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As a team, we recognize the importance of designing good experiences for everyone.
And as the world becomes more and more impacted by advancements in technology and the evolution of digital experiences, our design team decided to actively play a responsibility in ensuring everyone is accounted for.
Making it a priority during the first quarter of this year, our designers have been taking a course on Digital Accessibility from the W3C to learn the ins and outs of digital accessibility and how we can adopt it to design inclusive experiences.
This fourth round of the Ask A Designer series is dedicated to shedding light on these learnings, as our designers answer questions that help us understand how Accessibility can be adopted.
Question 1
What does digital accessibility mean to you?
Name: Grace Xu
Title: Sr Graphic Designer
Response:
Digital accessibility is not just a nice to have, but a must have. It is mandatory for some but beneficial to everyone.
Equal access to digital information has to be something that every designer strives for, and it goes beyond meeting federal or even international laws and policies on this matter.
This is a basic human right and these accessibility practices empower my ability to empathize and understand others who use and experience our digital products from a different angle, one that we often don’t consider but absolutely should.
Name: Usman Khan
Title: Product Designer
Response:
Digital accessibility is the important practice of designing and developing digital content and technologies that are accessible to all people, including those with disabilities.
This includes making sure that digital content, including websites, mobile applications, electronic documents, and multimedia, is accessible to and intelligible by all users, regardless of their abilities or limitations.
The use of technology that can be accessed by assistive devices like screen readers and the provision of clear, easy-to-read text are a few examples of how this is done.
Another is the provision of text replacements for non-text information (such as photos or videos).
All things considered, It is very important because it ensures that all individuals have equal access to digital content and technology, which can help to promote inclusion, independence, and participation in society.
Name: Pranavi LMK
Title: Associate Product Designer
Response:
Digital accessibility ensures that everyone has equal access to information: every website and application must be built with this in mind.
Digital accessibility is essential because it empowers one and makes them independent in this digital world.
Designing a website that is accessible to everyone makes them feel included and is a professional moral to follow.
Making a website/app accessible means adding interactive elements like buttons/controls that lets users access the information through clicking, scrolling, voice commands etc.
Accessibility exists on a large scale.
When it comes to using digital products, users have a wide range of requirements and preferences, so there is no one-size-fits-all accessibility definition.
But as designers, It is our responsibility to try and assist as many people as possible.
Name: Usama Javed
Title: Product Designer
Response:
Accessibility is all about people. It is about ensuring all users can access the same information, regardless of the impairments they may have.
Whether a visually-impaired person uses a screen reader to access a webpage or someone has a cognitive disability that requires straightforward content and navigation, there are many reasons to make your digital presence accessible.
Digital accessibility is when technology has been designed in a way so that it can be accessed by all types of people.
This includes electronic documents, websites, software, hardware, video, audio, and other digital assets.
Question 2
What kinds of tools do you use to check for accessibility?
Name: Grace Xu
Response:
The WAVE Evaluation Tool is pretty robust for most web cases, the contrast checker is the one I use the most! However I also want to shift the focus away from tools and more on how we need to keep in mind that tools won’t give you all the answers on how to make something accessible. For example, a tool can inform us that a piece of alternative text is missing from an image, but it can’t tell us if in the case there is alt text, that what it has displayed is actually appropriate or helpful for users who need it. We need to use manual testing as well to fully see if our work is actually compliant and always consider it in every step of the design process.
Name: Usman Khan
Response:
The WAVE tool is pretty good and it can help to identify a wide range of accessibility issues, including missing alt text for images, low contrast text, missing form labels, and more.
It can improve the overall checking of accessibility in several ways:
- Easy to understand results: The WAVE tool provides a detailed report of all accessibility errors, warnings, and features. This report is color-coded to make it easy to understand which issues need to be addressed first and provides clear guidance on how to fix each issue.
- Real-time testing: The WAVE tool allows you to test web pages in real time, so you can see accessibility issues as you make changes to your website. This makes it easy to test and fix accessibility issues as you work on your website.Overall, the WAVE tool is a powerful tool that can help improve the accessibility of the website. By using it to identify and address accessibility issues, I can ensure that the website is accessible to all users, regardless of their disabilities.
Name: Pranavi LMK
Response:
I use https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ and https://coolors.co/contrast-checker/112a46-acc8e5 to check color contrast.
Webaim has other articles, checklists and resources to check your design accessibility. It has resources that lets you do manual testing even for screen readers.
Name: Usama Javed
Response:
One tool I use is Getstark, which is a tool that helps ensure that my designs are accessible to users with visual impairments. This tool checks for issues like color contrast, font size, and other factors that can impact how easily users can read and understand your content.
Another tool is Contrast Checker, which helps with color contrast.
This tool enables you to check whether your text and background colors meet accessibility standards, which is particularly important for users with visual impairments.
Last but not the least, There is the Lighthouse tool. It is built into Google Chrome that can help you test the accessibility of your site.
It provides a comprehensive report that includes accessibility, performance, and SEO metrics.
Question 3
How do you integrate accessibility into your work?
Name: Grace Xu
Response:
One thing I’ve committed to memory are the most common forms of assistive technologies and how people use it to interact with digital products.
I try to imagine what they would do and if there is a production link to our product then open up one of these tools and try it myself.
I also think that you never stop learning as some things come with experience; overlook a part of your design’s accessibility and once that’s pointed out as being inaccessible, you won’t forget the second time.
Thankfully there are always multiple checks along the way, and no digital product would get released without evaluation from devs, POs, content, and even an organization accessibility champion in our case.
Name: Pranavi LMK
Response:
I always make sure I do not forget the basic principles, like the size of the text, button, elements and color contrast. These are the general guidelines to start with making a design universal. I try to put myself in the shoes of the user and see if the design is accessible or not. It is good to review the accessibility beforehand with the team and developers which will save time and give more insights. I cross check my design with the web accessibility checker.
Name: Usman Khan
Response:
I always make sure that along with normal people, there will be people with disabilities who can use my product.
Here is a quick example on how I keep track of accessibility while I am working on a website by:
- Using proper heading tags (h1, h2, h3, etc.) to create a clear and logical content hierarchy.
- Ensuring that all images have alt text that describes their content and function.
- Ensuring that all forms are labeled correctly and are accessible to screen readers.
- Using high-contrast colors and fonts that are easy to read for people with visual impairments.
Name: Usama Javed
Response:
Good question! I always ensure that I follow basic guidelines and principles of accessibility to ensure that designs meet the accessibility requirements. There are some other important key things which i follow while creating designs for products:
I use proper color contrasts because it is very important to ensure that there is sufficient contrast between text and background colors.
I provide alternative text for images.
It allows me to understand the context of images and other visual elements.
I understand the needs of the users with disabilities throughout the design process, from ideation to implementation.
Question 4
What was eye opening for you in your training?
Name: Grace Xu
Response:
“Good design makes a website, application, or any other product or service, one that we all want to use – it just works better.” Having teams of people who care about digital accessibility will create products that are better for everyone who experiences it. The course showed many types of differently abled people and how they use assistive technology or omit certain technologies we commonly use to achieve the same goals that you and I would. It made me poke around my frequented digital websites, apps, tools more and see where the gaps are and notice how often many of these accessibility issues are simple to solve.
Name: Pranavi LMK
Response:
The training undoubtedly showcased various disabilities and the assistive technologies that are available to enhance their access to the digital world. Screen readers, motion tracking software, screen magnifiers, and braille display are new technologies that I got to know of. I learnt that accessible products help in boosting businesses by increasing SEO, Customers. There are laws that protect and demand digital products to be accessible for the differently abled.
Name: Usama Javed
Response: The training emphasized the importance of good design in creating products that are user-friendly for everyone. By having a team of people who prioritize digital accessibility, businesses can create products that work better for all the users. During the training, I was introduced to many different abled individuals and how they use assistive technology to achieve their goals. This made me more aware of the accessibility gaps in the digital products I use regularly and how simple solutions can make a big difference.
Overall, the training emphasized the importance of creating accessible products that are usable for everyone. By understanding the needs of differently abled individuals and incorporating digital accessibility into the design process, businesses can create products that are better for everyone.
Name: Usman Khan
Response: This training helps me understand the importance of website design that is accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities. By designing accessible websites, I can now create a better user experience for everyone, including people with disabilities, and help organizations reach a broader audience. Additionally, the course teaches about accessibility standards and guidelines, helping organizations avoid legal and financial consequences associated with non-compliance. I can now confidently become an advocate for web accessibility and promote its importance across my circle.