The story behind the accessible design
The history of accessibility and why we need to build better products
There are many names it goes by, we constantly hear people talking about universal design, accessible design, design for all, inclusive design, and more. I see people debate if accessible/universal design is to design *also* for people with different abilities vs accessible design is to design for disabilities. The WHO report on disabilities estimates that there are about 15 to 19% of people worldwide with some form of disability.
“Approaches to measuring disability vary across countries and influence the results. Operational measures of disability vary according to the purpose and application of the data, the conception of disability, the aspects of disability examined — impairments, activity limitations, participation restrictions, related health conditions, environmental factors — the definitions, question design, reporting sources, data collection methods, and expectations of functioning.
… But the definitions and methodologies used vary so greatly between countries that international comparisons still remain difficult.”
Is 15 to 19% the number you should consider when designing a product? What are these different abilities we are talking about? and What is accessible design? Why should you consider accessibility when designing?
To understand the when’s, what’s, why’s and how’s, I think we need to go back in time. First, let us look at how the legal aspect has come into the picture.
So, when did it all begin?
During the 1940s and '50s, war veterans with PTSD and physical and cognitive disabilities were invited to join the workforce in the US. Readjustment and rehabilitation acts were introduced, training and education were provided to help them blend into regular life. People started breaking the stigma about ‘disabilities’ and started joining together to fight for one cause: equal rights.
From the 1970s to ’90s, governments, globally, agreed that it is everyone’s right to have access to public facilities (simply put, of course). Laws like Section 504, ADA (American disability act), Community action program, and more came into existence protecting the needs of all individuals across the globe. It is now a legal requirement to make all public facilities accessible to everyone in most parts of Europe, the US, Asia, Japan, Australia.
Architecturally, changes were quite evident in buildings, pavements, public restrooms, parks, buses, train stations, and air commute, etc, Concepts like curb cuts, tactile pavements, restrooms for all, ramps when entering a building or a bus, color contrast signs have come into existence.
Meanwhile… a person named Tim Berners Lee was working on something called HTTP, an application that helps transfer data from one page to the other using hypertext and throughout, something called, the web.
The era of the internet
From a different perspective, there were innovations throughout the 1960s to the mid-’90s on building something that allows people to transfer data and access data on computers. In the mid-’90s, the internet had come into existence. The World Wide Web as we know it started from this point, browsers were launched, websites were created, people started to use computers and selling stuff via the websites. The new buzzword was ‘internet business’.
Now, remember those laws governments introduced a while ago? Most of them were modified to include information technology.
Because there are laws to comply with, not just for the public sector but also for the private sector, businesses saw the need to be more inclusive. Companies started hiring more people without any discrimination and hiring more people who can build products that everyone can use.
WCAG 1.0 is here, we are looking at the late ’90s (1999). Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) are a set of standards to accomplish the task at hand — design for all. To this day, the WCAG has released 2.1 standards and constantly receives feedback to improve the guidelines. Many countries have adopted these standards and it is legally required that a product or a service on the web needs to comply with these guidelines.
So, is accessible design limited to just the web? or just print? or just physical spaces? Okay, there are laws to comply with, but why are these laws coming into existence? What are these disabilities that the laws consider anyway? What all points should you keep in mind when designing or developing a product?
What are these “disabilities”?
We are humans and each one of us has unique abilities. Some of us glide through life with spectacles, lenses, hearing aids, locomotor aids, injuries (long term or short term), and more. While there are many who have a permanent lack of ability, whose goals and ambitions are in line with every other human. On a broad spectrum, one could say a lack of ability could be permanent, temporary, or situational.
While you consider the above scenarios, you would also need to think about the age factor. If you are designing a product for children, your priorities would be different from when you design a product for an older person.
For people with a permanent lack of abilities, there is ‘assistive technology’ that aids people on a regular basis. Whether it be keyboards, braille scripture, screenreaders, or more, they tend not to make it as seamless as one would expect to interact with an already complex product interface.
Just a certificate will not suffice.
Even though most management teams consider accessibility because they want to get a AA or a AAA compliance certificate, it is just not enough. So far, there are about 39 policies or laws worldwide across 40+ countries that protect people with disabilities and enforce accessible designs. However, the laws in each country are different.
For example, take a look at the ‘types of disabilities’ that are considered in Canada and India. It is interesting to see that some countries consider using lenses as a form of disability, while some consider complete vision loss as one. Many laws and policies are still a work in progress.
With products that are launched worldwide, one needs to understand their target audience. Abiding by the legal requirement would keep you safe, but would it help your users do their tasks seamlessly? I think attaining the legal ‘go-ahead’ should be collateral to showing empathy to your users.
If you’d like to follow the money…
It is estimated that the market size for people who use assistive technology (lenses, glasses, hearing aids, mobility aids, etc.,) is around $15.9 billion industry in 2018. It is expected to grow further in the coming years. I’m tempted to say ‘need I say more,’ but I think you get the picture.
I’m not saying we, as humans, are growing weaker with time. I’m saying we are empowered by many technological advances. While we need to understand the bigger picture of disabilities in general, every product is different. You need to know where your product is going to be launched, what are the people using your product facing on a daily basis, and what are the laws in those countries. Only when you know, you’ll be able to understand your ‘user’. Take one step towards building an accessible product, someday we will reach the goal. Together.
References
Image source
Icons from Google slides
https://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/the-dawn-of-assistive-technologies/
