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Thing - Accessibility

After reading up on accessibility, I’ve been thinking a lot about universal design and how important it is to include from the very beginning. When implementing universal design, you’re not just making something accessible—you’re also making it usable and inclusive in the process.

And why should all this be an afterthought? Making things accessible from the start means your final product will be usable by all from the get-go, rather than at some unknown point in future. It’s easier this way too as you won’t be stuck trying to overhaul an inaccessible project. Further, these accessible elements that you implement in your design benefit everyone (I know I’d be lost without subtitles on Netflix, especially with all the noise that goes on in my house when the kids are around!)

My team is already a great one that are very socially minded, but I want everyone to keep universal design at the front of their mind when they write, design or create their content. One easy but important thing we can start with is ensuring we design for diversity, including racially and LGBTQ-inclusive design. An easy place for content creators like us to start is making sure our images and illustrations are inclusive of diverse people,

Here’s a great example from Google and their design for an inclusive camera! It demonstrates the importance of building something for everyone, acknowledging unconscious bias, and having people from diverse groups involved in the testing process.

A universally accessible and inclusive world – sounds like a dream, right? And at the end of the day, not that hard at all.

post by Charlie