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[00:00:09] Lee: Thank you for joining today. We're here to talk about accessibility in digital design and how having accessible UI and UX can broaden your market as a business.
[00:00:18] So, The first question I've got for you really is what are the accessibility improvements that you can make in UI and UX?
[00:00:25] Nichola: So there's lots of different things to consider. Um, for example, people with visual impairment, we need to consider the contrast of the colours on the website. So text needs to have a higher contrast in the background so it's readable.
[00:00:38] We need to consider physical disabilities. so someone who might not be able to use your typical mouse or keyboard, need to be able to sort of tab along that content. Then people with cognitive problems as well, so such as sort of brain injuries, it might be that they can't look at a screen for too long,
[00:00:56] so you need to make sure that that user journey is as simple as possible, so they can get to where they need to go without spending too much time staring at a screen.
[00:01:04] So there's lots and lots of different things that you can do to help improve accessibility of the site.
[00:01:10] We refer to W3C and that has, different sort of standards to follow. So you've got A double A and triple A.
[00:01:18] We as a company strive for double A as a standard, and it's something that we bake into our systems design and development.
[00:01:26] So within design and development, we've already got things in place that, that suit that double A standard.
[00:01:32] Lee: Great.
[00:01:33] And so how do you make sure that you're catering for everybody?
[00:01:37] Nichola: Because obviously there's different standards. What do you do? You can't 100 percent cater for everyone.
[00:01:44] There's so many disabilities out there and every single one is unique to that particular person.
[00:01:48] But what you can do is put things in place to make it as accessible for everyone as much as possible.
[00:01:54] How can having good accessibility broaden your market as a business?
[00:01:58] So, it's estimated that 15 to 20 percent of the population are considered to have a disability, so it's a large amount of the population. And when we have accessible design, we're creating a more fair and inclusive society, regardless of anyone's abilities.
[00:02:13] Lee: So how, how do you approach designing for accessibility in the first place? Where would you start?
[00:02:20] Nichola: I think for design, so using plugins, so we use a contrast analyzer, so that helps us from the get go, making sure that all our colours contrast the correct, so the text is readable, as well as within a design system, you can make sure that your font sizes are the correct sizes from the get go.
[00:02:36] So we need to be making sure that you're including people with disabilities in user research from there when you when we've got a prototypes and we're doing the test on the prototypes again need to be making sure that you're testing it on users that have disabilities.
[00:02:51] And then once the site is live.
[00:02:54] You'd recommend then that we keep, um, like retesting the site over time as well. Maybe, maybe like an annual test or something. Yeah, definitely. And as well as a standard change and improve, accessibility is going to improve as well. So different things are going to come out to make your site more accessible.
[00:03:11] So keeping on top of that is really important.
[00:03:13] How easy is it to retrofit accessibility into an existing site?
[00:03:18] That's a good question. from design, not as much. Um, as long as we're assessing the colour contrast, font sizes, padding, considering that touch point around your CTAs,
[00:03:31] it's something that you, you can do, especially if you've.
[00:03:34] So if you've got a design system in place, for example, and it's something that you can then bake into that design system,
[00:03:39] Development wise, that's a good question for yourself to answer because I know there's a hell of a lot you can do.
[00:03:43] Lee: Probably more difficult to retrofit than do from the start from a development position, I think.
[00:03:49] If you've got existing systems that are already very heavily used or, kind of baked into your design business flows, it can be quite difficult to change those without disrupting things.
[00:04:02] Nichola: Yeah, which in a way is quite different with design. It's quite easy for me to change something really.
[00:04:08] But when you come to building that, obviously it's a completely different sort of ballgame.
[00:04:13] Lee: How can businesses ensure that they keep up to date with ongoing accessibility changes and challenges?
[00:04:22] Nichola: I think it's keep doing research, keep doing user testing, making sure that when you're doing that you are including people that have a disability.
[00:04:32] Keeping up to date on all the W3C. and the standards, if anything, change.
[00:04:36] It's something that we do in our day job. we strive for AA as a standard.
[00:04:40] So everything that we're doing, try and hit those standards.
[00:04:43] So we're constantly developing that. So we can definitely guide, within that process.
[00:04:48] Lee: What are some of the misconceptions people might have around designing for accessibility?
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[00:04:54] Nichola: I think, a lot of people, when you think of accessibility, you think of government sites or, healthcare sites that don't really have too much, creative flow to them. but that isn't the case at all. I think it isn't as restrictive of what you think.
[00:05:08] You can still build upon an accessible site and make it look nice, but what you're doing is building for everyone, making it accessible for everyone, which is
[00:05:19] Lee: the whole point.
[00:05:20] Nichola: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:20] Lee: How can inclusive design create a competitive advantage for your business?
[00:05:25] Nichola: So as we said, 15 to 20 of the population are considered to have a disability. So if you're catering for those people and for everyone, are those, those users are more likely to come back.
[00:05:37] Lee: Thanks for coming today and thanks for talking to us. It's been really insightful.
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