Designing for Accessibility: Tips and Best Practices for Making Digital Products Accessible to All Users

As a UI/UX designer, one of the most impactful ways we can make a difference is by ensuring our digital products are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. Designing for accessibility isn’t just about compliance; it’s about creating inclusive experiences that cater to all users. Here are some tips and best practices I’ve gathered to help make your designs more accessible.

Why Accessibility Matters

1. Legal Compliance: Regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act require accessibility. Ensuring compliance protects you from legal repercussions.

2. Market Reach: Around 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability. Making your designs accessible opens up your product to a significant and often overlooked market segment.

3. Ethical Responsibility: As designers, we have a duty to create products that everyone can use. It’s about empathy and inclusivity.

Principles of Accessible Design

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) outline four main principles to always keep in mind:

Principles of Accessibility

1. Perceivable: Users must be able to perceive the information being presented. For instance, providing text alternatives for non-text content ensures that screen readers can interpret images and graphics.
2. Operable: Users must be able to operate the interface. This means making all functionality available via keyboard for those who cannot use a mouse.
3. Understandable: Users must be able to understand the information and the operation of the user interface. This involves making text readable and interfaces predictable.
4. Robust: Content must be robust enough to be interpreted reliably by various user agents, including assistive technologies.

Practical Tips and Best Practices

Use Semantic HTML: Properly structured HTML helps screen readers and other assistive technologies understand the layout and content of your page. Tags like `<header>`, `<nav>`, `<main>`, `<section>`, and `<footer>` are your friends.

Semantic HTML usage

Provide Text Alternatives: Ensure that all non-text content has text alternatives. Use `alt` attributes for images, provide transcripts for videos, and include detailed descriptions for complex graphics.

Ensure Keyboard Accessibility: Make sure that all interactive elements, such as links, buttons, and forms, are accessible via keyboard. Users should be able to navigate your site without relying on a mouse.

Design for Color Blindness: Approximately 8% of men and 0.5% of women are color blind. Use tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker to ensure your color choices meet WCAG guidelines for contrast.

Use ARIA Landmarks: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) landmarks help users navigate your content more easily. By identifying regions of the page, such as navigation, main content, and forms, you make your site more usable.

Implement Focus Indicators: Provide clear focus indicators for all interactive elements. This helps users who navigate using a keyboard to understand which element is currently focused.

Design Responsive Layouts: Ensure your design works well on various screen sizes and orientations. Flexible grids, responsive images, and media queries are essential for a truly accessible design.

Responsive Design

Provide Clear and Consistent Navigation: Ensure that your site navigation is logical and consistent across all pages. Use descriptive link texts that make sense out of context.

Offer Adjustable Text Sizes: Allow users to adjust text sizes without breaking the layout. This can be achieved by using relative units like ems or percentages instead of pixels.

Test with Real Users: The most effective way to ensure accessibility is by testing your product with users who have disabilities. This provides invaluable insights into real-world usability issues.

Conclusion

As designers, our job is to create digital experiences that are inclusive and accessible to all users. By following these tips and best practices, we can ensure that our designs are not only compliant but also empathetic and user-friendly. Remember, accessibility is an ongoing process that should be integrated into every stage of your design and development workflow.

References:

1. World Health Organization. (2021). Disability and Health.
2. W3C. (2018). Introduction to HTML.
3. W3C. (2018). Text Alternatives.
4. W3C. (2018). Keyboard Accessible.
5. WebAIM. (n.d.). Contrast Checker.
6. W3C. (2018). ARIA Landmarks.
7. W3C. (2018). Focus Visible.
8. W3C. (2018). Responsive Design.
9. Nielsen Norman Group. (2017). Consistency in Design.
10. W3C. (2018). Resize Text.