According to the 2023 WebAIM Million report, which looks at the accessibility of the top 1 million web pages, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) errors are slowly increasing, with an astounding average of 50.8 errors per webpage. These, in many cases, effectively exclude people with different accessibility needs from using digital content or products and lead to revenue losses for businesses. This isn’t something to take lightly considering that people with disabilities have a global spending power of US$13 trillion.
As technology and digital products become more embedded in our lives, it’s critical that they’re accessible to all. This, in the context of digital product design, means building experiences that everybody can participate in regardless of their abilities, by applying your knowledge of disabilities during the design process.
Accessibility is mission-critical in digital product design
There are many misconceptions surrounding accessible design. Some believe that the market size of people with disabilities is too small to justify the time and monetary expense, while others believe that accessibility makes for cumbersome design—neither of these is true.
The truth, in fact, is that people with disabilities represent the world’s largest minority group. The World Health Organisation estimates that 16% of the global population live with some form of disability and as such, accessibility is something that you cannot ignore or let fall by the wayside. Doing so runs the risk of alienating a large portion of your potential customers and opening you up to expensive lawsuits.
Nike vs Mendizabal
Nike faced an accessibility class action lawsuit in 2017 when it transpired that the Nike.com and Converse.com websites were inaccessible to visually impaired users.
The plaintiff, Maria Mendizabal, who is legally blind, claimed that Nike failed to give equal access to blind and visually impaired users because its websites didn’t allow screen readers to access web content.
Mendizabal sought a permanent injunction against Nike to update its websites and compensation in damages and legal fees. The case was eventually settled in 2018 for an undisclosed amount.
How accessibility benefits users
Accessible digital products work better for everyone. They’re easier to use and intuitive and they benefit users in a myriad of ways.
Improved CX – implementing accessibility in digital products makes it more likely that pre-existing usability problems that were affecting your customers will be unearthed, giving you the opportunity to improve their experiences.
Independence – people with disabilities sometimes need help with regular day-to-day activities. By taking accessibility seriously, you help to break down barriers and give customers the satisfaction of being able to independently use your product.
Equal participation – nobody wants to be left out; that’s exactly what accessibility aims to eliminate. Accessibility affords all your potential users to participate equally in using your product or service.
How accessibility benefits brands
Making accessibility a priority is hugely beneficial to brands as well as their users because it:
Boosts loyalty – socially responsible consumer spending is at an all-time high. 64% of consumers said that they have supported responsible brands in a recent Forbes study and this figure is likely to grow.
Grows bottom lines – loyal customers are your biggest champions. They’re far more likely to refer your brand to other people.
Avoids non-compliance – inaccessible digital products run the risk of attracting the attention of lawsuits and regulators, which can lead to costly court action and large punitive fines.
Futureproofs your operations – accessibility requirements are going to become more stringent as regulations and consumer demands evolve. By getting ahead now, you’re futureproofing your operations and avoiding a stressful and potentially costly game of catch-up.
NHS digital overhaul
The UK National Health Service (NHS) underwent a huge digital overhaul and reinvented its online platform in 2016.
The existing NHS Digital websites, which covered 400+ services, were difficult to use and incohesive, with information made difficult to find by poor navigation, walls of text and technical written content, which disproportionally impacted users with visual, cognitive and mobility impairments.
The new website was pioneered by the Government Digital Service, which built a website that was easier to use due to clearer content, a simpler interface and a reduction in the number of PDFs used throughout the site.
This led to an increase in pages with AAA accessibility ratings from 53% in April 2018 to 98% in October 2019 and an increase in daily users from 15,000 to 26,000.
Digital product design solutions for six common disabilities
Visual impairments
36 million people worldwide are blind and another 217 million have moderate to severe visual impairments.
Digital products that don’t work with screen reader software, colour contrasts that make it difficult to read text on the screen and an absence of pinch-to-zoom functionality on mobile are just a few common pain points.
Consider the following digital product design solutions:
Provide sufficient contrast through colours and textures.
Enable manual font size adjustment.
Avoid using colour to communicate important information.
Use explicit and descriptive labels where appropriate.
Provide descriptions for non-text content.
Mobility impairments
Mobility impairment is a category of disability that covers a range of physical disabilities including limb loss, arthritis and paralysis.
Elements that can only be engaged with using a computer mouse represent one of the biggest pain points for people with mobility impairments when it comes to digital products.
Consider the following digital product design solutions:
Integrate voice commands.
Enable the use of keyboard navigation and shortcuts.
Divide content logically.
Enable autofill for forms.
Hearing impairments
1.5 billion people have a low to moderate amount of hearing loss, whereas 66 million have significant hearing loss.
Common challenges faced by those with hearing impairments when using digital products include a lack of subtitles and transcriptions for video content and video without synchronised captions.
Consider the following digital product design solutions:
Captions and transcripts for video content.
Proofread captions to ensure accuracy and eliminate errors.
In-product volume control.
Cognitive impairments
Cognitive impairments cover a variety of conditions affecting cognitive ability. These include intellectual deficits, neurodegenerative diseases and problems resulting in brain injuries. Examples include dementia, down’s syndrome, autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
Common challenges for those with cognitive impairments when it comes to digital products include complex UI, walls of text and small, hard-to-read fonts.
Consider the following digital product design solutions:
Light and dark themes/modes.
Use graphics and images where they make sense.
Ensure content conforms to WCAG guidelines.
Vestibular disorders
Vestibular disorders such as epilepsy, vertigo and eye movement disorders affect millions of people worldwide, with 50 million people estimated to be living with epilepsy.
Common pain points for people with vestibular disorders include videos that autoplay, flashing and strobing, parallax effects and scroll-triggered animations.
Consider the following digital product design solutions:
Follow WCAG guidelines on flash and red flash thresholds.
Use parallax effects with caution.
Ensure animated assets can be toggled on/off.
Incorporating accessibility into digital product design
Designing digital products that are accessible means building them in a way that all individuals can use them. This means developing a design that everyone can access, understand and utilise to its full extent, considering their diverse physical, visual, auditory, motor and cognitive abilities. As such, finding success in achieving accessibility standards in your digital products requires them to be designed with it as a core consideration.
Accessibility is not something that can be an afterthought, haphazardly tacked on to the end of the finished product. It’s also important to keep in mind that accessibility isn’t the responsibility of any one person. Rather, it’s a team effort that everybody involved in the design process needs to take ownership of.
As we’ve already explored, digital accessibility is on the rise. More and more companies are looking to make accessibility happen and failing to act now and get ahead puts your organisation at risk of not just reputational damage but lawsuits and punitive action, too.
Adrenalin is a leading digital product and technology agency for Australia’s top brands and organisations. Stay informed about the latest digital product trends, strategies and tactics by subscribing to the Adrenalin newsletter below.
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