Benefits of Accessible Design/ User Centered Design Flashcards
(For People with Disabilities)
Accessibility Improves People’s Lives
This is the biggest and most important benefit. Accessible designs make life easier for people with disabilities. Or, in some cases, it’s even more dramatic: accessibility makes things possible that would be otherwise literally impossible. In this sense, accessibility isn’t just nice to have, it’s necessary.
(For People with Disabilities)
Accessible web sites
let people conduct their personal banking, make restaurant reservations, access government benefits, apply for college, shop online, read the news, play online games… and anything else that is available on the web.
(For People with Disabilities)
Accessible transportation systems
make it possible for people with disabilities to go to work, visit friends and family, go to entertainment venues, go to restaurants, and so on. Inaccessible transportation systems mean that people with disabilities have to stay home or rely on help from others to get to places.
(For People with Disabilities)
Accessible architecture
makes it possible for people with disabilities to enter and actually use buildings, including public spaces, private businesses, and personal homes of friends and family.
(For Businesses and Organizations)
Accessibility Improves Public Perception
If you have an accessible web site, it shows that you—and the organization you work for—are committed to basic ideals of equal opportunity and fairness. You can leverage your accessible web site as a differentiator among your competitors or peers who may have less accessible web sites. You show that you care.
(For Businesses and Organizations)
Accessibility Increases Compatibility
Your web site will be compatible with a wider variety of web-enabled devices, because designing for accessibility requires that you pay attention to the robustness of your web site in many platforms, browsers, and devices using a variety of input methods.
(For Businesses and Organizations)
Accessibility Improves Search Engine Optimization
Many of the techniques required for accessibility involve smart use of semantic markup in the text and in the HTML, which also improves the ability of search engines to find and index your work with the appropriate keywords. Your users and potential customers will find your web site more easily.
(For Businesses and Organizations)
Accessibility Increases Your Customer Base
People with disabilities have money to spend. If they can access your web site, and if they like what you have to sell, they’ll probably buy it. If they can’t access your web site, it doesn’t matter much if they like what you have to sell, because they can’t go through the steps of purchasing anything. Accessibility benefits your bottom line.
(For Businesses and Organizations)
Accessibility Increases Your Eligibility for Funding
If you do any contract work with government entities, chances are that you will be required to agree to make your deliverables accessible, because governments are often required to write those conditions in the requests for proposals. If you know how to make your deliverables accessible, and if you have a track record to prove that you have already done so in the past, you will be more likely to get the contract.
(For Businesses and Organizations)
Accessibility Helps You Avoid Lawsuits
In many areas of the world, creating inaccessible web sites is against the law. The legal picture isn’t always straightforward, but people with disabilities have rights, and they might decide to sue your company if the web site is not accessible. That’s bad press, a huge expense, and it’s totally avoidable if you create an accessible web site in the first place. Accessibility keeps you out of court.
(For People Without Disabilities)
Accessible Designs Improve Access for All
Curb cuts on sidewalks for wheelchair access = Curb cuts also allow easy access for strollers, bicycles, carts, dollies and hand trucks, and anything else with wheels.
Elevators for wheelchair access = Anyone can use an elevator, which can save us physical effort, especially in tall buildings. Plus, it’s easier to move furniture and other large or heavy objects.
Dual height drinking fountains side by side (one for people of average height, and one for shorter people, such as people with dwarfism) = Other people, such as children and people in wheelchairs, can access the shorter drinking fountains more easily.
Auto-opening doors, for wheelchair accessibility = People who have their hands full can enter the building without having to put things down.
(For People Without Disabilities)
Less Burden on Family Members and Helpers
Family members and helpers of people with disabilities frequently share the burden of a world not designed with disability in mind. Inaccessible environments often require two people to do things that should only require one person, which can be an inconvenience for both. Inaccessible print materials, for example, may require a helper to read the text aloud to a blind person. If the print were available in an accessible format to begin with, the blind person could read it herself.
(For People Without Disabilities)
The Opportunity to Befriend More People with Disabilities
If the world were more accessible, there would be more social contact between people with and without disabilities, potentially leading to an increased number of friendships between them. This would enrich our lives, not because people with disabilities are “inspirational,” but because we all need friendships, and having a genuine friendship with a person with a disability can help dispel many of the feelings of anxiety and discomfort that people in the general population often have about disabilities in general.
User-Centered Design
User-centered design is an iterative process that puts people at the center of the design of products, services, and environments. (For convenience, we’ll shorten the terms to “products.”) The key goal of user-centered design is to understand users and the context in which they will use the product (such as in low light or sitting down), in order to create products that are highly usable and accessible.
Designers first research potential users of the product and any requirements, then design and test solutions. Test feedback becomes another type of research, as results are incorporated into the next design. The process continues until the product design is complete.
The four phases of user-centered design include:
- Understand the users and their context.
- Identify user and business requirements.
- Design a solution.
- Evaluate the solution against the context and requirements.
