Make Global Accessibility Awareness Local.

Commitments can be strengthened only by strengthening teams working to improve accessibility for all.

May 18 being GAAD or Global Accessibility Awareness Day is something I intentionally think about and typically spend such days reading about the latest trends, tools, research, products, improvements and services from different teams and organizations around the world working to improve accessibility. I also try to find books, journals, research papers in the public domain that deal with the subject of accessibility to see and learn from the progress made so far around the world.

It’s a day and a time where we put the spotlight on digital access, inclusion and share our own stories, products, services and research in this direction.

We often talk about books, apps, toys, prototypes, tools, features, elements, products, experiences, gestures, languages, software, functionalities, buttons, tabs, toggles, rollovers, sounds, interactions, physical, digital or phygital devices that are all efforts in the quest of making the world a more accessible place.

The good work has to start somewhere and often people I meet wonder that where do accessible things come from. Well, after co-building some of the earliest multidisciplinary startups, digital and design teams in India, I can tell you that it starts with having the right intentions even way before having the right team.

Accessibility is therefore, intentional

Having the right intentions and being intentional towards accessibility is not only something that stems from going to the right design school or human-centered design programs, continuing education programs or courses but it could also emerge from having the right design managers, user experience designers or research processes before the process of creation commences in your team.

Sometimes, just being in a team that follows the right Design Process or Research Methodologies helps in the way we envision our next big platform or product. Or even a Design Manager that is constantly thinking about different users and how to improve experiences for them.

Mindset meets mindful decisions
When you are in a human-centered design team working with various designers and processes, frameworks you need some people or someone managing the entire project lifecycle, taking decisions based on data, insights, affinities, interpretations, frameworks or research.

And, these decisions themselves need to be inclusive keeping in mind the findings and observations of the entire team. That’s how you can go beyond a human-centered mindset and actually take mindful decisions that help your team leapfrog towards better products, experiences and outcomes.

Let the team decide which framework works for the team
Frameworks are very important but if we get too attached to one framework, it becomes difficult for teams to keep an open mind and an open heart towards the outcome. If some people in your team came from a design team or school where one framework was dominant, then someone else may come from a place where a particular model or research methodology was used often. A few may even arrive at design ideas following their own observations and documentations. And it’s always a good idea to let people follow their own framework unless you work in a team that follows a particular process overall.

Accessibility starts at the briefing, planning, decoding stage
When the first brief, plan, slide, email, message and communication about a particular brand, product, platform, service or tool comes in, it needs to factor in accessibility and inclusivity. Often times the briefing stage is seen or treated as a launchpad for work to begin. And, that’s not the optimal way to start any project. Prioritizing accessibility at this level means you plan to go beyond awareness, talking, sharing and won’t let the conversation end at stage one. You are prioritizing accessibility and making it the prime directive alongside innovation and technological disruption.

Project’s Accessibility Dashboard
Your project should have an accessibility dashboard and it doesn’t have to be digital. It could be the culmination of your research on the project and cover all the details from your Contextual Inquiry, Affinity, Group Interpretation, Summarization and initial Prototype or paper-prototype testing.

This could also include:
Results from your first paper prototype, workflow or wireframe, usability testing reports and feedback on different features and functions, colour palettes, design of buttons, gestures, biases, customer/user journeys and pain-points. Challenges pointed out by users in the design or the flow.

Integrating Accessibility into Design and Technology
We all wish it was as simple as designing something beautiful that looks wonderful and works equally well but to integrate accessibility into design it will require different members of your team actually using products with their intended users and writing down all the smallest and biggest of observations that can further be categorized.

The team also needs to spend time with end-to-end contributing teams from visual design to ux, copy, content and navigational writing teams to ui/ux teams and finally with the team implementing the entire experience via technology.

By supervising the entire chain, we can identify errors swifter, work to minimize mistakes and merge responsibility and project ownership with accessibility.

Empowering existing teams via on-the-job training, knowledge-sharing, online/offline courses and continuing education programs.
Digital Design, Design Process, User Experience, HCI and more is still a new thing to many teams, companies, studios, organizations and believe it or not, in some teams it is either an afterthought, a distant dream or completely absent from processes. So, if you are a designer in such a team or have acquired a new team on your journey, you can always take time to train your team, arrange workshops, talk to HR and allocate resources for training and at the very least - share whatever resources you find online in the public domain. It’s our effort that ultimately shows in the outcome of our team’s design work, ideas and experiences.

Project Documentation
The best way to pass the baton forward to the next teams. Project Documentation helps like a textbook to apply methods, tools and promote human-centered design.

Accessibility Hackathons
Another great way to promote empathetic design in your team. Even if participants don’t reach a final prototype or working prototype, they should atleast cover all the major design processes and arrive at simple yet effect ideas, solutions and innovations.

These are just a few of the ways we can strengthen our team’s commitments towards accessibility and work to improve accessibility for all. Will keep part 2 of this for another day.

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023.