Accessibility in Design: Designing for Everyone

As designers, we know that accessibility in design is not a set of checkboxes ticked during the design process, but rather a continuous work and commitment that should be incorporated into the product lifecycle. Well, how? This article tries to answer what accessible design means, the pragmatic and ethical dimensions of accessibility, and how we can welcome diverse needs of every user through a holistic approach.

What Do We Mean by Accessibility in Design

Let’s start with the basics: what do we mean by accessibility in design? When we focus on accessible products, we are essentially referring to products that can be utilized by a broad range of users, including individuals with diverse abilities. Accessible products consider and aim to accommodate for various types of disabilities, ranging from visual and auditory impairments to motor and cognitive disabilities. The core of accessibility in design is to reduce barriers to enable individuals with disabilities to benefit from the design equally.

While there are steps taken by regulatory authorities through accessibility standards and compliance requirements, crafting an accessible design requires us to go one step further and adopt user-centered design approaches. User centered design approaches help us identify distinct user needs and the need for tailored features and functionalities that should be incorporated into the design.

Practicing User-Centered Approach for Accessible Design

How can we integrate user-centered approaches into our accessibility thinking? By prioritizing user needs, preferences and challenges, we gain a deeper understanding of their distinct requirements and challenges they face while using our products and services. This insight helps us to come up with usable solutions that benefit a broad range of audience with different needs.

We can go through the steps of User Centered Design to better understand this:

Analysis Phase

The analysis phase is where we first collect valuable insights. Just like we do our research to understand what users need and what issues they might face in a business context, it is essential to consider how they interact with our product. Since thinking of “edge cases” is a regular part of our work, diving deeper into analysis and building empathy helps us identify potential accessibility challenges from the beginning.

Ideate & Design Phase

Based on our insights gathered from research and analysis, we can now come up with design solutions that are inclusive, benefiting users with different abilities and challenges. These tailored solutions can also provide options for customization and personalization to suit the diverse needs and preferences of all users.

Evaluation & Testing Phase

Usability testing of the initial design concept, iterations and following feedback loops also help designers to test the products with user groups, including users with disabilities. During these tests, we might discover issues related to accessibility, such as the need to improve certain features or address new usability issues that were not addressed initially. In any case, checking accessibility during these iterations helps us integrate accessibility into the entire user experience rather than being add-on features.

Implementation Phase

Once we implement the tailored solutions and features based upon the user insights and our learnings from the usability tests, our products become increasingly accessible with every iteration. As there is no certain solution, simply a one-size-fit-for-all case, we are subject to realizing even our latest iteration may not be the best solution, which leads us to iterate and enhance accessibility of our product at every cycle.

How Accessible Products Improve Every User’s Experience

All these efforts dedicated to accessibility lead to designs that not only meets the unique needs of users with disabilities, but also enhances the user experience for all users. The products that are designed by accessibility and intuitive user experience at heart help us increase the usability of the product for the broader user audience.

Consider some accessibility features we commonly find in products. These features are so widely used that we now regard them as default options, adaptable for our preferences and uses cases:

Closed Captions

The closed captions feature, which was initially intended for users with hearing impairments (you can also think of transcripts for audio content), has become a standard feature for all users. It is convenient for watching videos in noisy environments, when multitasking, or even with the sound turned off.

High Contrast Standards for Texts & Colors

Another accessibility standard we all try to meet is making sure there is a high contrast between text and background colors, as well as adjusting the type scale for users with visual impairments. These standards also make sure that the content is legible in different cases: across various screen sizes and qualities, and under different lighting conditions.

What is Our Ethical Role in Accessible Design?

So far, we have explored how we can incorporate accessibility into our design process and how accessible design benefits all users. But, moving beyond compliance standards, what is our responsibility as designers in accessible design?

Accessibility is about ensuring equal access and inclusion for all users. When we design products and services for users, we must build empathy and understanding to serve all individuals, irrespective of their abilities. By dedicating ourselves to equality for every user, we seek methods to ensure that everyone can navigate and engage with our products. Therefore, it is our responsibility to design for accessibility, if we want to craft a successful product.

Taking One Step Further for Inclusive Design

As we acknowledge our role in providing equal access to our products, the next step becomes inclusive design. Inclusive design broadens our scope to consider a diverse range of factors to ensure as many people as possible are welcomed. In addition to accessibility practices, inclusive design encompasses cultural, linguistic, situational differences and a diverse range of user needs with the aim to foster social inclusion. The empathy for a broader range of diverse user needs requires a holistic approach for designing inclusive products.

In conclusion, accessibility in design is not just a set of checkboxes but a continuous commitment and approach that should be incorporated in the design process: from start to continuous feedback loops. In this article, we have explored what accessible design means, how we can integrate accessibility into our products through user-centered design approaches.

As designers, our role in accessible design is clear: it is about equal access for all individuals and social inclusion. By considering a set of factors to ensure welcoming as many people as possible, we reflect the authentic essence of designing for everyone.

In the upcoming article, we will discuss inclusive design and how we can adapt an inclusive design approach. Stay tuned!