UX is accessibility. January 1, 2023.

Hi UX Designers! Welcome to the new year!

Let’s chat about UX and accessibility. I’m your host, Hilary. And it’s a pleasure to write to you today.

UX is accessibility.

What is the future of our experiences as users?

The future is chat. We are humans and love to talk; before we wrote, we spoke.

So how will chat play a role in the future?

Well, if you've already tried a chatbot like ChatGPT, then you know that the conversational style of the interface is pleasant, informative and helpful. It could be better and requires a bit of critical thinking and fact-checking, but it's easier to read responses from a chatbot than to search through Google's search engine result pages.

Navigating buttons and learning a new interface every time someone publishes an app is getting tiresome.

While UX Designers are there to help the process and advocate on behalf of the user, are you doing it with accessibility in mind also? Because what's more accessible than a conversation between two parties?

I've searched through an enormous amount of documentation about accessibility and the web and how to improve it. But I'm still at a loss and completely overwhelmed.

I asked the Open.AI chatbot about accessibility.

It pointed me to the wave.webaim.org tool to check a URL and receive immediate and actionable feedback on improving accessibility to the site. A site I completely missed during all of my research.

"The tool allows us to evaluate the accessibility of a website or web application. And it identifies common accessibility issues, such as missing alternative text for images, incorrect use of headings, and missing form labels," writes ChatGPT.

I put the uxvocabclub.com website through, and wow, there is a lot to improve.?Including

• 22 structural elements,
• 21 accessible rich internet applications indicating there is HTML markup I'm missing,
• 26 alerts,
• seven errors,
• and zero contrast errors. At least I have no contrast errors.

I then asked the robot to provide a diagram of the accessibility standards.

I wanted something short and straightforward to use as a guide this year. So, the four principles of the web content accessibility guideline are that the web should be

1. perceivable,
2. operable,
3. understandable
4. and robust.?

With these four pillars in mind, it makes talking about accessibility a little easier.

There are three levels of conformance, level A, or AA and AAA.

One-A is the minimum level of accessibility, while Triple-A is the highest level of accessibility.

There are different requirements to meet the standards at each level, and they build upon each other. For example, you must also meet all level One-A standards to meet level Double-A?standards.

They build on each other as the web grows and tools and technology change.

The essential standards of the web content accessibility guidelines:

• Provide alternative text for images, audio, and video.
• Use time-based media such as captions for prerecorded audio and video content.
• Make it adaptable and present content in a way that's easy to read and navigate regardless of the user's device.
• Use text and images of text with a sufficient contrast ratio, so they are distinguishable.
• Have all site functionality available by a keyboard, so a mouse or touch is unnecessary.
• Give users enough time to read and use content, and when possible, allow them to adjust their time.
• Do not trigger seizures for a user with photosensitive epilepsy.
• Create navigable content and organize it logically and consistently using headings and links.
• Help users avoid mistakes when entering data by using input assistance.
• And create content widely compatible with different browsers and assistive technologies.

How to achieve that Triple-A conformance?

You can conduct an accessibility audit of your website or app to identify the issues needing to be addressed. And then fix those issues. Constantly test and update your website or app regularly.

And what if you need help advocating for accessibility?

You can reach out to me for help on how to advocate for accessibility because I believe that we need to take action so all of us have a place on earth to share so that no one feels ostracized and taken advantage of.

As UX Designers, you have the power to make these changes possible, and I care so deeply about helping UX Designers because you're helping everyone else.

Email me at [email protected], or message me directly here on LinkedIn if you have questions or comments.

Cheers to the new year!

May your apps and websites be accessible and widely used!