Why Designing for Accessibility (Inclusive Design) is Important
Updated: Sep 29, 2020
Based on Word bank organization report one billion people which is equal to 15% of the world’s population experience some form of disability.
Also, according to Australia network on disability 1 in 5 Australian are estimated to have disability.
There are various Types of accessibility issues such as:
· Visual impairment (e.g., color blindness)
· Deaf
· Motor/mobility (e.g., wheelchair-user concerns)
· Elderly
· Auditory (hearing difficulties)
· Seizures (especially photosensitive epilepsy)
· Learning/cognitive (e.g., dyslexia)
· Environmental (e.g., using a mobile device underground)
As Frank Spillers explain, accessibility affects usability and search engine optimization (SEO) and how usability and accessibility are sisters:
- Optimized code
- Simplified layout
- Plain English
- Consideration for the end user
- Browser/device compatible
You can read more about optimizing for accessibility in Adee app free e-Books.
So clearly, by considering this significant group of audiences, designing for accessibility can also impacts on businesses achievements as well:
· “Improvements in accessibility doubled Legal and General’s life insurance sales online.”
· “Improvements in accessibility increased Tesco’s grocery home delivery sales by £13 million in 2005… To their surprise they found that many normal visitors preferred the ease of navigation and improved simplicity of the [parallel] accessible site and switched to use it. Tesco have replaced their ‘normal’ site with their accessible version and expect a further increase in revenues.”
· “Improvements in accessibility increased Virgin online sales by 68%.
By knowing this, do you think if we, as designers, have been really considering this significant group of audience in our design process?
Free tools to help you!
Adee is a free comprehensive accessibility testing tool to help you improve accessibility of your designs.
Resources: