Does accessibility really improve user experience for all?
The short answer is: Yes.
The long answer is much more fascinating, intuitive and obvious than we might initially assume.
A Definition of Terms: UX & Accessibility
User Experience (UX)
UX, or User Experience, is the overall experience a person has while interacting with a product, service or, in this case, your website. UX encompasses everything from the initial impression to the final interaction.
Good UX design results in a website that’s easy to access, efficient to navigate, intuitive to use and provides an overall pleasant experience.
This topic has gained a good deal of attention in recent history as people become more aware of how powerful UX is in retaining customers and boosting conversions.
Think of it this way, you probably don’t go to the grocery store for the ambiance. However, if the floors are sticky, the checkout lines take forever and the parking lot is stressful, you probably won’t go back to that store. Even if that store is close by and has all the products you want. That’s the power of user experience.
The same goes for websites. Irritating pop-ups, text that’s hard to read or menus that are confusing to navigate don’t just frustrate visitors, they cost you business.
Web Accessibility
Web accessibility refers to how easily, efficiently and effectively a website can be navigated by people with specific disabilities or needs.
Good accessibility design means that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for and interact with your website effectively regardless of their hearing, vision, movement limitations or physical circumstances.
Where UX and Accessibility Overlap
Both UX and Accessibility focus on making websites easier to navigate and pleasant to use. Accessibility just removes the assumption that every visitor has the same needs.
In fact, one could say that: Accessibility is UX + the added awareness that every single visitor to your site will be arriving with a different set of abilities and needs.
“Okay, but how does accommodating individuals with specific needs improve the experience of anyone else?” We hear this question often and we’ve found that a quick analogy helps illustrate the answer.
The Dinner Party Analogy
If you’re having guests over, you might put up a sign that guests can identify from the curb and do a quick check to make sure you haven’t left any tripping hazards in the walkway.
These small gestures won’t just benefit guests who have vision and mobility needs. They’ll no doubt improve the experience for everyone you’ve invited. After all, no one has ever left a gathering saying “That event was nice but I wish someone had left me a rake to step on.”
The same is true for building a website. You’ll find that following accessibility best practices is a good way to check for obstacles that could potentially affect any visitor.
In fact, accessibility features have a long history of producing unforeseen benefits for the general public.
Examples of Accessibility Improving UX for Everyone
Most of us benefit from the features & guidelines listed below and each of them was initially designed to improve accessibility.
Video Captions
Captioning was initially developed to make television more accessible for deaf or hard of hearing individuals.
Believe it or not, this vital feature was controversial once upon a time. Many viewers complained that captions would distract from the visual experience of a program and producers complained about spending more effort just to appease a small minority.
However, these early objections to captioning failed to imagine how many scenarios in which captioning would benefit viewers, regardless of hearing ability.
Whether you’ve turned on captions to better understand an unfamiliar accent, follow the news in a noisy airport or watch a video without disturbing your neighbor, you’ve likely benefited from captions too.
Color Contrast
If you want people to easily read your text, the color of your text should differ significantly from the background. High contrast is especially important for folks who have low visions to be able to read your content. For this reason, accessibility guidelines recommend that the text on your site contrasts from the background by a ratio of at least 45:1.
What’s the benefit to people with 20/20 vision?
Well, having text that stands out is just good marketing. It also means the text on your site will be easy to read even if viewed on a phone screen in bright daylight.
Thanks to accessibility guidelines, website creators not only have a minimum contrast ratio to aim for, there are also free online tools, such as a contrast checker to make sure your text is easy to read.
Animation & Motion
Excessive motion, blinking and flashing can trigger vertigo, migraines and seizures in some users. These effects can also prevent users with ADHD and autism from being able to effectively navigate a website. Accessibility guidelines for animation developed to address these problems.
As it turns out, it’s not just folks with disabilities who find animation frustrating. UX testing indicates that many popular animations cause the opposite of their intended effect, at best, and serve as a deterrent to users at worst.
Why the General Public Doesn’t Like Animations
- Distraction: Animations are truly eye-catching but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Continuous animations draw the viewers attention away from more important content, which reduces the likelihood they’ll buy your product or benefit from what you offer.
- Loss of Control: When a visitor can’t control the features of a website, they tend to report a poor user experience. Animations that repeat, diminish user control.
- Banner Blindness: Rotating banners are intended to draw attention to important items but ux testing indicates that visitors ignore banners and image carousels. This is partly because visitors register banners as irrelevant advertisements and partly because the banners move before visitors can absorb the content.
Animations can add a nice touch to your content and can even draw attention where you most want it. However, the key is to only use animations that are brief, subtle and which only occur when a specific action is taken.
With so many ways for animation to negatively affect UX, it’s worth doing some research and looking for examples of good animations versus bad animations.
Our Animation Recommendations
- Animations should be brief, subtle and only occur when a specific action is taken.
- Avoid automated image carousels.
- Never use scrolling banners or continuous animations.
- Always follow accessibility guidelines for animation to ensure your animations help rather than hinder your website.
How to Make Your Website More Accessible
Focusing on accessibility will make your website more user-friendly for all of your visitors. While the benefits may be clear, coding your website so that it’s accessible does take some technical skill.
We recommend having an accessibility audit performed by a professional who can recommend adjustments based on your specific goals, target audience and the specific products or services you offer. Find out more about our accessibility packages or schedule a free consultation.
Image Attribution: Our image for this blog post was assembled from various icons found at Flaticon.com including the following: Rounded rectangle, UX icon, and Accessibility icon.