Digital Accessibility
Throughout my career I have always considered accessibility to be one of the most important elements of digital design. The following are some projects that showcase this.
WCAG 2.2
Auditing
Training
UX/UI Design
Auditing
UX/UI & Accessibility Audit
Task
UX and UI elements across desktop and mobile experiences are audited against Baymard Institute’s 1,080+ guidelines, as well as WCAG 2.2.
Once usability and accessibility issues have been identified, detailed commentary and recommended solutions are provided. These recommendations are actionable, and clearly explained to be understood by stakeholders of all technical abilities.
This review forms part of the onboarding process for all new Conversion Kings clients and is refreshed annually for clients on a retainer.
Five Fundamentals Audited
Accessibility
Providing a universal digital experience that ensures all users can access the same information and functionality, regardless of their abilities or impairments.
Designs are reviewed against WCAG 2.2 standards, covering areas such as colour contrast, touch target sizing, font legibility, and the appropriate tagging of decorative vs informative imagery. Code is also audited to ensure semantic HTML, ARIA attributes, and other accessibility best practices enable assistive technologies to accurately interpret page content, structure, and functionality.
User Feedback
Helping users recognise, diagnose & recover from errors by precisely indicating the problem and constructively suggesting a solution.
Findability
The website should facilitate and fulfil all browsing behaviours through search, navigation and on page information gathering.
Credibility & Trust
An intuitive and reliable interface is imperative to a users willingness to risk time, money and personal data.
Consistency
The websites content, UI elements, fonts, page layouts and colors should be in harmony and feel consistent at every touch point.
Training Workshop
Digital Accessibility Training Workshops
Task
Educate large digital teams of the importance of creating accessible experiences.
Key Topics Covered
An Introduction
An introduction to accessibility, including:
What accessibility is
Who it is for, including permanent, temporary, and situational impairments
Why digital interfaces provide a safe environment, and the impact of accessible experiences on customer loyalty
Legal requirements and associated liability
Additional SEO benefits
WCAG 2.2
Understanding of POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust), the four foundational principles of accessibility upon which WCAG is built. This includes knowledge of WCAG conformance levels (A, AA, and AAA), their requirements, and how they are applied to create accessible digital experiences.
Do's and Dont's
For non-specialists, WCAG can be difficult to master, so we provide simple do’s and don’ts for designing for users with, or on:
Screen readers
Low vision
Physical or motor disabilities
Deaf or hard of hearing
Dyslexia
Autism spectrum conditions
Anxiety
These are presented in poster form to ensure they are easy to share, reference, and apply in day-to-day work.
Client's Accessibility Review
An accessibility review of client experiences, including:
UX/UI design violations and recommended solutions
Screen reader recordings demonstrating how homepages are interpreted, highlighting key usability challenges
Usability study results showcasing real user feedback on their digital experiences
Resources
Curated resources in a sharable format for ongoing use in the digital team.
Example Slides
Branding Collaboration
Digital & Brand Team Collaboration
Task
Throughout my time as a UX/UI designer, I will often design websites that are for a new brand or for an existing brand going through a visual identity refresh.
More often than not, the branding agencies who are creating the visual identity have limited experience with digital accessibility requirements. This is where early collaboration is key to ensure the branding is a success.
Timeline
Project Kick Off
Once myself or my team are positioned to be of a website redesign project, I will always ask to be a part of the visual identity process to ensure that the new visual identity is AA or AAA (depending on the client requirements or industry) compliant.
When the branding agency shares their proposed colour palette, I will review this for any issues with colour contrast before proposing an alternative that is as close to the original as possible. This prosed hex code also includes an indicator of whether the colour passes AA or AAA compliance using either light or dark text.
I will also provide feedback on the issue and its meaning, and share colour contrast checkers to ensure that the agency team is equiped to amend the hex code to their desire. My aim from the collaboration is that they are aware and educated so that they are able to create accessible visual identities in all their future work.
UX/UI Design
And what a relief it is to be handed a beautiful, new visual identity that does not have any compliance issues! Now I can use this to design a new digital interface that incorporates all elements to achieve the desired level of WCAG2.2 compliance.
And at the end of the project, we can hand over a complete, functional Design System with all the information and guides included to stay compliant. So that future designers on the project have no room for error.
Project Completion
We’ve not only been able to help our clients create an interface that all their customers will be able to enjoy, we’ve saved them from potential liability, while also gaining their trust with our expertise.
