Reframing accesibility

Design for people -  not disabilities!

"We can reframe accessibility in terms of what we provide, not what other people lack. When we treat all of our users as whole people, regardless of their abilities, then we are able to approach accessibility as just another solvable—valuable—technical challenge to overcome."

"Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. A big web design change is about to go through, and someone on your team has just discovered a bug that will cause problems with accessibility. One of the decision-makers in charge of the budget asks, “Well, how important is it? I mean, how many blind people do we have using the site, anyway?”

http://alistapart.com/article/reframing-accessibility-for-the-web

Anne Gibson February 03, 2015
Alistapart. 

 

A related blog post on the importance of language: 

I'm "not broken" ... "just a different kind of normal"...

http://www.bookwormblues.net/2014/09/10/i-am-not-broken-the-language-of-disability/

Progressive enhancement

"Progressive Enhancement consists of the following core principles:

• basic content should be accessible to all web browsers
• basic functionality should be accessible to all web browsers
• sparse, semantic markup contains all content
• enhanced layout is provided by externally linked CSS
• enhanced behavior is provided by unobtrusive, externally linked JavaScript
• end-user web browser preferences are respected

Progressive enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing an enhanced version of the page to those with more advanced browser software or greater bandwidth.

The strategy is an evolution of a previous web design strategy known as "graceful degradation", wherein designers would create Web pages for the latest browsers that would also work well in older versions of browser software. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement

Hands are different.

Lovely illustration of hands from Science fiction.
Imagine designing an interface that would fit all of these!
 

Unaccessible experience design

Spotify faced challenges when updateing their service to an improved look. Despite the great interface, people with reduced sight can no longer use the sevice.

Read more at aftonbladet news article (in Swedish):
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article18712503.ab

Accessibility is a democratic challenge, and media needs to be accessible. This was discussed during Mg2014, in Gothenburg. (Mediadagarna) (In Swedish):
 http://www.dyslexi.org/tidningen-las-skriv/medier-vem

There is already great competence availible to support accessibility. Begripsam, a project about cognitive accessibility, is funded by Arvsfonden. In this project, people with cognitive disabilties are paid to contribute with the their knowledge to international and swedish standards.  (In swedish).
 http://www.dyslexi.org/tidningen-las-skriv/vi-vill-ha-en-begripligare-varld-9772

How do you navigate on the web and in real life?

Braillesign found at an exit on a train in Sweden

In real life, braille signs are not necessarily readable by seeing people. Why is it so? And how do blind people know to where to find the signs? How do they know when they not should look for a sign?

Design for all...

Design for all.
Aceessability.
People with special needs.

Who have special needs?Why)

A few more people than you think.

- The drunk teenager on the music festival .
(sound, vision, mental impairment)

- The person crossing the street while talking on the phone
(attention difficulties)

- The stressed running person at the airport.
(tunnel vision)

- A man with two shoppingbags in his hands and a stroller with a screaming child.
(physical impairment, attention difficulties)

- and many many more in a variety of situations.....