Laura Kalbag

You make the web more inclusive for everyone, everywhere, when you design with accessibility in mind. Let Laura Kalbag guide you through the accessibility landscape: understand disability and impairment challenges; get a handle on important laws and guidelines; and learn how to plan for, evaluate, and test accessible design. Leverage tools and techniques like clear copywriting, well-structured IA, meaningful HTML, and thoughtful design, to create a solid set of best practices. Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned pro, get sure footing on the path to designing with accessibility.

Accessibility for Everyone

Jaydee (she/her)

Ill start with some definitions. Accessibility in the physical world is the degree to which an environment is usable by as many people as possible. Web accessibility is the degree to which a website is usable by as many people as possible. We can think about both kinds of accessibility as forms of incusion.

Universal design is a concept coined by architect Ronald L. Mace, founder of the Center for Universal Design. After contracting polio at age nine, Mace useda wheelchair for most of his life. He had to be carried up and down stairs to attend classes, and his wheelchair didn't fit through the doors of public restrooms. Mace's experiences led him to study architecture, and later specialize in accessibility. He considered universal design an evolution of accessible design: y Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.

The distinction between universal and accessible design is subtle but important. Accessible design considers the needs of people with disabilities. So, for example, accessible design might result in a building having a wheelchair ramp attached to its far side, as an afterthought. It might not be convenient for people using wheelchairs, and it's unlikely to be used by people who find it faster to use the stairs, but at least there's some form of access (FIG 1.3). On the other hand, universal design considers the needs of a diverse human population. Universal design might result in a building with a combined ramp and stairs, opening access to all and forcing no one to go out of their way to choose one option or the other (FIG 1.4).

Throughout this book, I take a universal design approach to accessibility wherever possible. Universal web accessibility helps us create sites that are usable by the widest, most diverse audi- ence, rather than creating bolt-on solutions that might benefit one group at the expense of another. (But I won't always use the terms "universal design" or universal web accessibility" because they're a bit of a mouthful.)

Empathy in design is far easier when we work in diverse teams. Diversity comes from a range of ages, abilities, eth- nicities, socio-economic classes, personal backgrounds, gen- ders, education levels, and many more characteristics which give each of us a unique experience of the world. Spending meaningful time with people whose experiences differ from our own can help us develop a greater understanding of each other's needs. The greater capacity a team has for understand- ing their audience, the more likely they are to solve that audi- ence's problems.

Believing we know what's best for others, despite our diifer- ing needs, can also result in a patronizing and incorrect solu- tion (sometimes referred to as colonial design"). For example, sometimes when developers first learn about screen readers, they provide additional instructions and cues in text that only visible to screen readers. They're trying to be helpful, but these additional instructions on how to use the interface are usually unnecessary, disruptive and distracting for people who just want to get to the page content.

Screen readers don't just benefit those with visual impair- ments. Some people can consume information more comfort- ably and conveniently by hearing text rather than reading it. For example, many people prefer audiobooks over reading, and sighted users with learning difficulties may prefer screen readers for reading lengthy amounts of text aloud. Screen readers also enable people to engage in other activi- ties while listening-such as driving while listening to an SMS text message. As the web starts finding its way into more mobile systems, we're likely to come across more use cases like this.

 In this book, I talk about people who have disabilities, rather than people who are disabled. When we're designing for the web, thinking of the person before the disability helps us focus audience rather than create a false separation between"people without disabilities" and "people with disabilities." 

TYPES OF DISABILITY Five main areas of disability affect our use of the web: visual impairments, auditory impairments, motor impairments, cog- nitive impairments, and vestibular disorders and seizures.

Cognitive dificulties are incredibly diverse, and the way peo- ple interact with web content will vary depending on their condition. Cognitive issues that are particularly relevant to the web include:

 • Memory: difficulties remembering the task one is trying to accomplish, or where one is within a site.

 •  Attention: difficulty focusing on large amounts of informa- tion, or any information for prolonged periods. 

• Problem-solving: difficulty processing information, particu- larly if the content on the page is not what's expected. · 

 • Text processing: difficulty understanding text, and difficulty expressing understanding through speech and language.

 • Math processing: difficulty understanding mathematical concepts and symbols, such as telling the time or distinguish- ing quantities, money, and pricing.

 •  Visual processing: difficulty interpreting visual information, or understanding visual representatios of real-world objects (such as icons)

Accessibility for Everyone quotes

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