The Importance of Accessible Design
Thousands of possible customers may be lost if website accessibility is not offered to users. For this reason, accessible web designs aim to create frontend designs and interfaces which can be easily understood by audiences both with and without a disability. Globally, many people have differing accessibility requirements such as the elderly, colour blind, dyslexic, autistic or visually impaired. The aim of web accessible design is not to meet the needs of all these people but rather to improve usability for all types of users in general.
Following the global Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, compliant designs can accommodate for low vision, low hearing, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, as well as other cognitive limitations. Aside from being morally correct, designing for web accessibility brings vast benefits for businesses and users alike.
Expand Your Market Potential
The concept of web accessibility focuses on reaching the widest audience possible by not excluding certain demographics. More often than not, accessibility is the first element to be culled from a creative brief due to budget or time constraints.
However, these concerns can be offset by the potential wider audience. One example of a web accessible design solution is to add legible, high-contrast captions to videos. Whilst not always necessary, these inclusive measures increase the receptivity of your content and can even enhance the user experience in certain contexts. These simple creative additions ensure that content can be received by individuals of all abilities and ultimately expand your userbase.
Boost Your Brand Image
There is nothing consumers love more than a customer-centric brand. Hence, the website behaviour of your users must be aligned with the design of your digital interface. Pineapples are not everyone’s ideal pizza topping but any website visitor should be easily able to add this to their order, whether they like them or not. The addition of web accessible design elements tells consumers that your brand is inclusive, considerate, and capable.
An accessible web interface can be the deciding factor when consumers are navigating heavily congested webpages. It should also be noted that web accessibility does not have to be bland and boring, but rather, the correct digital design can be used to make interfaces aesthetic and reflect your brand image adequately.
Website Accessibility Standards
Visual accessible design is more than just increasing font size or using contrasting colours. It’s about using an array of various design elements to enhance inclusivity as much as possible.
Think Creative Agency has a wealth of experience designing web accessible projects for both government agencies and clients within the disability sector. We strive to adhere to the WCAG’s four key POUR principles:
- Perceivable- such as larger text, Braille, speech, symbols, simple language options.
- Operable – including buttons to help users navigate and find content.
- Understandable – web pages should appear and operate in predictable intuitive ways.
- Robust – including assistive technologies such as Voice recognition.
Take a look at some of our previous WACG 2.1 compliant projects for the Benevolent Society, the Australian Network on Disability and the NSW Department of Education.
If your brand is struggling to create high quality web accessible designs, Think Creative Agency can unpack the jargon-filled website accessibility standards to produce content which is entirely accessible for all your intended audiences. If your project needs to be WACG 2.1 compliant, let’s chat! Contact us at [email protected] or on (02) 8068 2293 today.
