IS YOUR DESIGN MARGINALISING THE DISABLED COMMUNITY?

Approximately 19% of adults in the UK aged between 16 to 64 live with a disability. Every day, they interact with designed spaces, services and products. Their experience in these interactions can be fraught. Often they find the designs don’t even meet their basic needs.

Even though they’re a minority, 12.7 million people are hardly imperceptible. So why aren’t all spaces, services and products accessible? What can we do to level the playing field so the disabled community aren’t marginalised?

WHAT SORT OF PROBLEMS DOES THE DISABLED COMMUNITY COME UP AGAINST?

To give an example, my Dad is partially sighted in his left eye and completely blind in his right eye. The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind), advises that if you can’t focus on a screen long enough to complete a task, you should phone the organisation and ask them to complete it for you. Indeed, for my dad, ordering online is difficult. He told me: “I can’t focus on a computer screen for more than 4-5 minutes at a time without it causing me pain. When I last ordered flowers, I looked for a florist online that had a phone number listed. I called them up to place my order and pay, but several businesses had no phone number listed on their site at all.”

To me this highlighted the fact that in the digital age, there are those that get left behind through no fault of their own, and accessible alternatives must be considered in every scenario. In the case of my dad, it was clear that there needed to be a non-digital way that people could contact local florists, speak to real people that could assist, and achieve the same desired outcome as every other customer.

HOW CAN WE REDESIGN THE DISABLED COMMUNITY’S EXPERIENCE?

1. Speak to customers & gather feedback
   It goes without saying that every customer is different, therefore to best serve every individual customer’s needs, feedback loops must be deployed. The best way to do this is simply to speak to customers, consider their feedback and adapt your services accordingly. It is imperative that questions are asked about their experience of interacting with your design. After all, there is no better feedback than that of the user themselves
2. Read accessibility guidelines & research
   There are a multitude of accessibility guidelines and examples of best practice within easy reach online. How do these compare to your current design? Review and adapt.
3. Ask for advice from charities
   When Google fails, there is always the third sector. So much of the work that charities for the disabled do is around making public life as stress-free as possible for those that they help. If you know your customers have specific disabilities, contact the relevant charities. Ask to speak to advisors who can give you expert advice on how to make your designs meet your customers needs.

IS MAKING YOUR DESIGN ACCESSIBLE WORTH THE EFFORT?

You can be certain a person living with a disability will at some point interact with your design. Even if you didn’t consider them in your target market. So it is not only in your interest, but it is your responsibility to provide them with an accessible design. Doing this means you enable them to gain as much value from it as any non-disabled customer would. If design is going to save the world, we must start with equality.

Accessibility guidelines & research:
The Web Accessibility Initiative
The Accessibility Cheatsheet

Ask for advice from charities:
RNIB (The Royal National Institute of Blind People)
RNID (The Royal National Institute for Deaf People)
National Autistic Society
Scope: The Disability Equality Charity

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