Designing Digital Experiences for Disability Extremes Doesn’t Lead to Total Accessibility
Whenever the topic of accessible online experiences comes up, the three senses of sight, hearing, and touch often come with it. While this covers the majority of disabilities that need to be considered, most often only the extremes are considered, and this is a problem. Take this image as an example.
The top of the image displays white text on a black background that reads “Which side is easier to read?”. Below that, the same image is placed side by side, one reading “Side A” and the other reading “Side B”. The backgrounds behind each side are the same image, the only difference is side A has a white overlay on it, at 51% opacity, to increase the contrast of the text against the background. The purpose of the image is to display how contrast can be improved with overlays without reducing the creative output on digital assets.
When it comes to visual impairments, auditory impairments, and mobility, flexibility and body physical impairments, and several other categories of disability, each have a spectrum of where an individual could fall in terms of the severity of their impairment. For example, I am legally blind, but this does not mean I have no sight at all, it means that my vision is below 20/200. Instead of being able to stand and see something from 200 feet, I would have to stand 20 feet or less to be able to see it.
This problem of assuming polar ends of disability experiences is not just in terms of digital accessibility. I have personally experienced this in general conversations, on social media, and in various scenarios. When someone becomes aware of my disability, they assume I have no sight at all.
This same assumption is often true when making digital assets accessible. I strongly encourage any developer, designer, or creator to consider the full spectrum of lived experiences with a disability when creating things that will be posted and shared with the public.
Here are a few specific things to consider in regards to the three senses. By no means is this a complete or comprehensive guide to making online content and pages accessible but it is a start to take into consideration:
Sight - Make things accessible, in terms of contrast and content resizing, to ensure that people with low vision can view and review in a timely manner. High levels of contrast make it easier to distinguish backgrounds from foregrounds, especially when reading headings and other texts. When exploring content resizing, it is imperative to make sure that the options remain across mobile, tablet, and desktop devices to avoid overflow and introduce two-axes of scrolling.
Sound - Keep background sounds like music to a low level to ensure that people with hearing impairments can differentiate between the important aspect of audio content and a creative feature. Whether the asset is a social media video, website video, or virtual event/webinar, music and background elements should always be kept to a minimum audio level. You should also be considerate of how loud the audio is for users who are using headphones because audio that is too loud may also be exclusionary and limiting.
Touch - Ensure that the entire website or platform works with just a keyboard, and does not require a mouse, to ensure any level of mobility can access and engage with the content. Keyboard usability impacts persons with limited mobility, blindness, and others therefore this should be carefully and thoroughly evaluated. The good news is that anyone can test keyboard usability as long as the common keyboard shortcuts/controls are known.
While making sure websites and online platforms work with screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and having audio descriptions, closed captioning, and transcripts are important, it does not achieve universal access unless the spectrums are considered and accommodated for as well.
The best way to ensure your website works with various types of users across the spectrum is to bring in a few testers from each and encourage honest and candid feedback on how things work and what areas could be improved to enhance the overall experience. The more people you can gather feedback from to advance efforts, the better the experience will be for all users, no matter the situation. Contacting local Organizations of People with Disabilities and reaching out to your local ADA office, is a great place to start.