A powerful approach to making your product more usable for more people is considering the needs of users who can’t see, hear, use their hands completely, or have other accessibility constraints.


Think about how many broken experiences these users already have in their daily lives. You don’t want to add to that by not doing your homework first.– Astrid Weber, User Experience Researcher , Google


Respect for the user and their life experience comes first. Before you start talking to people with disabilities and asking for feedback, do your homework. This helps you understand some of the limitations and pain points disabled people experience, and gives you an idea of how they use technology to make everyday activities easier.


By watching people perform everyday tasks like answering the phone, browsing videos on the web, or writing an email, you’ll see which interfaces work or don’t work—and how. In order to understand those pain points, ask about what people do to get around situations that usually require the user to be able to see, hear, or operate something manually.


It’s one thing to just throw raw technology at a problem. But if you tailor the solution for every user, they’ll want to use your experience.– Bethany Fong, Material Design Lead, Google


Implementing accessibility changes in design and engineering may require new budget allocations and the collaboration of a number of people in your company.


Research is an important part of the design process, but it’s just one step toward making a product that’s accessible for all users. You still have to think critically about your observations, synthesize potential solutions, and test and implement new approaches in your design. But it’s worth it. For everyone.


Research


by Susanna Zaraysky
in The Designer’s Guide to Accessibility Research

by Susanna Zaraysky

in The Designer’s Guide to Accessibility Research

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