Thank you for reading first of two part series on User experience designs with accessibility in mind. If you haven’t already read my previous post I recommend reading the first part.
Now as you have a basic understanding of different disabilities the impact they have on inclusive design, it is important to know the accessibility standards by W3C called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.0
. Though WCAG 2.0 have more than 60 success criteria laid against 3 conformance levels (A, AA, AAA), W3C recommends only level A and level AA success criteria. Out of these there are only few success criteria that can be considered during the UX stage. You can find the relevant success criteria in the W3C Accessibility responsibility breakdown page. Each success criteria that is considered during user experience stage are available in the table under Interaction design and usability.
Inclusive design at Microsoft, Amazing information for designers to begin with and spend rest of the life designing products, websites and applications keeping accessibility in mind.
An excellent book authored by Derek Featherstone, Founder of Simply Accessible, Foundations of User experience and accessibility explains where does accessibility fits in the process of user experience.
The webinar by Rajesh Kalidindi, explains the design considerations for accessibility with real time examples. The session is very informative and impressive. It is definitely worth watching. Accessibility guide for UX professionals (webinar registration required)
Fitting user experience designs into accessibility is a vast topic, however these resources will help user experience professionals understand and implement universally accessible and inclusive products, applications and websites. It is not only the WCAG guidelines to be considered but also the requirements of 20% people with disabilities who use your product, users who have age old difficulties, those who are not technology savvy and those who have language discomfort.
Other resources that are worth reading
- Is UX team responsible for accessibility?
- 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility
- Understand the Social Needs for Accessibility in UX Design.
- Accessibility In UX Design: Tales From The Field.
- It’s time to make your UX design more accessible
Last updated on May 5, 2017