Why should designers consider accessibility for people with disabilities?
Designing for accessibility serves three primary purposes – the first and most important being inclusiveness. Communities are most robust with the broadest talents and perspectives available to them. The perspective brought to systems by those with different abilities and constraints highlights weaknesses in systems that may otherwise go unnoticed. We cannot avail ourselves of the all intelligence available to us if we do not make the channels and forums accessible.
In Joe Clark’s book Building Accessible Websites, I learned that some form of vision, hearing, hand-impairment or learning disability is present in a little more than 10% of the US population. That is significant population of participants to exclude completely by design.
The second reason is cost. Back to Clark again where he points towards a survey by The Office of Disability Employment Policy’s Job Accommodation Network (U.S. Department of Labor). They surveyed callers to their information line and found:
19% of callers incurred no cost to accommodate, 50% incurred $500 or less, and only 19% spent more than $1,000. A tiny 4% of callers could not identify a cost saving in carrying out the accommodation, and fully 25% of callers pegged the cost saving as between $20,001 and $100,000. A Labor report concludes: “Companies reported an average return of $28.69 in benefits for every dollar invested in making an accommodation.”
He goes on to state that “experts” estimate that accommodating accessibility in websites can add about 2% to development costs if done from the start
Finally, attention to accessibility needs for all creates opportunities to ensure that the site is accessible and appropriately meets the needs of those without physical or mental disability. As in the next example, while going through the steps of identifying the accessibility problems of the building for those with disabilities, it became apparent that the building was not very user friendly to those with all abilities available to them.
Find something in your everyday work or leisure environment that is not accessible, state why. What are some suggestions that could improve it?
Somewhat surprisingly, our new office building is almost completely inaccessible to those with physical disabilities. A two-story building built 90 years ago it has only a single freight elevator which is kept on the second floor and can not be summoned from the ground floor. A visitor to the building who is unable to walk stairs would need to know in advance that they can not access offices on the second floor without arranging for someone to bring the elevator down and let them in through the freight receiving door. There is no ground floor intercom to contact people in offices and pedestrian entrance ways are not fitted with mechanical assists. A visitor to the building who was also unable to open the door – a wheelchair-user, for instance – would be forced to wait until someone came to let them in to the building so they could begin recruiting help from ground floor offices to help them contact the upstairs offices. There are no accessibility concessions for the blind other than some company plaques having been engraved. Even way-finding for those without disability is quite poor, and the freight elevator is found by chance only.
Possible solutions include:
- Fitting at least one door with mechanical assists
- Installing either a stair-lift system or pedestrian elevator
- Noting mechanically assisted door and elevator access on maps at all other entrances with a “you are hear” message and directions to reach the accessible entrance
- Braille or engraved signage at standard heights and locations
- Proper wayfinding for the sighted
