UI/UX Design and

Accessibility
Angelica Fleury
What does UI/UX design consist
of?
What does designing for
accessibility mean?
Background/Significance
● Social needs for accessibility
○ People with disabilities form one of the largest user groups
● Who does this affect?
○ Individuals with: auditory disabilities, motor disabilities,
cognitive disabilities, visual disabilities
Examples of Poor Design

No visible focus and tab order is not logical,

manu links do not receive focus when scrolled
over
Insufficient color contrast
 Current Guidelines in
Accessibility Design
● Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (W3)
● Human Interface Guidelines for Accessibility (Apple)
● Inclusive Design Principles (Microsoft)
Examples of Designing for Accessibility
TED Talk Video Transcripts

● Accessible to a wider audience such as people with hearing

impairments or those in public who do not want to disrupt
others with audio

Apple Assistive Touch

● Alternative navigation methods and touch gestures for

people with physical impairments
Current Issues
1
Accessibility impact in the life of
disabled people has not been widely
addressed

2
Social model of disability : UX /UI
designers ought to take environmental,
social and attitudinal barriers into
consideration
Accessibility is an issue, particularly for
3
those with vision impairment
Website Accessibility Lawsuits
In 2017, there was a large number of website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal and state courts

● Plaintiffs (person who brings a case against another in a court of law) filed ADA Title III lawsuits
alleging that public accommodations’’ websites are not accessible to individuals with disabilities.
○ Around 814 federal lawsuits filed on inaccessible websites
■ Winn Dixie (grocer) violated Title III of the ADA by having an inaccessible website and ordered Winn
Dixie to make its website conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
● Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in the activities of places
of public accommodations, including standards for accessible design
Why we should NOT design for accessibility
● It is a widespread belief amongst web designers and implementers that sites that are accessible to
users with disabilities must by necessity be uninteresting and simple, particularly visually
uninteresting – plain, vanilla sites (Petrie, Hamilton, King, 2004).
● Designing for accessibility is difficult to incorporate
● Ethical Egoism gives support for designers who claim the inconvenience of designing for
accessibility is too high
 Ethical Approaches (from the designer’s
perspective)

Deontological Approach

● Obligated to act in accordance with a certain set of principles and rules → moral obligation to follow
guidelines since it’s the “right thing to do”

Act and Rule Utilitarianism

● Obligation to take course of action that achieves the most positive outcome or consequence → more
individuals would benefit from assistive technology than those would be inconvenienced to create it

Virtue Ethics Approach

● Emphasizes virtues/moral character instead of duties or rules or emphasizing consequences of certain actions
→ Consideration for others’ experiences out of good virtue and character, and what is needed to overcome
barriers of accessibility
[Conclusion]
● Accessible design affects a large demographic of
users
● Guidelines available
● Current issues ought to be addressed and
mitigated
● Various ethical theories are in support
 Sources
● They Make Design. “What Is UI vs. UX Design? What's the Difference?” Medium, UX Planet, 11 Aug. 2019,
uxplanet.org/what-is-ui-vs-ux-design-and-the-difference-d9113f6612de?gi=c799d9000f5d.
● “Accessibility.” Apple, www.apple.com/accessibility/.
● Apple Inc. “Introduction-Accessibility-Human Interface Guidelines- Apple Developer.” Introduction - Accessibility - Human Interface Guidelines - Apple Developer,
developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/accessibility/overview/introduction/.
● Gregor, P., & Newell, A. F. (2001, May). Designing for dynamic diversity: making accessible interfaces for older people. In Proceedings of the 2001 EC/NSF
workshop on Universal accessibility of ubiquitous computing: providing for the elderly (pp. 90-92).
● “Microsoft Design.” Microsoft, www.microsoft.com/design/inclusive/.
● Petrie, H., Hamilton, F., & King, N. (2004, May). Tension, what tension? Website accessibility and visual design. In Proceedings of the 2004 international
cross-disciplinary workshop on Web accessibility (W4A) (pp. 13-18).
● “Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities (Title III).” Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities (Title III), www.ada.gov/ada_title_III.htm.
● Ryan, Susan, and Minh N. Vu. “2017 Website Accessibility Lawsuit Recap: A Tough Year for Businesses.” ADA Title III, 2 Jan. 2018,
www.adatitleiii.com/2018/01/2017-website-accessibility-lawsuit-recap-a-tough-year-for-businesses/.
● Stanley, Pablo. “Designing for Accessibility Is Not That Hard.” Medium, UX Collective, 29 June 2018,
uxdesign.cc/designing-for-accessibility-is-not-that-hard-c04cc4779d94.
● w3c_wai. “Accessibility, Usability, and Inclusion.” Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-usability-inclusion/.
● w3c_wai. “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview.” Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/.
● Wong, Jessica. “Common Accessibility Problems: Good and Bad Examples in Modern Websites.” Medium, Prototypr, 22 June 2016,
blog.prototypr.io/common-accessibility-problems-good-and-bad-examples-in-modern-websites-a13efb7256ad.
● World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience. “Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities.” Nielsen Norman Group,
www.nngroup.com/articles/accessible-design-for-users-with-disabilities/.
● Zheng, Ruby. “Understand the Social Needs for Accessibility in UX Design.” The Interaction Design Foundation, Oct. 2019,
www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/understand-the-social-needs-for-accessibility-in-ux-design.