Digital Accessibility on Web

5 categories of disability

This morning I attended a breakfast seminar by Maverick by Sigma about digital accessibility. There is a new law that affects websites, apps and certain third party services such as social media in the public sector. I was interested to find out what accessibility principles should guide new web projects also in the private sector.

Most of my clients are tech companies for whom digital access to information and digital ways of attracting, converting and nurturing relationships with customers and partners are crucial. Some of my take-aways from this morning:

1. Accessibility is often good for all – a necessity for some, practical for most people

• 20% of the Swedish population is 60+ years old

• 25% of the adult population has problems reading

• 50% (!) need reading glasses

• 20% av the Swedish population has some form of disability (visual, hearing, motorical, voice, or cognitive e.g. dyslexia, ADHD, etc)

Most of us will at some point experience one or more impairment, either permanently, temporarily or in a specific situation.

This gives reason to consider accessibility aspects and work with inclusive design in digital projects.

2. There are four guiding principles for accessibility:

• Ability to notice / understand context, content, headings, links, images, etc even if impaired.

• Accessible / Manageable to navigate through a site (e.g. by 'tabbing' your way) even if you can't scroll or use a mouse.

• Being able to make sense of content or functionality (e.g. make sure there is enough distance between, or large enough click area for, response alternatives and CTA options for someone who has has problems being 'exact' to make sense of and use it).

• Robust (e.g. Voice Control or voice guided instructions must work properly).

3. Some practical tips for how to include accessibility aspects in your next web project, even if not legally required to:

• Good HTML code

• Pedagogical content

• Different ways to navigate

• Consistency in the way- you apply/use functionality

• Readability of content, docs, etc, especially when it comes to instructions

• Consider the target audience, do you need easy to read /digest content? If so, it may be wise to limit content to 5 instead of the standard 8 column width in web design

• Link descriptors

• Accessibility adapted downloadable PDFs

Thanks, Maverick, for an interesting seminar! Food for thought!

More about Web Accessibility.

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