Is Your Design Turning Users Away? A Step-by-Step Accessibility Guide

Recently, governments - such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and Digital Service Standards (DSS) in Singapore - and private businesses have been working to improve digital accessibility by adopting guidelines like WCAG to promote inclusivity.

However, beyond simply meeting these standards, let’s consider a broader perspective.

Have you ever tripped over an uneven pavement or walked into a glass door due to poor warning signs? These experiences seem quite common, and they're not necessarily due to our lack of attention. Often, it's the design that fails to adequately support our navigation and safety.

The digital world presents similar challenges. Even without specific disabilities, we might struggle with seemingly simple tasks like completing a check out of an online shopping cart. This highlights a universal truth: disability does not equal inability, and we all have accessibility needs.

[Note: in this article, we will use 'individuals with limitations' instead of 'disabled' because we believe it is the environment or design that limits a person's ability to perform tasks comfortably and effectively.]

As accessibility needs apply to everyone, you might be wondering how you can make sure your product is accessible. You can begin with accessibility testing or by researching the specific accessibility needs of your target audience.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how you can get started!

Step One: Find Your Allies and Advocate

Find allies to learn from and raise awareness with before diving into planning.

In many organisations, accessibility isn't the top priority. Sometimes, even basic product usability might suffer. That's why advocating for accessibility often requires significant time and effort. Remember, advocating for accessibility isn't a solo mission, it’s a team effort!

With your allies, you can be the voice for accessibility in design discussions, by:

• Building a repository of learning resources

• Sharing your knowledge with your team regularly

• Attending related talks and conferences

How we walk the talk

The UX Research team at 55 Minutes built the resource repository to learn about accessibility testing methods, approaches and trends. As we’re designing digital products most of the time, our learnings were largely on digital accessibility such as how to craft Alt texts effectively and how to design focus order for the website and apps.

55 Minutes' research team initiated to build resources on the important considerations in accessibility related research studies and accessible digital design

Step Two: Set the team (or business) goal

You've built common ground with your team on accessibility. Now you're expecting to put your knowledge into action and plan some accessibility testing. But hold up!

Accessibility testing needs to be intentional, purposeful, and meaningful enough to justify allocating team resources. It's time to set clear team or business goals that communicate the need, benefits, and impact of accessibility testing.

Before diving in, get your team to answer these crucial questions:

• How will these tests improve our product and boost our business?

• What positive changes can we expect to see?

• What's the difference between products with and without accessibility considerations?

  
  

💡 Pro Tip: Show concrete examples and potential outcomes. This approach is your secret weapon to win over skeptics and build a coalition of accessibility advocates within your organisation.

How we walk the talk

The team designed a web app audio journal called Polaraud for people to record their special moments or daily reflections using their voices.

Polaraud's homepage presenting its key functions

As voice recording is the medium of the solution, we particularly want the visually impaired community to benefit from the solution. This is important to us in our goal to become an innovator in accessible design. By developing this unique voice-recording platform, we hope to differentiate the product from competitors and attract users seeking accessible and innovative solutions.

Here are some resources you might want to learn more:

Accessibility workshop

Accessibility design resource downloads

Step Three: Define profile and scope the test area

Start Small, Think Big

Creating accessible products and environments is a journey. Start with small, achievable goals that deliver quick wins. This builds momentum and support, allowing you to progressively expand your accessibility initiatives and solidify accessibility as a core part of your product strategy.

While addressing the needs of all individuals with diverse health conditions could be a long-term ambition, it's essential to begin with a focused approach. Recognising the broad spectrum of conditions—visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive—and their numerous sub-categories is crucial.

Therefore, begin by clearly identifying the specific user group that will benefit most from your product's accessibility features and the particular challenges your team aims to address.

Consider to define a specific main target profile first:

• Vision: Total blindness, low vision, colour blindness?

• Hearing: Total hearing loss, hard of hearing?

• Mobility: Severity of limitations (partial or complete loss), affected areas (upper or lower body)?

• Cognitive: Causes (ageing, injury, genetic), impact on memory or communication?

Once you've defined your target profile, determine which accessibility features to implement in your existing product or to innovate into a new design.

Example, for low vision or blind users:

• Screen reader compatibility?

• Braille display compatibility?

• Development of a smart cane alternative?

Here is the overview of people with limited ability to help you think about which areas you’d like to tackle. Please note that it could be specified in more detail than what we present here. (Swipe to read the rest of the table)

How we walk the talk

Our user profile for Polaraud, are individuals with total blindness or severe low vision who actively use screen readers for their web/app interactions. We didn’t intentionally add other challenges such as mobility or hearing conditions, given the significant resources required to address those challenges. This allowed us to feasibly take action, and access the impact of our solution within this specific community.

Step Four: Recruitment strategy for research activity

After defining the product/business goals and identifying target users, now you can consider conducting accessibility research.

However, recruiting participants for accessibility research requires a more focused recruitment strategy than simply a call for participants among the general public.

When we were recruiting individuals with low vision or blindness, we established relationships with organisations supporting visually impaired individuals, such as vocational rehabilitation centers and advocacy groups. In Singapore, Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH), Guide Dogs Singapore and iC2 PrepHouse are the organisations we partnered with to effectively reach potential participants through their networks!

One small but very important thing to note! When communicating recruitment needs and sign-up requirements, ensure your recruitment materials are accessible in their preferred format. For instance, consider alternative sign-up methods to Google Forms, as they may not be accessible to all participants. Ask participants about their preferred and familiar tools. Additionally, double-check what their preferred type of incentives are—whether physical or e-vouchers, and which vendor they prefer!

How we walk the talk

Previously, our team shared the story of ways you can work with people you are designing accessibility for Here's the link, but for a quick summary of the article:

• Make friends with the people you advocate for

• Keep the people you advocate for top of mind in the work process

• Collaborate with each other on projects

Step Five: Prepare for empathetic research!

Once you’ve set up the recruitment strategy for target participants who need accessibility, it’s time to ensure that you are ready to meet directly with your them. Are you clear about what to look out for before/during/after the research?

Pre-session: Internal Test

Before engaging with participants, it’s crucial to assess your team’s readiness for accessibility research since it might be the first-time you are trying this! Ask yourselves: “Are we confident in our ability to communicate with and understand individuals with accessibility needs? Can we genuinely empathise and visualize their experiences?” To cultivate an empathetic mindset and facilitate effective communication, consider trying body storming. Or, conduct internal tests of your product, replicating the target audience's condition such as blindness, and trying out the assistive technology (e.g. screen reader).

For body storming, find the detailed guidance, refer to a previous article, the main points of which are:

Define roles of users based on your product goal and target profile:

• Who are they? What kind of characteristics do they have?

• What accessibility device would they use?

Write scenarios for what to perform:

• What do they need to accomplish - what are the key functions of the product? And in which context would your target users use your product and services: (E.g. When will this happen? Where are they at?)

Establish outcome metrics: What do you want to measure from the test?

Hye Yoon testing Polaraud on Safari browser with accessibility technology (e.g. the screen reader) on iPad, replicating a blind person's condition

Now your team is ready to go out for the research. Below are checklists to help your team effectively facilitate your research activities.

Before the testing:

Ideally, arrange testing location at the participant's home or office. This allows them to use their familiar browser settings and assistive technologies.

If you must invite participants to your location:

• Determine the specific assistive technologies they use (e.g., screen readers, magnifiers).

• Simulate their familiar environment as closely as possible.

Provide digital consent forms for participants with low vision or blindness, as paper documents may be inaccessible.

• Ensure the digital forms are compatible with their screen readers.

• If using paper forms, researchers must read the document aloud and obtain signatures in person.

During the testing:

Encourage participants to ‘Think aloud’ to gain insights into their thought processes and task flows.

Be patient with task completion times, as participants may require additional time or repeat the steps.

Minimise interruptions during the task performance. If questions arise during the process, note them down and ask them after the task is completed - avoid disrupting the participant’s workflow.

Probe participants to review UI elements or tasks. Due to accessibility limitations, participants may inadvertently skip UI elements or tasks.

A visually impaired participant uses ScreenReader on an iPhone to test Polaraud. They navigate the page by swiping left and right, reading content from top to bottom before performing an action.

After the testing:

Express sincere appreciation with a thank you message and compensate their time with incentives.

Consider offering higher incentives than for typical user studies, recognising the additional time and effort required by participants’ condition.

If appropriate, seek opportunities to connect with participants and their community, share information about future research opportunities.

It is all worth the effort

Don't let a lack of prior experience with accessibility research studies discourage your motivation to create accessible products or services! With careful planning and team collaboration, you can achieve accessible design, one small achievable goal at a time, just as the 55 Minutes team did. We never imagined designing a digital product compatible with screen readers and we can’t wait to witness its positive impact on the blind community.

Let’s build a more accessible society together! If you're interested in partnering with us on accessibility, please contact us at hello@55mins.com.