Accessible Design

What is accessible document design?

Accessible documents are designed to be equally experienced by everyone — including people with permanent or temporary vision, hearing, cognitive, or mobility impairments, and those who use assistive devices to navigate digital content.

Although you cannot “see” this background information in PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, or websites, accessible content is carefully structured, tagged, and labeled. Thoughtful document structure allows for easy navigation and scanning. Fonts, type sizes, and colors chosen for the design are legible, and the content is clear and understandable. Images and tables are accompanied by text descriptions of their content.

Accessible document creation is easiest when it’s part of the design process from the start. It can be difficult — or impossible — to fix or remediate a document that is noncompliant with accessibility guidelines and laws.

Digital spaces and documents that lack accessible features exclude people — a lot of people.

When design is not accessible:

Disabled users may not discover important information.
Some users miss out on the full experience of an online space.
Business messaging fails to reach its widest audience.
There can be legal ramifications.

1 out of 4 adults in the United States has a disability of some kind according to the CDC.

Web accessibility lawsuits are increasing at an alarming rate.

Laws & guidelines

While the initial focus of these laws was equal access within physical spaces, the protections also cover accessibility in online spaces.

Any business that is public facing is required to comply with digital accessibility standards and guidelines. If a website or document doesn’t provide the same services to a disabled person that it provides to others, the business could be required to redesign the website, incur monetary damages, and pay attorneys’ fees.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations. The law has several sections, or Titles.
Under Title III of the ADA, no individual may be discriminated against on the basis of disability with regards to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases, or operates a place of public accommodation. Public accommodations include most places of lodging (such as inns and hotels), recreation, transportation, education, and dining, along with stores, care providers, and places of public displays.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (amended by Congress in 1998) requires that the federal government procure, create, use and maintain information and communications technology that is accessible to people with disabilities, regardless of whether or not they work for the federal government.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is an international standard for developing web content that is accessible to people with disabilities. The guidelines focus on the principles that web content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Updated guidelines are expected to be available in September 2022.

Barriers to accessible design

Lack of awareness

Unless they are impacted in some way, most people don’t know about accessible design and its many benefits. Many designers do not learn to consider accessibility during the creative process, nor are they introduced to technical instruction for compliance.

Lack of funding

Ideally, accessibility should be considered at the start of any project. When accessible design is part of the initial structure, the process is much more successful and streamlined. Attempting to remediate existing, non-accessible documents can be time-consuming and costly, and there is need to hire outside contractors. Businesses and organizations with the best intentions may not have a budget for accessibility compliance.

Lack of resources

Most design students are not taught to consider accessibility during the creative process, nor are they introduced to the technical tools and requirements for compliance.

Reliable technical training and resources are difficult to find (in my experience).
Commonly available tools — such as the Accessibility Check in Adobe Acrobat — are completely unreliable. Human evaluation is essential in the process.
Finding a knowledgable professional can be challenging. Unless you have the required tools and knowledge yourself, assessing the accuracy of completed projects is impossible.

Accessible graphic design services

I aim to design all of my materials to be fully accessible, and to spread the word about the value of accessible design. Get in touch! Let me know how I can help you deliver your message to the widest audience.