Talk with Oliver on the Power of Accessibility Cloud

This is the transcript of the German podcast: I'm talking with Oliver Haake-Klink about his company Distriko and the Accessibility Cloud tool. The transcript was optimized with AI. Any inaccuracies or errors are my responsibility.

Domingos: Welcome to a new episode of our podcast on digital accessibility. Today I have another exciting guest: Oliver Haake-Klink. We're talking about the company Distriko and the Accessibility Cloud tool. First of all, thank you so much, Oliver, for taking the time to be a part of the podcast.

Oliver: Thank you, Domingos, for giving me such a prominent platform here. I'm really excited to be doing this as a kind of premiere – this is actually my first podcast recording. It's all the more wonderful that it's working out this way.

About Districo

Domingos: My pleasure! To start, we'd like to get to know you and the company you work for – or rather, the company you and your wife essentially run together. What exactly does Districo do?

Oliver: so basically, when we founded our company in 2019, we started focusing on accessibility. Initially, our focus was on clear language – that is, preparing texts so that they are truly accessible to everyone. We analyzed the market and implemented our first projects, delivering texts for clients.

But we quickly realized that clear language is only one aspect of accessibility. There are so many other aspects that are just as important. In the first projects, this awareness was often completely lacking on the client side. So we gradually delved deeper into the subject.

It soon became clear to us that accessibility shouldn't be a separate issue tacked on later. It's simply an integral part of good quality – and so we gradually developed our mission and company philosophy from this: to consider accessibility from the very beginning.

When you build a company, you need a vision, a long-term perspective. And we quickly realized that accessibility is a truly future-oriented topic. It was a personal concern for us from the outset – and the more you engage with it, the more you see how significant the positive impact is. When you see which measures are truly effective and how they enable participation, you simply can't do it any other way.

And yes, sometimes the question arises: "What if I simply omit accessibility from a web project?" – But quite honestly: That's impossible. That would be absurd. Accessibility needs to be considered from the very beginning – then everything makes sense.

... Domingos: What exactly do you offer as services?

Oliver: Well, basically, content and text are now just one part of our work. Our focus is now on complete, turnkey website projects – from hosting and design to smaller tasks like logo upgrades or color schemes.

We often start with existing websites, look at the components that are already there, and then consider where we can make adjustments – for example, to the logo or the color scheme to improve contrast and readability.

Based on this, we often develop a completely new web project – really from scratch, but with an eye toward what's already there. And we host and maintain these projects ourselves, so our clients get everything from a single source.

Domingos: Interesting. Perhaps a quick word about your professional background: Do you actually come from the design field?

Oliver: Not really. I come more from marketing and sales, so not from traditional development or programming. My wife and I both have a business background.

My expertise lies primarily in marketing – I've worked for many years on web projects, social media, and marketing strategies. This has meant I've always had exposure to digital topics. And today, our work is increasingly consulting-oriented – we support companies in strategically considering accessibility and implementing it sustainably.

Accessibility Cloud

Domingos: Yes, very interesting! Let's talk about Accessibility Cloud. If I understand correctly, you're essentially the German reseller for the product – feel free to correct me if that's not quite right. But tell us: What exactly is Accessibility Cloud?

Oliver: Basically, it works like this: We have an official contract and a partnership with the Swedish manufacturer Accessibility Cloud. So we're one of the German resellers – and were actually involved with this topic quite early on. However, it's not an exclusive product; we don't have a nationwide distribution agreement or anything like that.

The connection to Accessibility Cloud came because – as I mentioned earlier – the question kept arising: How can we support other agencies or teams on their journey to accessibility? We wanted to find a solution that integrates well into existing processes and truly helps.

To that end, we evaluated, tested, and compared various scalable tools on the market – you often get test access from different vendors. And in this comparison, Accessibility Cloud simply won out for us.

The reason: The combination of automated tests and manual checks – which are always necessary anyway – is very well implemented here. The system is robust, the results are valid, and I particularly like that PDF documents were considered from the outset. That was truly a unique selling point back then.

Especially in the public sector, meaning government agencies and administrations, PDFs often make up a large portion of the content – ​​sometimes even more than the actual website content. And historically, these documents have mostly been published as PDFs. That's why it's so important that they can be directly integrated into such audits.

Another strong feature is the tool's dashboard. I can see exactly what progress is being made, what errors were present initially, and what has already been fixed – essentially as a timeline or graphical analysis. I particularly like this "live auditing" because accessibility isn't a static state, but an ongoing process.

And it's incredibly practical, especially when managing multiple projects simultaneously: I can quickly switch between projects, give teams real-time feedback, and thus make the entire process significantly more efficient.

We now regularly integrate Accessibility Cloud into projects – also to make it easy for our clients to get started. This allows us to quickly show them where they stand and how they can move forward with targeted measures.

Previously, external audits were often commissioned once a year, which then took weeks. Today, with this tool, the current status can be assessed in just a few hours, and specific areas for improvement can be identified. That's simply a huge step forward – both in terms of transparency and efficiency.

Domingos: So, you could say it's an automated testing tool on the one hand, but on the other hand, you can also document manual test reports – and you can measure progress once you've corrected any problems found. Is that a good summary?

Oliver: Exactly, that's a good way to put it. Accessibility Cloud is essentially a hybrid model – a combination of automated and manual tests. Together, the two approaches produce a realistic and reliable result.

The whole thing works completely cloud-based, meaning there's no complicated installation or setup process. You simply log in via your browser, enter a domain, and the first scan runs automatically. After just a few minutes, you can already see the first results: points checked automatically, potential errors, and information about documents – all presented very efficiently and clearly.

The tool crawls the site like a search engine, checks it for accessibility barriers, and then displays the errors it finds or suspects. Recurring scans also allow you to immediately see what progress has been made or if new problems have arisen.

The latter is a common occurrence in practice: When several people are working on a website simultaneously and not all have the same knowledge of accessibility, errors that have already been fixed can be unintentionally be reintroduced. The tool helps to identify such situations early and take corrective action.

I particularly appreciate the system's collaborative nature: You can create transparent reports and present results in a way that is understandable even for people with little experience in accessibility. This gives Accessibility Cloud the feel of a learning platform. All automatically detected errors are linked to their sources – that is, to the corresponding WCAG rules they reference. This means you can jump directly to the source, learn more, and expand your knowledge step by step.

In addition, the system also offers AI-powered suggestions on how to resolve specific issues. This feature is, of course, continuously being developed and, like all AI tools, should be used with some caution. However, it's a valuable addition because it can help you take action more quickly, especially in the initial phase.

This allows you to move very quickly from an audit to a concrete action plan – and continue working directly on the project. The whole thing isn't just a theoretical concept, but a continuous improvement process.

In this respect, Accessibility Cloud is not only an auditing tool, but also a kind of early warning system: It helps to identify and resolve potential barriers before they actually become problems for users.

Domingos: What is your specific approach? So, do you have multiple clouds for your customers, or do the customers set it up themselves and handle the monitoring independently?

Oliver: The Accessibility Cloud itself is a central platform – so there aren't multiple clouds. The product is hosted by the manufacturer in Europe. When we start a project, we set up access for the customer – very simple, browser-based, with email, password, and verification. Depending on the license plan, there are different login options, such as single sign-on or two-factor authentication. This ensures secure and flexible access.

We generally handle the solution setup and integrate existing systems – depending on the requirements, this can include websites, web portals, or document management systems where, for example, PDFs are stored. It always depends a bit on the specific use case. Even areas behind logins can be scanned – this is a technical feature that's been considered, which is really strong.

Furthermore, we naturally advise our customers on setting up the appropriate workflows: Who in the company will be working with the results from the Accessibility Cloud? How are the reports processed? What happens to the feedback and test results?

Especially for organizations that haven't yet dealt extensively with accessibility, we help develop suitable processes and build expertise – for example, through training or accompanying manual testing.

Our goal is always to empower companies to take control of accessibility in the long term. It's not about us permanently taking over all the testing, but about fostering a culture of accessibility within the company. Accessibility isn't a one-off project, but an ongoing process. Only through regular testing and improvement can quality be sustainably enhanced – that's been our experience over the past few years.

A current example: We're currently supporting a practical project where another agency has technically implemented a client's website. This site now needs to comply with the (German) Accessibility Strengthening Act. The Accessibility Cloud serves as a shared work platform – a central dashboard that the agency, the end client, and we all have access to, each with different levels of authorization. This allows all stakeholders to work together on the continuous improvement process. Without such a collaborative solution, this would hardly be feasible in an efficient way – especially with more complex websites.

Domingos: What sets the Accessibility Cloud apart from other, comparable products? There are quite a few tools on the market – we don't need to name them, but you know the usual suspects, including some rather unpleasant ones. What makes the Accessibility Cloud special?

Oliver: I think the special feature is primarily the combination we were just discussing – namely, that in addition to websites, PDF documents are also fully considered. This is still quite unique on the market and hardly available elsewhere at this level of quality.

Another point is speed. For example, we recently had a project with a large e-commerce website that comprised around 55,000 subpages. If you wanted to check something like that manually, you'd probably be doing nothing else for two years.

But with the Accessibility Cloud, this is easily possible. The scan is automated and delivers a reliable data foundation in a short time. The system is extremely powerful and scalable – so it also works in very large structures, such as corporations with many different web projects.

There, you can create entire "tree structures" of websites that can be linked to each other. This creates a central interface where you can maintain an overview, measure progress, and keep the projects "alive."

This scalability, combined with stability, speed, and document integration—that's what I think makes Accessibility Cloud truly special.

Domingos: Do you see a risk that customers will rely too heavily on automated tests? It's a well-known problem—we've seen it with tools like WAVE, Axe, and similar ones: You keep making corrections until the tool shows green checkmarks everywhere, and then you think the site is accessible, even though there's still a lot to check manually.

Oliver: Yes, absolutely—that's a crucial point and always part of our responsibility as experts who share this knowledge. You're absolutely right: Many tools unfortunately also produce so-called false positives, meaning supposed errors that aren't actually errors at all. Then they're simply ticked off, and in the end, you think you've made a lot of improvements – when in reality, hardly anything has changed.

The crucial difference with the Accessibility Cloud is this: The tool itself makes it very clear that manual testing is always necessary. It doesn't suggest completeness. The automated scans only form the basis, a part of the whole. Some things simply can't be checked automatically – and that's clearly communicated.

Of course, neither of us knows what the future holds. But what is certain is that AI is playing an increasingly important role. For example, AI can already suggest very good alt text – but whether an image actually needs alternative text or is better marked as decorative remains a human decision. And that's how it should stay. The danger of relying too heavily on automation is therefore real – which is why it must be consciously addressed again and again.

Domingos: Exactly. I also find it particularly exciting that the Accessibility Cloud is actually used by official monitoring bodies in Sweden – and that people with disabilities are involved in its development. That's not the case with many other products.

Oliver: Exactly. The manufacturer communicates this very openly – on the website there's a commitment, a clear declaration of intent, that describes the specific measures taken for accessible development.

The tool itself was developed from an accessibility perspective, and there are various features that make it easier for people with disabilities to use. This is an incredibly important foundation – because anyone who is serious about accessibility must also involve the people who actually use it.

I gave it a lot of thought myself before we decided to work with the Accessibility Cloud. It wasn't a spontaneous decision, but a process that took more than a year and a half.

What convinced me was the manufacturer's genuine commitment. It's not about quickly bringing a product to market, but about a sustainable, non-profit approach. Of course, every company wants to be economically successful – but here you can feel that the idea of ​​accessibility and inclusion is truly at the heart of everything.

Follow Distriko

Domingos: Yes, thank you very much for these insights into the Accessibility Cloud. If anyone needs further information or advice, they can contact you directly. Finally, my standard question: Where's the best place to follow you?

Oliver: Our social media accounts are all accessible via our website – the links are in the footer, at the very bottom of the page. We're primarily active on LinkedIn, but also on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon – and of course on our own website with the blog, where some interesting posts have been published over the years.

We consciously try to be present on multiple channels, also from an accessibility perspective. This way, we want to avoid any single platform dominating the conversation. In the future, however, we will primarily focus on Mastodon, Bluesky, and LinkedIn – these are currently our main platforms.

Distriko website with social media channels

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