Inclusive by Design Digital Accessibility in Products

Think of a world where everyone can understand and interact with digital products and services regardless of their physical disability. Inclusivity of such people is not only a noble thing to do. Each user has a right to enter a digital world that opens a variety of people all around the world.

Disabled people make up about 15% of the world’s population, which means that digital accessibility is not only a moral responsibility but also a business opportunity.

While the term ‘accessible UX’ is based on technical requirements, it is much broader in meaning. It is about creating solutions that are not only for people with visual, cognitive, hearing, and mobility impairments but also for people who are inherently different.

In doing so, Linkup Studio makes the experience better for the intersectional disabled and makes a point of catering to the disabled in general.

The empathy used in designing fosters a better experience for all users improving the brand image and satisfaction of the customers.

Today we are discussing the reason why the concept of accessibility needs to be included in the objectives of digital products and the scale of its effect on companies, development, and expansion.

What is digital accessibility?

Digital accommodations mean that the websites, applications, and other tools that are on the internet are coded in such a way that any individual regardless of any disability, whether it is auditory, cognitive or learning, neurological, physical or speech or visual disability should be able to make use of it in ease.

Now, designing interfaces, which are clear, understandable and easily manageable by people with disabilities, has become the basis of user experience and product design.

It is also important that accessibility should be viewed as one of the key components of good design, which would enable the content to reach as many people as possible and appeal to their reason to get interested.

But it’s not a one-woman show to create digital products that are kind and empathetic; it is an orchestra. It must be a collective effort not only between designers, developers, and compliance officers, but it is very important to involve product managers and product owners.

They are the driving force for integrating accessibility into products’ DNA and ensuring that the efforts are aligned with the vision of making products accessible for everyone.

This approach means that accessibility is not an add-on, but it is included in the design and new product development of the system.

What is digital accessibility in practice?

For a young, ‘agile’ company or for a global enterprise, there can be no better strategy than to incorporate accessibility compliance into the development process from the very inception because the benefits are quantifiable across various parameters.

The legal Imperative

In the world today, countries have put in place strong laws to guarantee everyone’s right to access digital platforms. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires digital services to be accessible, as reflected by Canada’s Accessible Canada Act (ACA) and the European Union’s extensive guidelines.

But none are more significant than the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the Web Accessibility Directive (WAD), which lay down high bar for various online services and goods, including online marketplaces and mobile applications.

The EAA, which is currently functional across the territory of the EU member states, ensures international consistency of the accessibility standards, which makes it easier for business companies to meet the requirements across borders and to save money on it. In addition, it goes further than a website to cover digital television services, banking, and telecommunication services; therefore, it is a crucial regulation for digital inclusion.

Better UX for all

Elements such as navigation, font size, and choice of colors do not only help drive lower bounce rates and higher user engagement and loyalty but also help a website appeal to a wide audience.

It makes it possible for people with permanent, temporary or situational disabilities – a surgery, a baby in their hands, or when in noisy places – to easily use your products or services. It also enhances individuals’ standards of living and targets markets that may be neglected by other players in the market hence making more impact.

Innovation and Improved SEO

The concepts that are emphasized in web accessibility are usually not very different from the best practices in SEO.

For instance – semantic HTML – which is very important for accessibility – makes it easier for search engines to interpret the content and structure of web pages. This can result in better ranking, or so-called ‘indexing,’ and, therefore, improved search engine placement.

Also, while using alt text for images, you help the visually impaired user but also provide search engines with context for images which will enhance the ranking of your content in the image search.

However, usability is usually higher on accessible sites, and this will decrease the bounce rate and time spent on the site, which search engines consider to be positive.

Brand equity

Leveraging accessibility means that when a brand embraces it, it becomes a way of stating the brand’s values and how committed the brand is to the community. This commitment improves on brand image, thus the brand is more likely to be perceived better by a larger population.

Therefore, those companies which make their products accessible are evaluated as pioneers of both technological advancements and responsible business. Loyalty can also be gained as well as customer advocacy which results in a stronger brand that can easily compete with brands in the market.

In the long run, being an accessible brand is not simply about catering for the community but also about establishing a credible, solid and reputable business.

Cost Efficiency

Incorporating accessibility right from the design phase of the project is cheaper than to make the structures and facilities accessible at a later point.

Integration at an early stage helps to minimize situations where a lot of redesigning or modifying is required and this is costly and time consuming.

WCAG guidelines: the ultimate guide to the concept of accessibility compliance

WCAG refers to web content accessibility guidelines which are standards that are acceptable from all over the world and that seek to build more accessibility of the website for disabled persons. Not only that such frameworks indicate, but in countries such as the United States, they are the law.

WCAG 2. 2 or the second most recent accessibility standard provided by W3C aims at helping in improving the usability of the website content to make it accessible to people with disabilities.

WCAG provides three levels of conformance in order to measure the accessibility of a digital asset. They are all different and every level has its own goal to be achieved, its own set of successes to achieve.

It is best understood as an accessibility scale that goes as low as Level A and as high as Level AAA. The best that one can aim for digital products is to achieve what is known as AA compliance.

Digital accessibility fundamentals: WCAG’s ‘POUR’ principle addresses accessibility for people with disabilities that affect their understanding of text.

At the heart of WCAG lies the four fundamental accessibility principles, conveniently encapsulated in the acronym ‘POUR’: They include Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. They describe the characteristics of web content that should be considered accessible.

Far from being mere compliance, the mentioned principles are as follows. They are strategic elements of product development that have the potential to create more innovative, user-centered, and successful digital products.

Perceivable

This means that information must be presented in ways that are easily recognizable by all the users. This entails listing non-text content descriptions, designing content that can be delivered without changing the information (for example, simplified layout), and ensure that it is easy to view and listen.

Example: Image descriptions

A very basic and, therefore, highly efficient strategy to make digital content accessible is the provision of an alternative text (alt-text) for images.

Alt-text is a text description of the image that can be understood by the screen readers; hence, visually impaired users can get an idea of what the image depicts.

Operable

In other words, all the interface elements must be usable irrespective of the interaction modes.

It is possible to increase accessibility and minimize the level of client’s frustration and dropout by implementing keyboard-friendly navigation and adjusting time limits.

Example: Keyboard navigability

For users who don’t use a mouse, it is important that all features of a digital product are accessible through the keyboard. This includes having the ability to go through menus, turn on buttons and input data on forms in a computer solely by use of the keyboard.

For instance, a video streaming service could customize the playing space and use the keyboard commands to play, pause, fast forward, or rewind videos in a bid to enhance the overall service to users who have motor disabilities.

Understandable

The interfaces should always be easy to understand and as close to being obvious as possible so as to make it easier for all users to find their way around the product and to interact with it.

This principle requires simple language and use of uniform designs to ease the understanding and increase the utilization of the application.

Example: Consistent navigation

Having consistency in the navigation system gives the users the feel of the flow of the product and what they are likely to encounter as they move from one section of the site or the application.

For example – if a digital banking app has a tabbed navigation on its home screen and it separates accounts, transfers, and bills, it must remain the same across the mobile and desktop versions.

A stable interface helps such users to understand what actions are possible and where it is possible to get to with less time and with less confusion for all.

Robust

Design for platform compatibility and accessibility for disabled people.

Robust design is an effective way of guaranteeing that your product does not become obsolete with the advancement in technology thus increasing the return on investment on your digital products.

Example: Accessibility to people with disabilities

It is crucial to guarantee that a digital product is compatible with diverse assistive technologies, including screen readers, voice recognition technologies, and particular input devices. This may include employing typical HTML5 tags, which most of the support tools can recognize, to create the framework of web pages.

For instance, a news website can guarantee that the articles that are published are well formatted with the right heading tags, including H1, H2, and H3, as well as semantic HTML. This not only helps the users who use the screen readers but also ensures that if new technologies come up in the future, the content will always be accessible.