Essentials of UI Design XVI: Accessibility in UI Design
Accessibility in UI design helps to create inclusive and usable digital products for more people. As a Ui designer, you need to consider practices and principles that ensure your user interfaces are usable by people with disabilities. This article reviews ways to expand the reach of your digital product by ensuring that elements of interaction are navigable and functional for users living with impairments.
A Deep-Dive into the World of UI Accessibility
Accessibility in user interface design aims to accommodate the diverse needs of all users, even if they suffer from significant impairments. Therefore, designers are required to implement features that support a broad spectrum of abilities. It’s also important that the products they work on are usable by all.
User diversity and inclusion
Inclusive design does not necessarily capture user diversity, but that’s the job of the UI designer to enforce. This ensures that individuals with disabilities and other more capable individuals can be equally supported.
As such, it’s imperative to involve people with diverse disabilities in user testing exercises. Covering unique challenges and adapting designs to accommodate a wider audience helps to ensure that the UX adequately captures everybody.
Accessibility standards designers should be aware of
A recommended practice in UX design is to adhere to Accessibility Standards such as the Wen Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These standards make guidelines available for creating web content that is accessible to users living with auditory, cognitive, motor, and visual impairments. These guidelines help to position your UI design to meet recognized benchmarks of accessibility.
Applying Accessibility in the UI Design Process
It’s more beneficial to introduce accessibility at the onset of design. This involves things like enabling keyboard navigation for those who are unable to use a mouse or using alt text for images.
Also, understanding and designing assistive technologies is crucial for accessibility. Technologies such as screen readers to vocalize on-screen content are essential for people with eyesight disabilities. It’s essential that your UI design supports tools that enhance the user experience with various disabilities.
Conclusion
Other tips for UI design accessibility efforts include making fonts large enough to be readable and keeping the color contrast sufficiently high to distinguish text and on-screen elements.
Lastly, clear headings can help to structure content effectively. This supports navigation for people using dedicated screen readers. Many screen inspiration ideas on UILand are built with accessibility in mind.
