Accessibility (a11y)
Accessibility in the sense considered here refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities.
a11y? What that means?
Adobe XD Ideas has also a good article: What is Accessible Design?
Disabilities
What kind of disabilites are we talking about?
- Visual (e.g., color blindness)
- Motor/mobility (e.g., wheelchair-user concerns)
- Auditory (hearing difficulties)
- Seizures (especially photosensitive epilepsy)
- Learning/cognitive (e.g., dyslexia)
Disturbed cognition
But ability barriers can arise for any user:
- Incidental (e.g., sleep-deprivation)
- Environmental (e.g., using a mobile device underground)
Read more: 📌Interaction-Design.org: Accessibility
When some usability aspects may sound subjective, accessibility requires certain criteria or standards, sometimes even law, that designers and developers have to meet to create accessible experience for all audiences.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the most common and known standard for creating accessible experience. Different countries may have their own legislation acts, but they often refer to the WCAG standards.
Useful links and resources
- The a11y Project
- a11y.me
- ARIA
- webAIM
- a11y in Chrome DevTools
- a11y in Firefox plus a nice explanation about DOM and Accessibility trees
- MDN Web Docs Accessibility chapter
Some tips for designers from WebAIM:
