Accessible design benefits everyone
“Accessible design is good design — it benefits people who don’t have disabilities as well as people who do. Accessibility is all about removing barriers and providing the benefits for everyone.” -Steve Ballmer
What is accessible design, and why is it important?
Universal design is a broad term that considers age, gender, stature, culture, and more when designing. It is often confused with accessible design, which meets the specific needs of people with disabilities or neurodiverse people.
To put it into perspective, people with disabilities or neurodiverse people make up the world’s largest minority, approximately one billion people worldwide.
Product design is about uniting people and making their lives easier. This applies to all humans regardless of their abilities.
Designs that are not accessible to people with disabilities or neurodiverse people tend to separate users by their weaknesses and strengths. This defeats the purpose of unity.
Accessibility is not a barrier to design
Although it can be challenging to work through certain constraints, taking time to redirect your designs to make them accessible will result in a better product for all your users.
Accessibility will not force designers to make ugly or boring products; instead, it will make them critically think, and the solutions will most likely surprise consumers.
Let’s take a look at a few real-life examples where accessible and universal design benefits everyone.
1. Voice control
Forms of voice control such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa were intended to allow visually impaired people to easily navigate their devices through their voices. Everyone now uses voice control to retain information on things like the weather, time zones, and the infinite knowledge these devices hold.
2. Screen reading (text to speech)
Screen reading was designed to help the visually impaired understand what’s written in front of them through speech. This AI tool has made using devices so much easier. Abled-bodied people tend to use this tool too, but differently. It’s helpful to have your essay or article read back to you, and this is precisely how this tool comes in handy. Having text being spoken to you makes it easier to catch more minor mistakes.
3. You can now text 911
The United States has recently made texting to 911 available. This makes it easier for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to get help. It has not only significantly changed their lives, but it’s come in handy for many other people. For situations where being quiet results in safety, texting 911 has allowed people to seek help in difficult and scary times.
4. Closed captions or subtitles
Closed captions have helped people understand content in noisy environments, while subtitles have helped people understand movies and tv shows in languages they may not speak. Closed captions were intended for the deaf and hard of hearing; however, you can see how they benefited everyone.
5. Ramps
Ramps allow people in wheelchairs to access all buildings but have you noticed it’s helpful for people with bikes and baby strollers too. Instead of battling the stairs with heavy bikes and baby strollers, everyone can use the ramps to make life easier.
6. The curb cut
The curb cut is the dip that blends the sidewalk and the main road. This not only allows people with a wheelchair to easily slide down, but it also informs visually impaired people that they are at the edge of the sidewalk. Like the ramps, the slight dip allows bikers and baby strollers to easily slide down (and up) into the main road.
7. Automatic doors
Automatic doors were designed to allow people in wheelchairs or crutches to enter and exit buildings quickly. However, when your hands are full, these automatic doors are beneficial.
As these seven examples show designs that were intended primarily for people with disabilities or neurodiverse people but ended up benefiting everyone, let’s take a look at how design can be made accessible.
How to design with accessibility in mind
Design always starts with empathy.
It’s helpful for designers to put themselves in their users’ shoes and identify their needs. This applies to designing anything; however, since accessible design is something many people aren’t familiar with, it requires in-depth research.
This research includes interviewing people with disabilities or neurodiverse people and observing their environment. Gathering this knowledge provides designers with useful information to create user-friendly, accessible products.
How can accessibility benefit business?
We have established that accessible design benefits all people, let’s see how it benefits business.
1. Extend your market reach:
The global market of neurodiverse people or people with disabilities people consists of over one billion people. Designing products that are assessable to this community will only expand your market reach and income. Neurodiverse people or people with disabilities people are great consumers and will bring value to any business.
2. Enhance and expand your brand:
Focusing on accessible design can help increase brand credibility which results in great reputation and open conversations. Big brands including Apple, have paved the way for accessible design. As other brands start to follow, they will get the same spotlight and start gaining users.
3. Drive Innovation and help everyone:
Accessibility features and services, despite who they were intended for, help everyone. It allows users to interact with products in several ways making it more user friendly. Accessible products make it easy to be flexible and fit the consumer’s needs.
Designing for people with disabilities = designing for everyone
Product design is meant to unite people, not separate them by strengths and weaknesses. As shown above, many of the designs that were intended to help people with disabilities or neurodiverse people, ended up helping everyone. The accessible design makes interacting with products and services flexible, hence, making it easier for the user to adapt the product to their needs.
The Canvs Editorial team comprises of: Editorial Writer and Researcher- Paridhi Agrawal and Anjali Baliga, the Editor’s Desk- Aalhad Joshi and Debprotim Roy, and Content Operations- Abin Rajan
Follow Canvs on Instagram and LinkedIn. Don’t forget to follow us here on Medium as well for more design-related content.
