In today's world, it's essential for designers and developers to prioritize accessible design in their work. They must be mindful of the diverse range of disabilities, including visual, physical, and cognitive disabilities, and ensure that their designs and code are inclusive and accessible to everyone.
Unfortunately, people with disabilities are often viewed with legal and compliance lenses rather than a targeted user group. By approaching designs and user research with an inclusive mindset, these users are accounted for earlier on and businesses can avoid costly fixes to accessibility-related errors and bugs and create a better experience for all. Thinking of developing an app for accessibility? PixelForce could provide the perfect solution for your needs!
A disability is "a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities."
There are three classifications of disability:
Barriers due to momentary situations like holding a child or pet in one arm while using your phone one-handed or turning on subtitles while watching a video at a loud party.
Barriers are due to a finite period, such as a broken arm in a cast.
Barriers that are permanently in place include only having one arm or being legally blind.
Two big questions you want to ask yourself when thinking about accessibility:
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) oversee accessibility compliance. The current version is WCAG 2.2, published October 5, 2023.
There are three levels of compliance, all of which include needs and requirements for solutions that are Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
Level A Compliance is the lowest level for accessibility. Assistive Technology can read, understand, and operate within the page or email.
This includes:
Level AA Compliance is the standard level of accessibility. Listrak aims to be AA-compliant with our solutions.
This includes:
Level AAA Compliance is the highest and strictest available compliance. It is required for four industries: Healthcare, Finance, Government and Hospitality. This is also often used for specialized audiences, such as brands catering to those with permanent disabilities.
This includes:
In addition to compliance concerns, being accessible can:
An excellent mindset for creating beautiful and accessible designs is Microsoft's "Inclusive Design" concept. Inclusive design is more than just making an everyday design work on a screen reader. It is a mentality of ensuring that everyone can equally use, digest, and enjoy your designs regardless of physical or mental capabilities. Inclusive design is also mindful of diversity in race, gender, sexuality, age, and religion.
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