How can you make your interface accessible to users with speech-to-text software?

1 Understand the needs and challenges of speech-to-text users

The first step to make your interface accessible to speech-to-text users is to understand their needs and challenges. Speech-to-text users may have different preferences, expectations, and goals than keyboard or mouse users. For example, they may want to use voice commands, shortcuts, or feedback to navigate and interact with your interface. They may also face challenges such as background noise, recognition errors, or lack of visual cues. To understand these aspects, you can conduct user research, such as interviews, surveys, or observations, with speech-to-text users or potential users. You can also use personas, scenarios, or user stories to represent their characteristics and situations.

2 Design your interface with speech-to-text compatibility

The second step to make your interface accessible to speech-to-text users is to design it with speech-to-text compatibility. This means that you should consider how interface elements, such as buttons, menus, forms, or links, can be identified, selected, and manipulated by voice. Additionally, you should contemplate how the layout, structure, and content of your interface can be presented and understood by voice. To ensure this happens, it is recommended to use descriptive and consistent labels for your interface elements, provide keyboard access or voice commands for all functions, use simple and intuitive language for content, employ headings and other semantic elements to organize content, and supply feedback and confirmation for interface actions. Furthermore, avoid using icons or images without text alternatives, relying on mouse-only actions or gestures, jargon, abbreviations or slang in your interface content, visual-only cues or separators to organize content, and sounds or animations without text alternatives.

3 Test your interface with speech-to-text users

The third step to make your interface accessible to speech-to-text users is to test it. This means evaluating how your interface performs and satisfies the needs and expectations of speech-to-text users. You can use various usability testing methods, such as usability testing, heuristic evaluation, or cognitive walkthrough, to measure and improve your interface usability. Additionally, you can simulate and verify your interface accessibility with different tools, such as screen readers, speech recognition software, or accessibility checkers. When testing your interface, it's important to recruit representative speech-to-text users or potential users and ensure they have the necessary equipment and settings for using speech-to-text software. You should also prepare realistic tasks and scenarios that cover the main functions and features of your interface. While observing and recording the behavior of your testing participants, pay attention to any difficulties, errors, or frustrations they encounter. Finally, analyze and report the findings from your testing sessions and prioritize and implement the changes needed for your interface. Following these steps will make your interface more accessible and inclusive for speech-to-text users, while also improving its quality and usability for all users.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?