What is accessibility, and what does it mean in digital environments for your certification organization?
The A11y Project, an open-source initiative that aims to promote web accessibility, defines accessibility online as, “websites and web apps that can be designed to be understood by the widest possible audience.”
Designing for the “widest possible audience” may include tweaking an original concept or idea to accommodate better readers who may have colorblindness, dyslexia and dyscalculia, seizure and migraine triggers, as well as those with different reading comprehension levels and cognitive loads with elements and best practices of Universal Design.
An accessible web experience is comprehensible to many people; it’s legible and usable with clearly organized content that accounts for a variety of needs from a broad spectrum of people.
If the goal of your organization is to provide a certification experience that can make the largest impact possible, accessibility should be front and center in your strategy.
Universal Design
In 2020, we partnered with the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) to understand how to apply their people-first approach to buildings to the forefront of their digital experiences. To make this happen, we collaborated on a design framework and user experience that centered on accessibility across the website to better reflect their values of fostering community, diversity, and equity.
For IWBI, accessible design was vital to leading a global movement to transform health and well-being. Although their medium may change, their goal always remains the same: Create spaces (any spaces) that put people first.
We looked to pull from elements elements of Universal Design (UD). These tenets can be implemented in both physical and digital environments. It is a fundamental condition of good design for your certification’s digital ecosystem to be “accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.”
Within a physical environment, for example, a building is more accessible when there are many different options for occupants to navigate throughout its space: ramps, multi-use seating, and clear signage are just a few ways in which physical spaces can be more all-accommodating.
For IWBI, their flagship WELL Building Standard includes UD principles and provides diverse solutions to make buildings and physical environments more accessible to more people. That’s why it was critical to their mission and brand consistency to practice what they preached at every touchpoint with their customers.
In regards to digital environments, the National Disability Authority (NDA) explains that UD principles advocate for the benefit of everyone regardless of age, ability, or disability by promoting accessible and usable products, services, and environments. Universal Design is applicable to everyone, and it’s a design framework that considers the varied abilities of many different users.
To put it simply: When the user experience is intuitive and positive, everyone wins.
User experiences that are accessible to everyone are essential for embracing and encouraging diversity. It’s important to highlight:
- Adopting UD best practices is more than meeting a checklist of requirements; it’s a journey.
- Best practices will ultimately evolve as we become more informed and as advanced technology leads to innovations in accessibility.
“Universal Design is a process, not an outcome. It is not assumed or expected that a 100% universal solution will be achieved, or is achievable, for any given design. Rather Universal Design should be a goal that a designer strives to achieve.”
Advancing Accessibility
Advancements in technology and policies have been key to the success of advocating for and implementing more accessible design features in digital spaces. They will continue to shape the future of accessibility as we find ourselves equipped with more tools, knowledge, and experience to create more accessible spaces — specifically online — for more people everywhere.
How do we make web experiences more welcoming to our certification users? And when do we know if a design is optimized for accessibility?
Accessibility Audits
Prioritizing accessibility is, by nature, prioritizing empathy. When we make accessibility a priority, we acknowledge that design is worth far more than its aesthetic value; we can see UD principles as vital communication tools for — as the term implies — a universal audience.
Accessibility audits are a way organizations can identify aspects of their certification’s website that could be made more accessible. These audits are usually carried out by a third party who provides thorough evaluations of the online content and offers suggestions informed by general UD best practices and specific guidelines outlined by the ADA, Section 508 standards, and WCAG 2.0 guidelines.
When our team performs an accessibility audit, we rely on the following tools:
- Accessibility Checker: a free ADA and WCAG compliance checker to identify web accessibility problem areas during our auditing process.
- Color Contrast Analyzer (CCA): TPGi’s tool that we used for our audit to easily determine the contrast ratio of two colors.
- Contrast: a Figma plug-in that we used to check the contrast ratios of colors for the new content we developed.
From that, we develop an action plan for implementing changes to a website to reflect your certification brand’s dedication to creating accessible digital spaces. As we continue to design and build new web pages for IWBI, we’ve committed to including accessible best practices as a cornerstone of our process.
Accessibility Activated
To be certain of your website’s focus on accessibility, aim to review and update the following elements:
- Higher contrast in text color and composition
- Text size and spacing (rem values) that will remain proportional to the desired screen magnification
- Tab-friendly navigation
- Closed captioning for webcasts and future video content
- Image optimization for quicker loading on lower-bandwidth internet connections
- Introducing “alt” descriptions for images on all new pages
Over time and as more information becomes available, be sure to continue updating your website experience to better align with evolving best practices in accessible design.
Continue Fostering Inclusivity
Think about it this way: A lot of people use closed captioning (also known as subtitles) when watching television, movies, or online video content. It is estimated that while 18–50% of people use closed captions regularly, younger audiences are watching content (on any device) with subtitles at an interesting 80%. Closed captions aren’t just a benchmark for accessible design; they’re a tool, a necessity, and an increasing demand for present and future users.
In the mission to provide more accessible online content to your certification community, consider including the use of closed captioning tools for new and existing webinars and educational videos, and continue to expand accessibility options to be as inclusive and accessible as possible for your audience.
The best way to address accessibility is to stay educated and map out a plan for regular assessment of your certification’s digital ecosystem. With a strategy in place, you’ll find just how much you’re welcoming new customers no matter their level of ability or background.
