You can use many ways to make your website accessible. Even with the snowstorm, he’s thereby 2:50 p.m.! The designers of his easy-to-use GPS deserve thanks. His interviewer had mentioned Legoland as a landmark they’re nearby. After refuelling, he gets back on the road, passes Legoland, which his GPS shows as a large icon. He feels better when its voice tells him a gas station is near. A bright red arrow contrasting starkly with a light-green screen shows him his route at a glance with a minimum of text and images. One thing that is going in Arnold’s favor, though, is his GPS. However, he decides against it and stays focused on driving. He thinks about calling the interviewers. So, the factors that are impeding Arnold constitute his disabilities as a user, which are:Īrnold has four handicaps slowing him down. Worse, the car is low on gas, so Arnold will have to fill up on the way. Unfortunately, a snowstorm has started, too. in a town he’s never been to, and he has to use a neighbor-friend’s car. Good GPS software designers are fully aware of what it’s like for motorist users and design to help, not hinder or distract.Įxample: Arnold has an interview at 3 p.m. Happily, GPS systems speak to us, so we don’t have to take our eyes off the road, except for the odd glance to see how far ahead a turn is. Have you ever noticed difficulties when driving and using your cell phone? How does it feel when you’re trying to multitask? Do you have automatic transmission to make it easier?Īs users with handheld/mobile devices, we all face difficulties when we have to divide our attention. Learning and cognitive disabilities can also influence accessibility. Learning: It’s also important to remember that not all disabilities are physical. The most common issue in this category is photosensitive epilepsy. Seizures: Some individuals can be affected by light, motion, flickering, etc. 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 on completing the task.Īuditory: Auditory disabilities affect the hearing and come in varying degrees of severity, up to and including total deafness. 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. Visual: Long-sightedness, blindness, color blindness, are all forms of visual disability you need to cater for in your design. The areas of user needs we should consider for accessible design are: Some of us have dyslexia others have partial hearing loss, for instance. We are all, designers and users, different. Keep it in mind, and test your designs often to be certain that your efforts are successful. It’s easy to get caught up in the substance of your work and forget about this essential point. Examine your options in the planning phase and stay focused on accessibility throughout development. However, if you have properly formatted your text, they’ll be able to use screen reading software to hear your words.ĭesigning for accessibility takes some forethought. People with a visual impairment, for example, may not be able to read the text on your website. Accessibility is simply a function of access. Better still, if we consider them at the start of the design process, we’ll find them easy to implement. The good news is that there are standards for accessibility, and these are easy to understand. Compliance is cheaper, but it pays big dividends, too. Throughout the EU, legislation to prevent discrimination against disabled people exists failing to comply with these laws could cost a company dearly. In many countries, designing for accessibility isn’t just morally correct it’s also a legal obligation. With the pervasiveness of handheld smart-gadgets, we as designers need to embrace accessibility for all and in all contexts. When using mobile phones, we’re on the go, doing other things, with our attention split several ways. Mobile devices are a great example of dealing with users with accessibility issues. Moving a couple of steps becomes risky! Whatever task we’d taken for granted suddenly has us negotiating barriers. How about a power outage? One moment, you’re going about your business the next, you’re plunged into darkness. If you’ve ever broken a leg, you’ll know how difficult formerly simple tasks become. However, we’re all disabled in many contexts and circumstances. We often mistake the concept of accessibility as involving people with disabilities. The Overlooked, Misunderstood Nature of AccessibilityĪ design is only useful if it’s accessible to the user: any user, anywhere, anytime. Doing so, you’ll be able to proceed with a broader appreciation of how users engage your designs. Let’s examine a topic we often take for granted to understand what it’s really about.
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