Why we can’t be lazy about accessibility anymore
Ever heard of this not-so-minor thing called accessibility? Many companies preach it but don’t actually practise or achieve it. Accessibility has for too long been considered ‘optional’ or ‘ugly’ when building digital products, and accessibility fixes usually end up buried in the backlog of product builds because there ‘just isn’t the time or ROI for it’.
Wherever you sit in the product life cycle — enough is enough. Designing and building for accessibility opens up the inclusion of untouched audiences, who themselves bring untapped ROI. It’s about considering how to really be innovative with our products and use our skills for good. Accessibility should be at the forefront of our minds when designing, not an afterthought.
That brings me to an introduction:
Hi! I’m Rue, a UX Researcher and Designer for digital products at Concentrix Catalyst, and I recently facilitated a masterclass at Something Digital Brisbane about the importance of accessibility, the differences accessibility checks make, and some of the easiest ways to make your experiences accessible for all.
Stay with me while I recap, the ride may not be as bumpy as you think.
Why is accessibility and inclusivity so important?
Quick disclaimer — the following stats are specific to Australia, however the trends are very similar wherever you are, and accessibility is essential no matter where you live and work.
About 18% of Aussies have a disability, add onto that another 20% of us have a long term health condition. Maths isn’t my forte, but even I can add up that that means nearly 40% of Australians are living with some form of disability or long term health issue.
There’s also situational or temporary disabilities, which aren’t included in these stats. That’s when an injury, illness or situation limits what a person can do over a shorter time period. I’ll cover more about these in just a sec.
Quick definition refresher
What’s covered under the term “disability”? Well, it can be many things. There’s obviously physical, for example cerebral palsy or a spinal cord injury, learning, such as dyslexia, and intellectual — like down syndrome or foetal alcohol syndrome.
But people can also have sensory, neurological and immunological disabilities. There’s an additional conversation brewing around mental health as a disability. Whilst not everyone with a mental illness identifies as or fits within the realm of disability, it is now recognised that, for some people, mental health is absolutely a disability.
I won’t delve into all the details that define disability here — but if you’re interested in the read, The Australian Network on Disability’s website is an intelligent and informative article. If you’re wanting a deep dive into some of the heavier classifications of disability, check out the World Health Organisation’s website
Permanent, temporary & situational disability
Earlier I mentioned temporary and situational disability. Disability is not necessarily something you are born with, or something that impacts your life after an accident. This is, however, a viewpoint many people have heard and adopted since a young age.
There’s a saying I find powerful:
“we are all only temporarily abled”
…though it doesn’t come without controversy. Some people say it minimises the experience of people with permanent disability, others argue it’s not true. My view? At some point, whether it’s because of a life situation, an accident or ageing, we’re all going to need assistance with something.
Say someone is born without their right arm — they live their entire life that way. Most people clearly see this as a disability — its permanent and limits what the person can physically do, right?
But someone with a broken right arm will face similar struggles until their arm heals. That’s a temporary disability.
My sister recently had a baby, and when he fell asleep in her arms (she was desperate for him to take a nap) — she just had to hold him there. Her right arm? Situationally disabled until he woke up.
I’m not saying these three people go through life with the same lens or barriers. That would be insensitive and closed minded. But at some point, they will all benefit from and need a product design that doesn’t require the use of their right arm. That’s where product teams versed in accessibility come in.
Designing for accessibility is not just for people who fit our ingrained idea of what disability looks like. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve been told an accessible feature is an “edge case” or “doesn’t apply to enough users to be profitable”. Those arguments, in my mind, are rubbish — we should be designing for everyone, all of the time.
If you need to convince stakeholders of the benefits of inclusive design — pointing out that a feature will apply to more people than they’re programmed to think it will, might just get you over the line. It’s like when the curb side where paths meet roads were changed with the sole purpose of helping wheelchair users; suddenly people with prams, walking frames, and even people on bikes and skateboards could get on and off curbs easily and more safely.
Understanding disability from a social standpoint
If you’re like me, you grew up understanding that having a disability means someone can’t do something in the same way you can. There’s nothing wrong with this belief, but over time as social understanding improves, that belief has evolved. There’s a new way many people are starting to view disability — which is that disability exists as barriers in society.
Think of a building with both a set of stairs and a ramp. There’s no disability stopping a person in a wheelchair getting into the building. But if the ramp gets taken away, disability is created.
Reducing barriers = reducing disability. That doesn’t mean the ramp fixes people’s health conditions or physical limitations — but it can reduce the disability they experience when going about their day.
Digital product teams have the ability to change how much disability exists in our world. And for me as a researcher and designer? I want to own that opportunity and see it as a responsibility. Let’s collectively reduce the number of barriers.
Three practical ways to make your digital products more accessible & inclusive
I’m going to run through some quick wins and practical steps that won’t make a decision maker’s head explode, but that will make your digital product more inclusive and open to new markets.
1. Readable fonts
Fonts like Dyslexie (paid) and OpenDyslexic (free) were created to make content easier to read for people with Dyslexia. They help with things like identifying letters, scanning for information, and making it easier for people to read words and sentences.
There are heaps of other things that make fonts readable — like size, colour contrast, line and letter spacing. It’s a great idea to let people using your product pick attributes like line height, letter height, or allowing them to switch to a more readable font from an easy-to-find accessibility menu. You’ll not only help people with Dyslexia, but also non-native English speakers, the elderly, those with low vision, and people learning to read or who have low literacy levels or cognitive disabilities.
If you want to delve deeper into the technical design of readable fonts, take a look at this Vision Australia resource.
2. Scalable content
Most people know devices have accessibility settings that can make text bigger or smaller, but have you ever found those tend to blow your content out of proportion, or don’t display things quite how you want them? This is where custom content scaling comes in. It allows designers and developers to keep everything in line — for example avoiding text scaling blowing an image out of proportion or alignment.
Content scaling menus can also do things like highlight links and headings, or toggle a magnifying tool. These small changes can help people find information, absorb it, and know how to come back and find it. They also won’t just help people with low vision, but also people with cognitive or neurological disability, low literacy, and can even be handy in low light situations. That’s potentially multiple uncaptured audiences with one new component. I know a few Product Owners who would be happy with that win.
3. Enhancing text to speech functionality
Have you ever thought about providing an inbuilt option to voice your content? This is different to a screen reader — it gives the user the option to read aloud specific text via a CTA. This could be labels on a text field, the alt text for an image, an entire article, or messages in a web chat. It also helps to use markers to highlight the text as it’s read out so people can follow along if they want to.
Speech to text doesn’t just help people with low vision — it’s also great for hands free content, people with lower literacy levels or neurological conditions, multitasking and even sharing content in a group situation.
There’s a bunch of web services already that enable this — Amazon Polly, Azure Text to Speech, IBM Watson and Google Cloud Text to Speech
You can see a live example of this here on Medium — there’s a play button up top that will read this article out to you. The Washington Post is also a great example, and they call out in advance how long it will take to listen to the article too.
Wrap up
There are countless ways you can begin to make your products more accessible and inclusive, these three are merely a starting point. But in the meantime, if you’re not already, start actively including people with disabilities in your research. Ask questions, read content written by people who use accessible technology to understand how they interact with the world. The best way to make your products more accessible is to do the research, ask those who experience barriers what works best for them in their day-to-day life.
I know that was a lot, so if you’re pressed for time and you’ve scrolled to the bottom — I’ll give you a quick TL;DR:
- Accessible and inclusive design removes barriers for entry and use
- Building accessible products significantly increases the number of people who can use your product (across both reach and frequency of use)
- Close to 40% of the population experience disability, but accessible products have proven time and time again to improve usability for so many more people than intended by design
- Contrary to being seen as costly, accessibility can actually improve your ROI
- Accessibility doesn’t have to be ugly — in fact, it improves your User Experience substantially
- Include people with barriers to use in your research, keep yourself up to date with how people with different abilities use products
- Accessibility isn’t all colour contrast and font size — it’s also things like adjusting fonts, scaling content, and adding features like text to speech
If there is one point from this article that I’d wish for readers to take with them, it’s that accessible and inclusive design helps everyone — so get in there and have those conversations with your stakeholders about why it should be a part of your process, build your business cases, and remember to ask those who experience barriers each day what they need.
Special mentions
No one gets by without a team right? So there’s a few people I’d like to thank for their help with this article — David Howell, Tania Dean, Emily Thain, Svanhild Egge and Bambi Corro — you’re all legends.
References
- People with Disability in Australia, Australia: 2022, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
- What is Disability? Australia: n.d., Australian Network on Disability
- World Health Organization, International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Geneva: 2001, WHO.
- Inclusive 101 Toolkit USA: 2016, Microsoft
