Usability IS Accessiblity
Textile 2023 week 47 note
This past week as we begin designing and implementing findings from our most recent user research, we started talking about accessibility. As we move from prototypes to products, we also need to move conceptually from usable to accessible. Accessibility often means standards and guidelines (for instance WCAG2.2 which we will likely be targeting), but in reality can mean much more. In the past I’ve worked with quite a wide array of different user groups, and some with large access needs, for instance blind users. One thing working trying to establish accessibility practice in many organisations is that it’s not so much box ticking as approach. Usability is accessibility. While there is the need to run automated tests and include the libraries that do a lot of the heavy lifting for you in front-end, a lot of it is design, meaning what you put where and making it work for the largest amount of people you can. Often this mean simplifying content structures and interaction patterns. Many thinks this means making things boring, but in reality you’re making it approachable, easier to understand and thus something users will not hesitate to come back to again and again.