Notes: Accessibility

What is Accessibility?

  • Accessibility, according to Webster's Dictionary, means "Easily used or accessed by people with disabilities: adapted for use by people with disabilities."

  • It's defined as the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone, regardless of how they encounter it. While laws exist to aid people with disabilities, designers should aim to accommodate all potential users in various contexts of use.

Social vs. Medical Model of Disability

  • Social Model:

    • Asserts that disability is caused by societal organization.

    • Focuses on removing barriers that limit life choices for disabled people.

    • Aims to foster more inclusive living, promoting independence, choice, and control.

  • Medical Model:

    • States that people are disabled by their impairments or differences.

    • Focuses on what is "wrong" with the person rather than their needs.

    • Can lead to low expectations and a loss of independence, choice, and control in people's lives.

W5H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How)

  • These questions are a good starting point when considering user experience and designing a product:

    • Who: Who is using your product?

    • What: What are they doing?

    • Where: Where are they doing it?

    • When: When are they doing it?

    • Why: Why are they doing it?

    • How: How are they doing it?

What is Digital Accessibility?

  • Digital accessibility involves designing and building websites and web applications so that disabled people can interact with them meaningfully and equivalently.

  • It means ensuring that digital offerings can be used by individuals regardless of their mental or physical ability, allowing for meaningful and equal interaction with websites, apps, or other digital products.

Compliance and Accessibility

  • Accessibility is often seen as a series of checkboxes to complete.

  • However, accessibility is not just about compliance; it is also about usability.

  • The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a technical standard for making web content more accessible to people with disabilities.

Accessibility and Usability

  • Usability is a part of usefulness, which includes:

    • Utility: Does the system do what users need?

    • Usability: Can users easily use the system’s features?

  • Nielsen’s usability characteristics (Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors, Satisfaction) are relevant to accessibility, as they describe how easy and effective a system is to use.

Web Accessibility: Removing Barriers

  • Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, stated that "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

  • Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them.

  • It encompasses all disabilities affecting web access, including auditory, visual, cognitive, physical, and speech impairments.

  • Key aspects include being Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

Benefits of Accessibility for People Without Disabilities

  • Designing for accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, such as those using:

    • Small screen devices.

    • Older people with changing abilities.

    • Individuals with temporary disabilities (e.g., a broken arm, lost glasses).

    • Those facing situational limitations (e.g., bright light, noisy environments).

    • Users with slow internet connections or limited bandwidth.

Importance of Accessibility for Businesses

  • Accessibility is important for businesses because it can:

    • Drive innovation.

    • Enhance the brand.

    • Extend the market reach.

    • Minimize legal risk.

Web Accessibility Principles (POUR)

The four main Web Accessibility principles are Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust:

  • Perceivable:

    • Users must be able to perceive all essential on-screen information, conveyed through multiple senses.

    • Design should consider various disabilities (visual, mobility, hearing, cognitive, speech impairments, vestibular, and seizure disorders) to ensure content can be perceived.

    • Examples: Adding text alternatives for images, captions/transcripts/audio descriptions for videos, and ensuring color is not the sole method of conveying meaning.

  • Operable:

    • Users must be able to operate the digital product's interface, and the interface cannot require interactions a user cannot perform.

    • Consider how users control interactive elements, and address focus order issues, keyboard traps, and touch interfaces.

    • Examples: Adding keyboard and touchscreen support, ensuring necessary controls for slideshows/videos, and giving users sufficient time to complete forms.

  • Understandable:

    • Users must understand the information and the operation of the user interface.

    • Content should be clearly written, interactions easy to understand, and page order logical for all users (sighted, keyboard-only, screen reader users).

    • Examples: Writing simply, ensuring predictable navigation, and providing clear, resolvable error messages.

  • Robust:

    • The product must support assistive technologies and remain accessible as devices and user agents evolve.

    • Consider the types of assistive technology supported, and ensure functionality across different browsers, operating systems, breakpoints, and device orientations.

    • Examples: Testing keyboard-only navigation and different screen reader technologies, and ensuring content/functionality access regardless of device size or orientation.