When designing a digital product, do you ever stop to think about how someone with impairments might use it? For instance, a person who is hard of hearing can also suffer from communication and cognitive issues due to difficulties in understanding pronunciations. It’s something rarely comes to our minds.
We rely on digital apps for everything, from ordering groceries to applying for school and even booking doctor appointments. It’s everywhere. Even for those of us without disabilities, navigating some web or mobile apps can be tricky. So, imagine the hurdles faced by people with disabilities. When I chat with fellow designers, the conversation often circles back to primarily focusing on color contrast or data contrast in general. But do we really understand that disabilities extend beyond visual impairment and there is more to it?
People with various disabilities can be incredibly smart, often outpacing those without disabilities in many ways. Yet, they face significant barriers in accessing mainstream services because we aren’t designing smart enough. As designers, it’s our responsibility to make systems accessible to as many users as possible. This starts with educating ourselves about the different types of disabilities and the guidelines available online.
Let’s dive into the major types of disabilities and guidelines available to make digital products accessible to the broader audience.Ready to expand your horizons? Let’s step up and make a difference.
Disabilities can generally be categorised into four types:
👁️ Visual
- AS per WHO report, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment.
- For ease of understanding and remembrance these are 3 broad categories: Low Vision (with or without light perception/projection), Color blindness, Total blindness
👂Hearing
- 2 broad categories: hard of hearing (ranging from mild to severe) and Deaf
- It also impacts communication, speech and cognition. Due to the issue of hearing words, it makes it difficult for them to understand the pronunciation hence difficult to pronounce it.
💪 Physical and Motor
- Physical disabilities impact different parts of the body, each with its unique challenges.
- Like arthritis and osteoporosis impact bones, causing pain and mobility problems, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis affect the nervous system, disrupting movement and coordination. All these disabilities do not affect the intelligence of the person however, it makes it difficult for them to use computers like any other person with no disabilities and requires some tweaks in the ways the computers are accessible.
🧠 Cognitive
- Cognitive and learning disabilities impact how people process information. For example, they can affect people’s perception, memory, language, attention, problem solving, and comprehension
- Like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, dementia, dyslexia, and more.
Guidelines available on the internet.
There are other guidelines and standards available online, but the WCAG/WAI guidelines are the most comprehensive, acovering key points from all the others. And, I believe it is the best place to begin making the web more accessible to a wide range of users.
1. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Purpose: The purpose of WCAG is to provide guidelines for making web content accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. It aims to ensure that websites and web applications are usable and understandable by everyone.
- Focus: WCAG is organized around four key principles (POUR):
Perceivable: Make sure that everyone can perceive the information and UI components. For example, provide text alternatives for images and captions for videos.
Operable: Ensure that everyone can use the UI components and navigate the site. This includes making sure the site is accessible via keyboard and giving users enough time to interact with content.
Understandable: Make sure that both the information and the operation of the UI are clear. Provide clear instructions and predictable navigation.
Robust: Ensure that the content can be interpreted by various user agents, including assistive technologies (ex: speech recognition software). This involves using clean HTML and appropriate ARIA rules.
2. Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA)
- Purpose: ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) provides a way to enhance the accessibility of web content and applications, particularly dynamic content and user interface components
- Focus: It introduces specific attributes that can be added to HTML to improve the accessibility of web pages, especially for assistive technologies like screen readers.
3. Section 508 (Rehabilitation Act)
- Purpose: Section 508 is a U.S. federal law that requires electronic and information technology to be accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and the public.
- Focus: It applies to all federal agencies and provides standards for accessibility that align closely with WCAG, but also include specific criteria for software applications, multimedia, telecommunications, and more.
4. European Accessibility Act
- Purpose: This EU directive aims to ensure that products and services are accessible to people with disabilities, covering a wide range of areas including computers, operating systems, ATMs, banking services, e-books, and more.
- Focus: It harmonizes accessibility requirements across the EU, making it easier for companies to comply and providing clear guidelines for various sectors.
5. EN 301 549 (European Standard)
- Purpose: EN 301 549 is the European Union’s standard for ICT accessibility, covering a wide range of technologies.
- Focus: It provides specific guidelines for web and non-web information, including software, hardware, and digital interfaces, and aligns closely with WCAG.
6. ISO/IEC 40500
- Purpose: ISO/IEC 40500 is the international standard equivalent to WCAG 2.0, recognized globally for web accessibility.
- Focus: It provides a universally recognized standard that organizations can use to ensure their web content is accessible.
7. Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP)
- Purpose: Developed by the W3C, these guidelines aim to improve the user experience on mobile devices, ensuring that web content is accessible and usable on smaller screens.
- Focus: They address challenges specific to mobile devices, such as screen size, interaction modes, and performance.
8. Universal Design Principles
- Purpose: Universal Design (UD) aims to create products and environments that are inherently accessible to all people, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
- Focus: It encompasses a broader scope beyond digital accessibility, including physical spaces, products, and services, with principles that emphasize equitable use, flexibility, and simplicity.
9. Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG)
- Purpose: These guidelines are provided by Apple to help developers create accessible apps for iOS and macOS.
- Focus: They include specific instructions on making apps accessible, such as providing VoiceOver support, using accessible colors, and ensuring touch targets are of sufficient size.
10. Microsoft Accessibility Guidelines
- Purpose: Microsoft’s guidelines offer best practices for making software and devices accessible.
- Focus: They cover a wide range of topics, from accessible gaming to building software that supports assistive technologies.
11. Guidelines for Inclusive Web Design
- Purpose: These guidelines provide broader principles and best practices for making web content inclusive.
- Focus: They address issues like language, cultural diversity, and accessibility for older adults and people with low digital literacy.
Each of these standards and guidelines plays a crucial role in creating accessible and inclusive digital experiences, and they often complement each other in ensuring comprehensive accessibility across various platforms and technologies.
Every person with a disability has unique needs, and it’s difficult to address every specific requirement. However, by starting to follow these guidelines, we can certainly make a difference and help many people navigate the digital world with fewer obstacles. It’s better to start making small positive changes than to do nothing at all.
If you take a moment to broaden your perspective and consider the needs of those with disabilities, you’ll start to identify changes you can make to improve web accessibility for everyone. OBSERVE . LEARN . CHANGE
To learn more about accessibility, I have categorised and listed a few important references below.
Visual impairment
https://www.washington.edu/doit/videos/index.php?vid=81
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment
Hearing Impairment
https://www.cochlear.com/us/en/home/diagnosis-and-treatment/diagnosing-hearing-loss/types-and-causes-of-hearing-loss
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss
Physical Impairment
https://userway.org/blog/web-accessibility-for-the-mobility-impaired/#:~:text=Design%20readable%20text%20and%20layouts,to%20users%20with%20visual%20impairments.
https://www.inclusionhub.com/articles/making-website-accessible-physical-disabilities
Cognitive Impairment
https://webaim.org/articles/cognitive/
https://www.w3.org/WAI/cognitive/
Criteria for Developers
https://www.wcag.com/developers/
Thank you for Reading!