#disabilityandux

This image was taken from http://uxmastery.com/accessibility-in-ux-design-tales-from-the-field/

The field of User Experience design or User-centred design by virtue of its name means keeping the user front and centre in the design process from conception to development. But, in practice we still have a long way to go in designing for all our diverse users.

In recent years, as an industry we have come to the realization that the designs and products we create need to be inclusive. While inclusive designing has yet to become second nature to us, it is encouraging to note that the industry is going in the right direction. In the summer of 2015, the Office on Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the National Council on Disability (NCD) in the US initiated three online dialogues on policy issues relevant to social media and people with disabilities. The following are some points that came out from these dialogues that throw light on current issues with UX and accessibility. It is important to continue having these conversations with people who are differently abled to make sure we are designing keeping them in mind. Contributions ranged from issues with current methods being used as well as what we can do in the future to make sure inclusive design is not treated as a special addition but intrinsic to the thought process of design.

1. Video Close captioning, an effective tool that conveys what’s happening in the video comes across as gibberish to the end user when enough attention is not paid on how the speech to text is getting transferred.

2. As screen sizes get smaller, there is a need to replace text-menus with icons to use the precious little real estate available to designers while at the same time keeping the page as clean as possible. When designing mobile applications, it’s imperative that icons be accompanied with word labels that can be read by screen readers used by differently abled people .

3. Encouraging youth with disabilities to pursue careers in STEM is a great way to ensure the right audience is engaged and consulted when designing for people with disabilities. It is important to encourage youth into STEM fields by giving them paid or unpaid opportunities/internships to work in the field in high school. Job shadowing is also a great way to learn more about a field of interest.

4. Other ways of engaging and consulting people with disabilities is by asking users with disabilities to join user workshops. Also, by creating inclusive personas designers can make sure these users are front and centre when designing the user experience. 

As an interactive media professional, I believe that good design isn’t judged only by how visually appealing it is. But, a good design is one that solves a problem; not create problems for its diverse users. Being mindful that we have diversity in our users, and catering to this diversity by including options for all users truly makes the user experience design successful. This is how we UXers can make sure we give good user experience to all our users.

References: https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/ux-of-people-with-disabilities-advancing-accessibility-in-social-media