Talk to UX Crunch Manchester 14 May 2019

1. AUX:
Accessible User Experience
Abi James
Accessibility Consultant

2. Usability:
The degree to which
something is able or fit to be
used.
Sli.do
Event code #6376

3. Questions
What is an accessibility issue?
What does your organisation think an accessibility issue is
caused by?
If someone reports an accessibility issue, who is responsible?

4. How would you feel if your users said….
“I’m lost”
“It’s giving me a headache”
“This form isn’t working”
“There’s no option for that”
“I’m exhausted”
“Where’s the checkout button?”

5. Is that website usable?
Remember…..
Usability: the degree to which something is able or
fit to be used….

6. How would you feel if your users said….
“I’m lost”  No focus indicator
“It’s giving me a headache”  Busy page, lots of moving
images
“This form isn’t working”  Inaccessible error messages
“There’s no option for that”  Menus only work with
mouse
“I’m exhausted”  Too many links & headings
“Where’s the checkout button?”  Small, unfamiliar text &
icons

7. Is that website usable?
Usability: the degree to which something is able or
fit to be used
Accessibility: the degree to which something can be
reached, entered, or used by people who have a
disability.

8. Accessibility Standards: Public Sector Accessibility
Regulations (2018) and Equality Act (2010)
• Conforming to digital accessibility standards is considered a means
to ensure that service providers are not indirectly discriminating
against people under the Equality Act (2010).
“neglecting to provide a service to a disabled person that is normally
provided to other persons is unlawful discrimination. This applies to
commercial web services as much as to traditional services.”
• Public sector websites and apps must meet Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA – includes 3rd party
tools used in intranets, websites & apps

9. Inclusive Design
or
Accessible User
Experience

10. Where does accessibility fit in the development
cycle?
UX Dev TestIdeate
Define
Prototype
Code
Deliver
Accessibility
Audit

11. Common issues
• Lack of focus indicators
• Incorrect and/or lack of heading
structure
• Insufficient colour contrast
• Missing alternative descriptions
• Lack of keyboard only access
• Form field error messages

12. Accessibility issues – who creates them?
Design
Colours &
focus
indicator
Icons & layout
Templates
Coding
Forms
Keyboard
access
Responsive
design
Content
Images
Multimedia
Language

13. Real-life AUX
•My Accessibility experience
•Change fonts and colours
•Zoom in to enlarge font
•Declutter screen with reading views
•Use keyboard for forms
•Rely on enhanced spell checkers

14. What can you do?
1. Create an accessible colour palette and pattern
library

15. What can you do?
2. Include accessibility in your requirements for
interactive elements
Example:
Anatomy of a (fictional) GOV.UK service
Inclusive forms video

16. What can you do?
3. Consider discoverability and affordances
will be experience through different modes
and senses
a11y

17. What can you do?
4. Include disabled people in your user research.
Get accessibility input on your designs

18. What can you do?
5. Ensure projects set clear responsibilities and
expectations for accessibility as well as champions.

19. Abi James
Abi.james@abilitynet.org.uk
@abijames