It is important to include people with disabilities in your research because you will be able to better understand how to go about the design process. Not everyone is the same so there are things that should be considered to also design for accessibility. A few things to consider include:
- Touch
- See
- Hear
- Speak
Accessibility: Touch
For touch, there are many different scenarios such as someone with only one arm, missing fingers, hand in cast, or holding an item with one hand.
- Decide where to place buttons within your design based on several different hand sizes.
- Create a feature that allows double taps to avoid accidental icon clicks.
- Enable the one-handed keyboard feature and general keyboard compatibility.
- Allow button customization for easy access to information that the user finds most important.
Accessibility: See
For seeing, factors to consider include being blind, users without their glasses or contacts, or visual processing disabilities.
- Use a larger font to create a reader-friendly design of the app.
- Ensure the app and the images have alternate text that can be read by a screen reader.
- Detect whether the user is operating a motor vehicle.
- Design the app with high contrast colors.
- Don’t rely on text color to explain navigation or next steps. For example, don’t use red text alone as an indicator of a warning. Instead, your design should include explicit instructions.
Accessibility: Hear
For hearing, factors to consider include ear infections, deaf, loud environments.
- Don’t rely solely on sounds to provide app updates, like a new message notification. Instead, enable haptics, which are vibrations that engage a user’s sense of touch, and notification lights.
- Apply closed captioning to all videos.
- Provide a text messaging system within the app to allow users to communicate through writing.
Accessibility: Speak
For speaking, factors to consider include non-native speakers, voice box infections, or permanent nonverbal disabilities.
- Provide written intros, descriptions, and instructions for users, in addition to video-based content.
- Provide Real-Time Texting during phone calls with users or with app support.
- Arrange alternatives for automated systems that rely on speech recognition.
- Provide an in-app messaging system that allows the use of emojis and image uploads.
Although this article provides a few short things to consider, the best feedback you can achieve for your specific product is by going out and acutally conducting the research with those with disabilities.
“The best way to design empathetically for the world around you is to engage with your users and ask them questions about the way your designs could help them succeed.”
Google UX Design Process
