Celebrate accessibility!

This year marks the 12th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of GAAD on 18th May, is to increase everyone's understanding and appreciation of digital access and inclusion. 

Digital accessibility is ensuring your website and mobile apps can be accessed by everyone regardless of barriers, it’s making sure you haven’t excluded people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive impairments from your content.

Accessibility can mistakenly be seen as a threat to good web design, not only by clients but also by some designers who can feel overwhelmed by having to comply with another set of technical standards.

Accessibility was once new to me many years ago so I understand that integrating accessibility can be intimidating to those just getting acquainted with it. However, it is a fundamental part of good design. As graphic designers, we are designing for the purpose of communicating. That gets lost when we don’t consider all individuals.

A consistent refrain from designers who are given the responsibility of accessibility is: “How can accessible design be dynamic, engaging, or aesthetic?”. Once designers have an understanding of accessibility, it will encourage a shift in mindset that will change the way they think and view design forever.

Sure, it brings it's challenges, but isn't that all part of the fun? Evolving ideas until they not only look good but they also solve a problem. It's fulfilling to me to know I don't just produce designs, I create solutions.

Public sector bodies by law, must adhere to strict Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). However, non government organisations are not obliged to follow these. Morally of course they should consider the one billion plus people with disabilities/impairments as we are all entitled to the same digital experience.

Accessible apps and websites don’t have to be restricted by rules. They can be captivating and aesthetically pleasing while also adhering to WCAG 2.1 (soon to be 2.2!).

Accessibility is a vital element of user experience and should be built into the web development and design process, rather than trying to retrofit it as an afterthought. I encourage anyone reading this to spend just 15 minutes googling the importance of web accessibility and it's benefits. Simply put - accessibility makes you a better designer. That means your work gets better results. So even if you learn one new thing, you're building on your skillset and enhancing usability, creating a more intuitive user experience.