Happy (belated) Global Accessibility Awareness Day! Each year, on the third Thursday of May, promoting “digital accessibility and inclusion for people with all disabilities.” It’s a celebration of assistive technology, universal design, and disability representation- after all, as many as 1 in 7 people have some form of a disability, though it’s unknown as to how many people with disabilities use the internet, as they are considered a protected class and data is not collected. Today, I will be sharing ways to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day every day.
Learn about assistive technology
When people first hear the term “assistive technology,” they think of high-tech devices like computers or tablets. It’s so much more than that though- assistive technology is defined as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a person with a disability.” People with vision impairments often use screen readers, full screen magnifiers, refreshable Braille displays, large print keyboards, and many other devices.
Related links
- How To Make Keyboards Easier To See
- Five Myths About Assistive Technology
- Windows Magnifier and Low Vision
Research different disability areas
When designing for users, especially those with disabilities, it’s important to know what their needs are, what limitations may be present, and to understand how they access their world. For example, people with vision impairments benefit from websites that are compatible with assistive technology, detailed descriptions of items, and high contrast displays as well.
Related links
- Using High Contrast Themes In Windows 10
- App Accessibility Checklist for Low Vision
- How Web Accessibility Impacts My Life With Low Vision
Use high resolution images
I have blurry vision, so when I look at a low resolution image, I can’t distinguish much of anything. The same happens when I zoom in on a picture and it’s very pixelated, even when I only zoom in at 250%. It’s important to create and use high resolution images for digital content. This way, users can clearly distinguish what the image is, and zoom in as needed.
Related links
- How To Create High Resolution Images For Users With Low Vision
- Using PicsArt To Simulate Vision Impairment
While you’re at it, add alt text
You can use beautiful high resolution images as much as you want. They will be useless to people who use screen readers unless you use alt text. Alt text is a description of an image that is read by screen readers for users that can’t see the screen. While automatic alt text is becoming more and more common, it’s still important to check what the alt text says, as it can sometimes be incorrect- for example, a picture of my brother standing in the driveway was registered as being a picture of a car.
Related links
- How To Add Alt Text On Social Media
- How To Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the Visually Impaired
- How To Write Alt Text For Digital Comics
Create documents with accessibility in mind
Accessibility is often an afterthought when creating documents and presentations. Microsoft Office products have an awesome feature built in called the Accessibility Checker, which will display accessibility issues such as missing alt text, and allow the user to make changes to make their document accessible. This takes less than a minute to do, but can help people tremendously.
Related links
- How To Create Accessible PowerPoints
- Designing Accessible Documents With Microsoft Word
- Five Common Technology Behaviors That Hurt My Brain
Make text easy to read (and enlarge)
It’s not just people with recognized vision impairments that benefit from having the ability to enlarge text on a website. Seniors, people who use reading glasses, and people giving presentations on a screen benefit from large text, because it is easier to read for long periods of time.
Related links
- My Eight Favorite Free Fonts For Print Disabilities
- How I Document Accessibility Preferences With Low Vision
- Common Classroom Accommodations For Low Vision
Become familiar with accessibility settings
Did you know that you can enlarge the text of your iOS, Android, and Windows devices? What about applying a color filter to make things easier to see? Becoming familiar with accessibility settings and how they may interact with a product is very important. I have encountered many apps that have large text not display correctly or that don’t use alt text for images. Some apps straight up will not open. By learning common accessibility settings, developers can make sure their products are accessible to those with disabilities.
Related links
- App Accessibility Checklist for Low Vision
- Low Vision Accessibility Settings For Windows 10
- Accessibility Settings I’m Using In iPad OS and iOS 13
- Android Pie Accessibility For Vision Impairment
- Low Vision Accessibility Settings For MacBooks
- CentOS Accessibility For Low Vision
Watch Microsoft’s GAAD video
Microsoft released a video for Global Accessibility Awareness Day that explains the importance and impact of accessibility in the classroom, the workplace, and everywhere else. It’s a great introduction to the world of accessibility. It features a lot of great people too- and I’m not just saying that because I make a few cameos.
Related links
Be an ally for disabled people
If you’re looking to learn more about disabilities, it’s best to talk to someone with the disability you want to learn more about. This doesn’t mean harassing people in public though, or asking prying questions about conditions. Following disabled creators on Twitter, reading blogs, and researching online are all great ways to be an ally to members of the disability community.
Related links
The future is accessible
As many more companies begin to recognize the importance of accessibility, the availability of resources, technology, and services will only continue to grow for people with disabilities. As I like to say, a person with a vision impairment can do anything a sighted person can do, except drive a taxi (and even then, driverless cars are becoming more and more common). By doing these things to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day every day, the world can become a better place for people with disabilities.
