Nigeria has an estimated 35 million individuals with disabilities (PWDs), roughly 15% of the inhabitants in keeping with the Nationwide Fee for Individuals With Incapacity (NCPWD). This represents a market bigger than many African international locations’ whole populations, but their digital wants stay invisible to the tech sector.
Professionals, college students, entrepreneurs, and civil servants with disabilities are systematically excluded from platforms that ought to enhance their lives. Whether or not authorities portals or personal platforms, complaints abound about inaccessible designs, screen-reader incompatibility, and companies that ignore customers with visible, auditory, cognitive, or mobility impairments.
“If we wish to speak about digital accessibility in Nigeria, we would wish greater than a 24-hour podcast to scratch the floor,” stated Saheed Okerayi, a blind tech fanatic. In accordance with him, most platforms have bits of accessibility for individuals with disabilities while others fully neglect it, with elementary points like unlabelled buttons and lacking alt textual content (different textual content) remaining widespread.
Root causes
In his evaluation of Nigeria’s accessibility panorama, Olufemi Bayode, a digital accessibility skilled who has spent years navigating Nigeria’s digital exclusion disaster, gave a stark comment: “If I’m to charge accessibility, be it digitally or in any other case, if I’m not too strict, I might give it 4%.”
Bayode stated that the exclusion is complete and systematic, affecting each main platform class. The foundation trigger, in keeping with him, is straightforward: “In relation to accessibility on this nation, no one cares. Be it particular person builders or governments, persons are simply not involved.”
Bayode breaks down probably the most pervasive violations into a number of classes:
Lacking alt textual content and unlabelled buttons: “So many photographs and unlabelled buttons exist on web sites and apps. There’s one fintech app the place you don’t know what’s there when getting into your password. Your display reader can’t recognise if it’s a picture or button.”
Insufficient markups and semantics: “Builders don’t comply with the Net Content material Accessibility Tips (WCAG) selling fundamental markups that make net content material readable for display readers, resembling heading kinds, paragraph tags, navigation tags.”
Absence of keyboard navigation: “Nigerian web sites don’t present keyboard shortcuts like LinkedIn or Fb. You must preserve scrolling to seek out message hyperlinks or buttons.”
Improper type labelling: “Many builders use placeholders as a substitute of accessible labelling. Display readers don’t learn these aloud, so customers don’t know what enter is required.”
Lack of user-defined expertise: In contrast to world web sites providing textual content dimension or color distinction changes, “I’ve by no means seen that on a Nigerian web site,” Bayode stated.
These technical shortcomings create nightmares for customers throughout Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
Massive and small; private and non-private
From personal to public-owned institutions, telecommunications corporations to banks, e-commerce platforms to media homes, the systematic exclusion of individuals with disabilities spans each main platform class and corporations of various sizes. This exclusion represents an enormous missed enterprise alternative. Globally, the incapacity market represents over $13 trillion in annual disposable revenue, but Nigerian companies probably miss out on this market just because tech builders and designers don’t construct with PWDs in thoughts.
“If a web site doesn’t construct with individuals with disabilities in thoughts, they’re dropping prospects double the dimensions of some international locations. Think about gathering ₦1,000 from every PWD; we’re speaking billions,” Bayode stated.
Within the monetary sector, for example, accessibility is fragmented and inconsistent throughout platforms and gadgets. Customers report vastly totally different experiences even with the identical establishment. And challenges span each massive conventional banks and their youthful fintech counterparts.
Bayode says that “for a fintech app to be licensed accessible, I ought to be capable of set it up and use it at the very least 95% independently with out sighted help.” Most Nigerian monetary platforms fall wanting this benchmark.
Olayinka Akinbiyi, a blind entrepreneur utilizing an iPhone, describes her frustration with the Zenith Financial institution app: “Zenith up to date the app and it turned inaccessible. I can’t do something on that app. I’ve uninstalled it.” In the meantime, one other person studies that the Android model works higher, highlighting inconsistency in accessibility.
Related issues plague different monetary platforms. Kefas Lungu, a blind programmer, complained of UBA’s unresponsive buttons, navigation points, and inaccessible digital keyboards on the e-banking website. There are complaints about buying airtime on the Money Matrix app and the Wema Financial institution alert app. Equally, customers have additionally complained of OPay’s PIN and password entry challenges on Android gadgets, while platforms like PiggyVest and Cowrywise undergo from unlabelled buttons and navigation points.
Many fintech apps require facial recognition throughout setup. “Each time I wish to arrange all these fintech apps, I’ve to search for somebody to carry and direct the digital camera for me,” Joseph Afolabi, a blind person, explains. Bayode factors to OPay as a notable exception, saying they’ve enabled unbiased setup for blind customers via display reader integration.
E-commerce and repair platforms current their very own accessibility challenges. “Jumia isn’t good however I’ll take it over Temu and Konga by way of accessibility,” explains Ganiu Emilandu, a blind programmer, citing unlabelled buttons and lacking alt textual content as main points. He stated he doesn’t open the emails despatched to him by Temu as a result of they lack alt textual content.
Standard meals supply platforms are additionally inaccessible, with customers solely ready to make use of them as a result of they’ve “mastered methods” to navigate these platforms. Transportation apps fare barely higher, although they nonetheless want work on alt textual content and button labelling. Bayode believes ride-hailing apps like Bolt and Uber are barely higher as a result of they weren’t developed by Nigerians and are held to worldwide legal guidelines that may land them lawsuits if not utilized.
Nigerian information web sites additionally lag behind worldwide requirements, missing the keyboard navigation shortcuts and well-captioned photographs discovered on websites just like the New York Instances or BBC.
Authorities-run digital companies current, maybe, probably the most critical accessibility obstacles. “It’s virtually unimaginable to use for a passport independently as a blind particular person,” says Emilandu. Proper from the primary web page, the problems with accessibility start. “There’s a component requiring you to click on one thing to confirm particulars. No alt textual content describes what it’s, and face scanning isn’t blind-friendly.”
The Nationwide Inhabitants Fee web site and Nationwide Id Administration Fee app current equally irritating obstacles. “NPC stated you may apply for [a] beginning certificates on-line. However when it will get to the purpose of facial recognition, as a blind particular person, get able to be rejected,” Eja Manifest explains.
For customers with listening to impairments, the challenges take totally different varieties. “We’re not even included bodily, you’re speaking about on-line accessibility, allow us to begin from signal language interpreters on TV, occasions and worship centres, earlier than we go browsing,” Hanu James, a deaf advocate, remarked.
Why do these issues exist?
Nigeria’s authorized framework for incapacity rights incorporates a major blind spot in the case of digital accessibility. Whereas Nigeria’s Discrimination In opposition to Individuals with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act of 2019 establishes basic protections towards discrimination, it makes no express point out of digital accessibility, leaving a authorized vacuum. The Act does handle bodily accessibility via Half II (Sections 3–4), Half III (Sections 10–12), and Half IV (Sections 13–15), however digital areas stay unaddressed.
This stands in distinction to Ghana, Nigeria’s West African neighbour, which amended its Individuals with Incapacity Act in 2020 to particularly mandate “enough accessibility to data, communications, together with age-appropriate applied sciences and programs,” requiring private and non-private service suppliers to make sure codecs like screen-reader compatibility, and sign-language interpretation.
“Nigeria doesn’t have a coverage driving digital accessibility,” Bayode explains. “That’s why we’re doing practically nothing.” While basic anti-discrimination provisions might theoretically apply, the dearth of particular necessities creates enforcement challenges.
On the root of the issue are elementary misconceptions. “Many don’t imagine visually impaired individuals can use telephones or afford them. They suppose individuals with visible impairment can’t do something with out help,” Bayode explains. This results in a vicious cycle the place builders don’t actually see accessibility as a prerogative.
The net design group presents a blended image of consciousness and priorities. Anastasia Edusi, a Lagos net designer, represents the conscientious finish of the spectrum. She’s aware of WCAG and applies them throughout tasks, utilizing correct color distinction, avoiding colour-only indicators, implementing alt textual content, and consulting individuals with disabilities throughout design.
Nevertheless, her strategy isn’t consultant. Different designers don’t trouble with accessibility as a result of shoppers don’t care. Purchasers “principally pay for fast apps and don’t trouble with accessibility,” one designer stated. Ayodele Babalola, one other designer, factors to deeper systemic points—many builders “didn’t take skilled programs” and “don’t seek the advice of UI/UX designers” on their tasks.
What can change?
Regardless of the challenges, some progress is rising throughout Nigeria’s digital panorama. Bayode acknowledged that “Zenith Financial institution, GTBank, FCMB, Paystack are attempting. They embrace some accessibility,” however he emphasises that there’s room for enchancment.
Authorities businesses are additionally starting to acknowledge accessibility necessities, with NITDA Director Common Kashifu Inuwa committing to champion digital accessibility coverage frameworks. He admitted that the present framework focusing on 95% digital literacy by 2030 doesn’t adequately handle the wants of PWDs.
NCPWD has additionally partnered with different businesses, launching the Accessibility Compliance Dashboard in March 2025, to assist drive accessibility advocacy and monitor compliance. MTN is making large strides by way of offering digital abilities and literacy to blind Nigerians.
Bayode believes corporations ought to use the Act’s mandate that employers guarantee at the very least 5% of their workforce includes people with disabilities as a chance to make use of tech-savvy PWD professionals who can inform sensible expertise growth for individuals with disabilities.
For builders questioning the place to begin implementing accessibility pointers, Bayode recommends WCAG pointers: “It’s sturdy and has a complete lot that may assist platforms develop.” Constructing accessibility from the beginning is extra economical: “It’s cheaper to construct with accessibility from scratch since you’re not altering layouts and varieties later. Together with accessibility later would possibly require altering your whole design.”
Blind tech fanatic, Okerayi, recommends that corporations ought to embrace individuals with disabilities in constructing their merchandise. Whereas automated accessibility testers can assist, actual human customers must make up part of product testing previous to launch, he argues. “However the customers of the product must be consulted earlier than any product is launched. “That is being executed outdoors the nation. Why can’t we do the identical right here?”
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