Confab 2019 talk

1. contentdesign.london

2. Accessibility
is
usability

3. “Disabled people”
vs
“people with disabilities”

4. Image taken from
Microsoft inclusivity kit

5. USA: 1 in 4 adults have a
disability.
61 million Americans

6. University of Southern California’s
Roski Eye Institute, estimate that
1 million Americans
were legally blind in 2015

7. The total after-tax
disposable income for
working-age disabled
people is about
$490 billion.

8. Accessibility =
screenreaders

9. Profoundly deaf
people use
sign language

10. Chrome extension:
NoCoffee simulator

22. You have 3 seconds
to get my attention
and 5 to keep it.
Value my time.

23. Accessibility is
finding the right
information at
the right time

25. Don’t have a search
results strategy to play
the SEO game.

26. Have a search results
strategy to minimise pain.

27. Have a search results
strategy to help people.

28. Accessibility is
structure, format and
language

29. Image courtesy of @finiteattention

30. Image courtesy of @finiteattention

31. Image courtesy of @finiteattention

32. Headings: accessibility
Help people scan the page so
they can decide to read or not

33. Headings: usability
Help people scan the page so
they can decide to read or not

34. Headings tell a story.
Use them.

35. Video: accessibility
Use captions so anyone with
a hearing impairment can still
access the content

36. Video: usability
Use captions so anyone with a
hearing impairment (like no
headphones and on a bus) can still
access the content

37. Jargon: accessibility
People may not understand it
and you could alienate them

38. Jargon: usability
People may not understand it
and you could alienate them

39. Cheesy bobs can be a
menace but they are
essentially harmless.

40. Picture: A-Z-Animals.com

42. Jargon/idioms are difficult for:
• anyone not used to those
terms
• anyone reading in a second
language
• people with autism

45. Readability guidelines:
using clear language
helps everybody

46. Helps people in a hurry
Simply written content is easier to
scan and understand.

47. Helps for cognitive impairments
Easy to understand words and
sentences need less cognitive
effort.

48. Helps for motor impairments
Clear navigation labels and
headings means less clicking and
scrolling.

49. Helps for visual impairments
Short and simple sentences
convey meaning in a smaller
visual field.

50. Generally, people want to
understand.

51. Generally, people want to
understand.
Not marvel at your
language skills.

52. You don’t have to be
boring to be clear.

53. Just do it

55. #LikeaGirl

56. You don’t have to use
formatting or tricks to
stand out.

57. Change your sentence length and
punctuation.
Carefully.

58. Or you can use space.
Do this.
Then leave a space.
It’s okay to allow people
to think.

59. Struggling through content is
not a success metric

60. Accessibility is more
than code and colours.

61. You won’t lose people by
communicating well.

62. It’s not dumbing down.
It’s opening up.

63. Thank you
Links can be found at:
contentdesign.london/confab