AMBA Board Director Steve Beres knows how board meetings should operate. He’s a member of six boards in all. He’s also blind, having lost his vision while serving in Afghanistan, which makes navigating board meetings challenging if the board or its board management solution don’t account for that disability.
Beres, a vice president and veterans outreach manager for Regions Financial, uses screen readers and can easily access board postings and sign documents through OnBoard’s board management portal.
When AMBA decided to switch board management software providers, Dinesen says Beres’ vision wasn’t even a consideration; partially due to Beres’ own technological savviness and partially due to OnBoard’s ease-of-use.
“We’re used to trying to make concessions for Steve when and if they’re needed, Dinesen says of Beres. “However, when we switched to OnBoard, we basically knew it was going to be better than what we were using before so it honestly didn’t really cross my mind. We were just going to be happy with the new solution, and if we needed to make concessions, we would.
“He said it was so easy for him to navigate,” Dinesen adds. “During our board meeting, he said, ‘I don’t understand why you guys can’t do these approvals, even the blind guy can do it.’”
“A lot of companies need to take accessibility – whether that’s physical or digital – into consideration from the start,” Beres says. “It’s a heck of a lot easier to build something up with accessibility at the forefront, than it is to try to add it in later.”