Accessibility for designers in a hurry

An inspiring session about accessibility developed by Jørgen Vik and Jasmin Stensrud from twoday, formerly known as Visma Consulting.

What you can expect to learn

• why accessibility should be a constant consideration when creating new solutions
• DOs and DON'Ts when designing your amazing ideas

‍Summary

Accessibility is necessary for some, but useful for all!

Accessibility needs to be more than a buzzword used around the coffee machine. It needs to be more than a checklist we check off, just to pat ourselves on the back. It needs to be a tool for inclusivity and empathy. To make sure that all our awesome designs and creative ideas can be enjoyed, not just by most but by everyone.

The web is fundamentally designed to be accessible for everyone regardless of language, location or ability. However, when applications are not designed with this principle in mind, barriers are created, and people are excluded.

Accessibility at its core, is to break down these barriers and prevent new ones from rising. In our world that means designing our web sites and applications according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Did you know that 15% of the world's population lives with some form of disability? That’s a massive pool of people that we choose to exclude, if we’re not careful, if we stop caring. So why should we care?

Aside from the obvious humane perspective of creating a better world for everyone in it. Unfortunately, often these decisions are taken from a business perspective. Time is money. But business loves numbers, so let’s talk numbers!

We mentioned that 15% of the world’s population live with a disability of some form or another. That’s about one billion people, with a B! That’s a huge amount of potential end users that will struggle to use your application, should Accessibility remain a buzzword.

On top of that, 98.1 % of all home pages fail at least one of WCAG’s principles. So, there is a real chance to stand out, if the time and effort is put in.

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