Accessibility and Inclusive Design: How to Build Products for Everyone
In today's digital world, it's more important than ever to build products that are accessible and inclusive to all users, regardless of ability or circumstance. With more than 1 billion people globally having disabilities, accessibility should be a key consideration in any product design process.
Creating accessible, inclusive products opens your products to a wider audience and demonstrates corporate social responsibility and compliance with regulations in many jurisdictions. Here are some tips on how to build accessibility and inclusive design into your products from the start:
Conduct User Research
Get input from diverse users early in the design process. Speak to people with various disabilities, those using assistive technologies, and people in different environments. Understand their challenges and goals. This will reveal opportunities to improve the accessibility of your product.
Follow Accessibility Guidelines
Many countries/regions have published guidelines on accessible design, including Section 508 in the US, EN 301 549 in the EU, and the WCAG 2.1 guidelines published by W3C. Review these early in the design process and use them to inform decisions.
Design for Flexibility
Rigid designs often fail to meet diverse users' needs. Build flexibility through features like customizable fonts, color contrast options, language alternatives, and headphone support. Allow users to adapt the product to their unique needs.
Use Semantic HTML
Ensure markup uses semantic HTML elements like main, nav, header, etc. Assistive technologies rely on semantic tags to accurately convey information. Write meaningful image alt text, heading tags, and ARIA roles.
Test Assistive Technologies
Continuously test your product using screen readers, magnifiers, alternative input methods, and other assistive tools. Identify and fix issues early. Users should be able to navigate and understand your product fully.
Automate Accessibility Testing
Automated tools can test for accessibility issues like color contrast, semantic markup, and ARIA roles. Integrate these into your development pipelines to catch common mistakes. However, automated testing alone is not sufficient.
Design for All Senses
Consider users who cannot see, hear, or use traditional inputs. Provide text alternatives for images, transcripts for audio, screen reader support, and keyboard-only navigation. Support screen magnifiers and color adjustments.
Document Accessibility Features
Thoroughly document the accessibility features, accommodations, and options available in your product. Users should understand exactly how to adapt the experience to meet their needs.
Considering accessibility from the start, you can create products that work for everyone, regardless of physical or technical constraints. The result is a better user experience for all. Accessibility benefits all users and opens products to a larger audience. With some thoughtfulness and testing, you can build products that are flexible, usable, and accessible to all.
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