It’s so important to make sure that all UX design is accessible to any users that try and gain access to it, but how do you make sure that your design is as accessible as it can be?
Design is only going to be useful if it’s accessible to all users, in any location, at any time. Mobile devices are a great example of dealing with users with accessibility issues. When using mobile phones, we’re on the go, doing other things, with our attention split several ways. With the pervasiveness of handheld smart-gadgets, designers need to embrace accessibility for all and in all contexts.
It’s important to know that in many countries, designing for accessibility isn’t just morally correct; it’s also a legal obligation. Throughout the EU, legislation to prevent discrimination against disabled people exists. Failure to comply with these laws could cost a company dearly. Compliance is cheaper and it pays big dividends, too.
The areas of user needs we should consider for accessible design are:
Visual
Long-sightedness, blindness, colour blindness, are all forms of visual disability you need to cater for in your design.
Motor/Mobility
This category doesn’t just extend to problems with the use of the hands and arms (which are very likely to cause problems with web accessibility), but also with other muscular or skeletal conditions. If, for example, your web design were to feature in a trade-show booth, you’d need to consider how someone in a wheelchair could access that booth, and turn around and exit it too.
Auditory
Auditory disabilities affect the hearing and come in varying degrees of severity, up to and including total deafness.
Seizures
Some individuals can be affected by light, motion, flickering, etc. on screen, thus triggering seizures. The most common issue in this category is photosensitive epilepsy.
Learning
It’s also important to remember that not all disabilities are physical. Learning and cognitive disabilities can also influence accessibility.
There are many things that you can do to improve the accessibility of your site. The team at The Interaction Design Federation have highlighted their top tips below:
CMS with accessibility standards
If you use a CMS, choose one that supports accessibility standards. Drupal and WordPress, for example, are great for this reason. If you’re going to amend a template rather than create a new one for the theme, make certain that the theme was designed with accessibility in mind. It can save time, effort and money.
Use alt text on images
If you use images to enhance content, then a screen reader will need to explain them— that’s what the alt text is for. However, if your image is purely for decoration and adds no other value (other than looking good), you should skip the alt text to avoid confusing someone having the site content read to the user.
Have a link strategy
Screen readers sometimes stutter over links and stop on the first letter. That means it’s important not to have “click here” links scattered through the text. The best link descriptions have a text description before the link and then a unique name for the link.
Choose colours carefully
Colour blindness is an incredibly common disability, and the wrong palette can make it difficult for a colour-blind person to read your text or navigate your site. You also need to ensure that you provide high levels of contrast between text and background; the elderly, for example, can find it hard to see text unless the contrast is high.
Don’t refer to colours
Don’t refer just to the colour of something when giving instructions; “click the red button” isn’t helpful to a colour-blind person. “Click the circular button” is. Use shapes and forms to help guide users rather than relying on colour alone.
Avoid tables
Screen readers can handle tables, but they start explaining how many columns and rows are present, which can be annoyingly distracting when the table is simply a layout technique. Keep tables for data presentation. Make certain to use the HTML scope attribute to explain relationships between cells, too.
Put your mouse away
Put your mouse away, and see if your site works with a keyboard only. People with motion disabilities often find objects using trackpads, otherwise they may need a mouth stick or a single-switch input device; or, they may have to rely on their keyboard.
Offer transcripts and audio files
Hearing-impaired users can’t use software to read voices, so, help them out and include a transcript.
Creative opinion
Mads Soegaard, Founder of The Interaction Design Foundation, comments:-
“Designing with user accessibility in mind means envisioning all users as having needs that require attention.
Although many users have physical and cognitive disabilities, all will be distracted at some point when accessing sites. Even so-called “fully able-bodied” users, sitting in quiet rooms with large monitors, will be hampered if the phone goes and they have to navigate with one hand.
Making accessible designs means planning and building in view of this. We have a variety of tips at our disposal, ranging from using header tags and alt text on images to having a link strategy to ensure accessible designs.”
