The inclusivity of Emma

Yesterday, I took my daughter to the Emma Memma concert, which turned out to be one of the most inclusive concerts I’ve ever seen.

A bit of background; Emma was in The Wiggles for years and has since left to do her own thing. I’ve seen Emma sign The Wiggles songs in the past, but in this new show every single song is signed, they also have an Auslan interpreter on stage, and her fellow lead performer, Elvin, is from the Deaf community. It was amazing to see such an inclusive concert.

So what can we, as designers, learn from this?

Multiple means

While both Emma and Elvin danced, they included more of the audience by providing multiple means of communication.

Emma signed, sang, and clapped her hands. Elvin signed, including silent applause.

In our digital experiences, this would translate to the P in the POUR principles.

“Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.”

This means that instead of providing a solution for only one of the senses, you should include other methods to include more people.

For example, an image is a visual experience, but for people with visual impairments another method is needed to include them. Alternative text is could be used to describe the image, so users of certain types of assistive technology (such as screen readers) could be included.

Or, a button should include a focus state, so that people who don’t use pointer inputs (such as a mouse or touch) can see where they are as they navigate the content.

Or, just like the concert described above, audiovisual material can create barriers for people in the d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing communities. Using captions, transcripts and audio description can help remove these barriers.