PROJECTS
Accessibility
When bringing up accessibility, many involved
in the web design and app development
industry may not fully understand what that
suggests. Especially those relatively new to the field.
That’s not for lack of need or interest but more
relative to the lack of importance placed on it by
employers or clients early in our careers. As a junior
level designer or developer, we’re often tasked with
just getting work done. We aren’t typically involved
in strategic decisions at that stage of our career.
As we progress, our expertise expands and the size
of projects and clients grows as well. What doesn’t
necessarily grow is that leadership guiding us toward
time spent learning what accessibility means to
our customers or how it is changing due to cultural
transparency and decreasing cost. We need to pay
attention to it to do it well.
Accessibility is more than alt tags, tab indexes
and button sizes on touch screens. It’s more than
having a larger font for an ageing demographic to
read your content. Accessibility is more than a design
choice or feature. It’s about understanding the needsof the world around you and providing the same
opportunities to others that are often ignored.
As tech advances, it opens the possibilities of
creating experiences for all. Although it may seem
overwhelming keeping up with it all, think about
how your users feel when you deny them the ability
to interact with a product or service.
Uber made accessibility a priority with its sign-
language initiative (https://netm.ag/2PuCsTE). It found
that unemployment or underemployment in this
community was close to 70 per cent. Its programme
empowers deaf or hard of hearing individuals to not
only use the service but also become a driver.
With increasing popularity of augmented reality
(AR) and the lowering cost of technology, we are
nearing an explosion of solutions that were never
before possible. Craig Smith wrote a great piece
a couple of years ago about Apple’s ARKit and the
opportunity to build AR-driven solutions to increase
education for those that live on the autism spectrum.
I highly recommend you check it out (https://
netm.ag/350OYRo).THE RISK OF
IGNORING ACCESSIBILIT Y
Joshua Garity explores why accessibility so often gets underemphasised in
developers’ skillsets – and why that’s a huge mistakeP
ROFI
LEACCESSIBILITY
Garity is the founder of both UX Triggers and Candorem, which is a
75-time award-winning UX creative agency based out of Wisconsin, in
the United States.
w: http://www.candorem.com