

some of the things that they can do that can

correct some of these, because that's a lot. I mean,

you know, 96% are not accessible.

The market itself is millions. We're. We're.

We're leaving A lot on the table. Yeah.

Yes. So tell us how you got where you are

so that you are working in this area. So

I've always been interested in tech ever since I was in high

school, and I threw some

coaching and. And some influence

through teachers and other things, other people in my life.

I decided after I got out of college

that it was Covid, and I didn't want to, like,

go into anybody's office or anything like that. And I.

I wanted to really help. Right. I. I was able

to. Thanks to the power of zoom and

cell phones, I was able to meet with a bunch of people, different

entrepreneurs. And one of the things that

I was. I was given a challenge by

one of them, and they told me, they said, hey, you need to create

some type, of course, or go in the business for yourself to help

entrepreneurs. And that's kind of what

sparked it all. And I. I just.

I. I've really.

I've really grown, right, by

doing all the things that I'm doing, being on podcast

and networking and connecting

with so many people like yourself and others.

And now I am about

to launch my program here in the next

six months. And that's. And I only did that

because I've only invested in

myself, right. Because I know that it's not only

a market that is. It's a

market that is much needed, but also that

by being able to connect with people like myself,

you're going to be able to increase your profits and grow your customer

base. Absolutely. And so I want to kind of go back

to what I said. We. It. It's a

problem. Guys, I got a dog. The doorbell

rang. We're live. I don't know how much you're hearing of this.

I want to go back to what we don't

know.

Oh,

all right. I hope that's it. No, it's not. I want to go back to

what we were talking about, that this is a problem that entrepreneurs don't know that

they have. And you may have only been

experienced this when you had a parent that couldn't read something on a

website because they were older. I had a friend who

told me that, and I noticed it for

myself that when the print is gray, sometimes I have trouble

reading it, you know, and there are lots of other ways

that it shows up. So can you talk about some of the

ways that people have trouble interacting with the

websites and things that we take for granted? I guess,

yes. And it's not just the websites. It's. It's other things,

too. But I'm glad You mentioned that, because that actually leads

me into my gift that everybody's going to be getting,

which is it's not only my top 10

AI tools, but this gift really

enables you to kind of get

a glimpse into the world of

digital accessibility and AI from my

perspective. And so within this gift, one

of the tips that I put, put in there was

the fact that using AI bots,

AI chatbots to

help your customers and clients

to be able to get to know you, right? Where they can.

Instead of maybe they don't want to write an email, right? But

guess what? They can go on your website and interact with your

chatbot and ask them, ask it

questions about what you

do and who you serve and about your programs,

right? Also, you can

use different AIs like ChatGPT,

Claude

Otter AI. And you can actually take the,

take your, you can

take your, your,

your audio podcasts,

right? And you can take them and you can

put them in these AIs and they will

literally transcribe them into text for you,

right? So that somebody like myself or somebody who

has a ADHD

can be able to, to read them and

to be able to, to enjoy them, right? For people who don't

like audio, well, they can get a

summary of whatever you,

whatever your video is that you might

have on your website. You can put a transcript there. And guess what?

All you have to do is ask AI to create a

transcript from your video and you

can add it at the bottom, which is something that

I noticed that when web, when people have webinars that are on

demand, they forget to, they always remember

to do the captions, but they forget to put a transcript up the

bottom so the people like myself can follow along.

So this is something that I want to highlight that you're talking

about. So a lot of the things that you're suggesting

that people do are not just for people with

disabilities, but people with different learning styles. Yes.

You know, so for instance, you know, if you are a

visual learner, you typically don't like listening to things.

You would prefer to read it rather than listen to it.

If you are an audio person, you would typically prefer to

hear it when then read it. And so even, you know, even

your regular customers are going to benefit for some of the

changes that you would put on your website. And you know, like

I said, I'm getting older. I know, for instance, you know,

I can take things and just make it bigger on my screen,

you know, if I'm in the chat box or whatever. So I can, you know,

it's Easier for me to use or whatever. But that wasn't the

only thing that we talked about. We, we also talked about,

what's it called? Chat. Yeah, Chatbots. And

like. Oh, captcha. So, yeah, so the, these

little captures that you see all around, whether it's on your

apps, your websites, whatever it might be.

One of the things that is really important is that

you not only have an image for the people that can see,

but also that you have an audio captcha so

that somebody like myself is able to

register for your event or,

or subscribe to your email address, to your email list

without any barriers. And so

I can either listen to it. Like they

have a way that you can play. You can,

it'll. It'll. You can play it. Or if you want to just

put like a text or maybe

numbers or whatever that the person has to

enter right into a text box instead

of just an image. That is something that is such

so helpful because I, I know that I

actually didn't sign up for someone's accelerator

because of the captcha. Everything else was fine, but

when I got to the captcha, I couldn't. It was

not accessible. So I have to tell you, I hate

them. I hate to find which one has a crosswalk,

find which one has a bicycle, find which one has a motorcycle.

Right. Because the pictures are so weird. I think.

So I could see how that could help, you know, not not only people

who are visually impaired, but just people who have, you know, have short

attention spans. Exactly. Like me. I mean, it's like,

you know, if I miss one, am I going to have to do it again?

Am I? You know, so y. And I know the

other thing we talked about was a statement that people

can put on their website. Yeah. So it's called an accessibility

statement. And a lot of times I haven't really seen

it a lot in entrepreneurs websites, but however,

they call it an accessibility statement. However,

I just say put it in your Contact us. Right.

And normally what you can just do is on your Contact us

page you can just say for any

questions or if you need any assistance, like

please write me or email me or call

me. Right. Just so that somebody like

myself can have a place to know that hey,

this person really cares about

making about me and what I have to

offer. And so. Or

you can also do a. Like they have

something called they have an access. I've seen people have

feedback forms and in this little form it just

says it's like an accessibility feedback form. And it. And

ask, well, did you. If

you have Any accessibility issues, please write

them here. Right. So, so that, and,

and we will take your suggestions and

feedback into consideration. So that's also something that you can

do. That's good. That's good.

And, and when we talked before, we were talking about, I mean, those were

the three big ones that I remembered that I think people can

take action on immediately.

But you were saying there, you know, part of it has to do with some

simple things like fonts. Yeah. So it's

like making sure that. So a lot of times these

platforms or social media,

web, social media websites, they have

things already like kind of built into them.

Right. Where it's like, hey, you could turn on alt Text

on Facebook. Right. And, or you can

turn it on on LinkedIn. However, if

they're not available already, there are these things

called Accessibility Checkers where

you can. And some of them are free, some of them do cost.

Right. But there are

ways that you can put your website into

these Accessibility Checkers and it

will literally scan your website and let you

know if your website is accessible and

if it is, how much is it, how much of it

isn't accessible. Right. And

it'll also give you recommendations

on how you can improve it and fix it and make

it better. I mean, that's something that I am going to be

offering to people, but

it's just something that you can do right now because you

can go out and search for Accessibility

Checker. There's plenty of them. One of them I use is, that is

Accessibility Insights. They can call you too,

right? Yes, they can.

Yes, they can. I have a Contact Us page.

I have a. I will, I do have a way

to connect with me and

my gift, actually. Okay. So we, we definitely want to

get the gift. I, I, like I said, I think that this is

really important, important issue because it

is a problem that we have that we

don't know we have. And it is, you know, it is

keeping us from a huge market

and a huge, you know, you know, a huge

group of potential clients that we didn't even know

that we were cutting off. And, and so the first time I talked with

Danielle, you know, at a networking group,

I was like, oh, my God, I never even thought about this. And

so I know that, you know, I know that I have had my disability,

not disability, my, my own visual and, you

know, learning stumbling blocks. So I am

aware of that kind of stuff, but never thought of it in terms of

my business. The other thing I'm going to ask you,

Danielle, is only because I know

the story is Tell us why you picked your background.

So I picked the background because when I was in

high school, I got a chance to attend a program called Protein

Crystals in Space. And I'm a huge science buff as well as a tech

geek. I nerd out on both of these. And I got

a chance to go to Hunville, Alabama,

and participate in a program that allowed

me and some of my other friends to make

protein crystals. And as a result of that, we got

to go to the Kennedy Space center here in

Florida and actually watch this launch happen

where they actually launched into space.

And we all got to like to see it happen

live. I mean, who would have thought, right, that

I was in 11th grade, and

it was honestly one of the highlights of

my year that year. And I can imagine most of

us would love to see a launch and have our project on

a space thing. All right, so let me ask you, when was the last time

you did something new? For the first time, on Wednesday, I

participated in Ponta Palooza. I participated before

as a general admission, but I was interviewed

on five podcasts, and that

was. It was awesome because I got to

talk about my. My. What I do

and who I serve from five, and I get to.

I got to do it with five different people who do

all do different things, which means that I got to give

five different perspectives of about the same

topic. So you. You. You

enlighten five different audiences about the problem that they

have that they don't know they have. Okay, Exactly. And one of

them. One of them is not only going

to be a podcast, but it's going to be

a part of a book that's.

Yeah, it was all about AI, and so

I'm gonna be a part of a book as a result of

participating in that on that podcast. That's

fantastic. All right, before we run out of time, I need to slip in the

commercial, and so I hope everybody will take a moment to

subscribe, share, and engage in on social media with the

podcast. I did it so to help you to supercharge

your business and to bring people into your orb that you may

not have met to find tips that are going to help you

and grow and fuel your quest for growth and impact. So I hope you

will continue to. To tune into the one small change

and, you know, see where even the smallest shift can

yield monumental transformation. And if you haven't done

it, you may want to listen to some of the, you know, the one off

episodes. The one. The first one that explains why I did what I. Why

I decided to do this podcast, but also the

ones that are the the quarterly clarity check ins which talk

about things to think up with about the upcoming quarters

and possible trends. So

Danielle, what is, you know the last thing you

want to leave our listeners with? So I want to leave you with

two things. One is that

accessibility,

it's not just a box that you check, but it should be

at the forefront and the center of your business.

And two, if you're not accessible,

then you're leaving money and people on the table. And

I, I really, really, really want you to get

my gift because I don't want to give everything away.

But please connect with me. Let's have a

virtual coffee chat at the very least so that

I can help you to

to make your products and services accessible

and also so that I can find out more about what

you do and who you do it for so that we can

collaborate in some form

or fashion. And maybe you'll join my program

when I, I launch it in the future. But I

just really want you to think about

access digital accessibility and how you

can use it to be more productive

and grow your customer base.

Sounds good to me. Okay people, remember,

change is simple, but it's not always easy. And it requires

courage, resilience and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone. If

you're not willing to be uncomfortable, you are not growing. And the world

is constantly changing. It is moving forward whether you want it to

or not. So if you're not moving, if you're not

uncomfortable, if you're not growing, you're stagnating, you're falling behind.

So I hope you will join me we on the one small change again as

we embark on this journey of bold visions and innovative

possibilities. And until the next time, I hope you stay

very curious. Danielle, thank you for sharing with

us. Yeah, it was great. And I hope

everybody takes a chance to listen

and connect with me. Goodbye everybody.