Infinum Hosts Empathy Lab to Highlight Digital Accessibility Challenges

Editor’s Note: This is a sponsored article created in partnership with Infinum.

Media representatives participated in a hands-on experience that highlights the daily technological challenges faced by individuals with disabilities.

To demonstrate what navigating digital products using accessibility features looks like in practice, leading tech consultancy Infinum hosted the Empathy Lab on April 15 at its Zagreb office.

The experience peeks into the world of inclusive digital products, featuring a series of digital accessibility tasks on mobile devices, challenging participants to complete simple exercises with accessibility settings enabled.

This exercise is part of Infinum’s ongoing commitment to accessibility, an initiative that champions the importance of creating digital experiences that are inclusive, thoughtful, and usable for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Challenge of Getting Accessibility Right

Most people won’t stick around if a website or app makes life harder than it needs to be.

In fact, a 2024 survey by Acquia found that 62% of people would consider switching to a competitor if they kept running into accessibility issues on a brand’s digital platforms.

This was a reality Infinum experienced firsthand when feedback from a banking client revealed a customer couldn’t make a payment independently because of visual impairments.

“Our client understood the sensitivity of the issue, and their feedback was a turning point for us,” said Ana Šekerija, who spearheads the accessibility initiative at Infinum.

But the incident highlighted a broader challenge: the lack of clear, actionable guidelines for designers and developers.

Poor overall accessibility of digital products is partially due to a lack of concrete, actionable standards and guidelines for mobile design and development. This lack of awareness often leads to overlooking common digital accessibility issues like:

• Insufficient colour contrast
• Incompatibility with assistive devices
• Lack of continuous accessibility updates

To address these, the agency’s accessibility team also developed a publicly available Accessibility Handbook: a comprehensive guide offering best practices for accessible design, web and mobile development, and quality assurance.

See. Feel. Design.

The Empathy Lab was designed as a series of accessibility tasks, comprising simple exercises on mobile devices, with accessibility settings turned on.

The goal was to provide a firsthand experience of navigating digital environments in the same ways many people with disabilities do.

After last year's successful Empathy Lab for employees, this time, Infinum invited journalists to participate.

Šekerija opened the event with a presentation, after which journalists did three exercises where they tried to perform a task using built-in accessibility features on mobile devices, including: VoiceOver, Switch Access, and Eye Tracking.

This year’s accessibility exercises all focused on the same core task: “dismantling a bomb” by turning off a timer.

The uniformity of the task helped reduce cognitive load, allowing participants to concentrate on the specific accessibility feature being tested.

Employees controlled a smartphone using head movements, eye tracking, and Apple’s built-in screen reader, VoiceOver.

The experience offered a direct understanding of how people with disabilities navigate technology using alternative input methods.

Ultimately, the attendees gained a deeper understanding of how important accessibility features are for users with disabilities.

Navigating through the tasks made it clear how these features work, and how important they are for people with disabilities who are just trying to do everyday tasks on mobile phones as everyone else.

“A little effort from people who create everyday tools, such as software, can open a whole world to people who need it,” said Šekerija.

Accessibility isn’t just a feature — it’s a fundamental right. Events like the Empathy Lab are reminders that inclusive design is about understanding real people and building with intention.

Whether you're improving accessibility or integrating AI, technology should always serve people first, and that means designing with empathy, building with purpose, and preparing for what's next.