Accessibility (a11y) #

Accessibility in the sense considered here refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities.

— Wikipedia

a11y? What that means?

Adobe XD Ideas has also a good article: What is Accessible Design?

Disabilities #

What kind of disabilites are we talking about?

1. Visual (e.g., color blindness)
2. Motor/mobility (e.g., wheelchair-user concerns)
3. Auditory (hearing difficulties)
4. Seizures (especially photosensitive epilepsy)
5. Learning/cognitive (e.g., dyslexia)

Disturbed cognition #

But ability barriers can arise for any user:

• Incidental (e.g., sleep-deprivation)
• Environmental (e.g., using a mobile device underground)

Read more: 📌Interaction-Design.org: Accessibility

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the most common and known standard for creating accessible experience. Different countries may have their own legislation acts, but they often refer to the WCAG standards.

Useful links and resources #

• The a11y Project
• a11y.me
• ARIA
• webAIM
• a11y in Chrome DevTools
• a11y in Firefox plus a nice explanation about DOM and Accessibility trees
• MDN Web Docs Accessibility chapter

Some tips for designers from WebAIM: