Why Microsoft Copilot is a game changer for users with accessibility requirements. By Ngozi Efedje

We recently completed a five-month pilot programme of Microsoft Copilot for a large government department. During that period, we monitored the progress and experience of three hundred users, 12% of which reported accessibility requirements. One of the surprise findings was that Copilot benefited users with accessibility requirements. And I'd like to explain how.

Accessibility is a broad church

Accessibility requirements can be permanent, or temporary. During our pilot, we worked with thirty-six users who reported anything from ADHD, and dyslexia, all the way through to fatigue-related illnesses such as ME, and physical impairments such as repetitive strain injury (RSI) and a broken wrist.

Copilot and AI

Copilot for M365 is an AI-powered tool that can enhance productivity, creativity, and the quality of work by generating content, ideas, and insights from simple requests, that they call prompts. It works across M365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. With the aid of AI, it can, for example, suggest topics to include in reports or presentations. It can create content drafts and insert images. It can help users analyse and explore data. It can summarise meetings and documents. It can also aid in email inbox management.

This AI enhanced functionality was appreciated by many of our three hundred pilot users. Half of them said that Copilot improved their job satisfaction. Fifty-five percent reported an improvement in their collaboration with colleagues. And 65% felt that Copilot improved the quality of their work.

However, we had not expected the impact that Copilot's AI would have on users with accessibility requirements.

The three major benefits of Copilot for users with accessibility requirements

1. Generating meeting notes

Although all users used Copilot's ability to take meeting notes, it proved invaluable to those users experiencing difficulties with auditory processing. This audience finds it difficult to take meeting notes and follow conversations at the same time. Knowing that there was a tool that could summarise the meeting and answer questions on the discussion content reduced the mental load used for auditory processing and enabled them to be more engaged in meetings.

One Copilot tester told me, "As a neurodivergent person, Copilot has been transformative. I can be more productive with its assistance in readouts, transcriptions, engaging in meetings and rephrasing language."

1. Writing Word documents and emails

From my experience writing this blog, I know that writing something that is concise takes time and patience. It is a skill that many of us find tricky. But it can be particularly hard for those with accessibility requirements. They may struggle to fit their ideas into one page. They can also waste time getting stuck in the details and going off on a tangent. Copilot in apps like Word and Outlook supports users with their written presentation because you can ask Copilot to reword your text, summarise it and make it more concise.

1. Idea generation

Users with accessibility requirements can find it difficult to start with a blank piece of paper. Copilot has tools that help users generate and then refine innovative ideas. One Copilot user told me, "I am using this tool confidently and daily; it's routinely cutting the time taken to do tasks in half - saving a lot of time and effort and helping me to stay productive."

Microsoft Copilot. An even better experience for those with accessibility requirements

Our study showed that many users appreciate the AI benefits of Copilot, whether they have specific needs or not.Perceived colleague collaboration increased from 55% to 71%. Quality of work increased from 65% to 72%. And whilst a respectable 50% of users reported improvement in their job satisfaction, this shot up to 67% for users with accessibility requirements. And well-being leaped from 46% to an impressive 71%.

On average, the reported time saving for Copilot users was 1.5 hours a week, which increased to 1.9 hours per week for users with disabilities.

As one user with accessibility requirements told me: "I would be absolutely lost without copilot now. It has been so brilliant I cannot imagine ever having to work without it again." And another told me: "I would consider Copilot essential, honestly. For me, it is the single biggest productivity boost since MS teams or even something as integral as email; it feels fundamental."

If you have a question for Ngozi or the Triad team, please get in touch.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.