Lesson 9Getting started: planning and initiating accessible web design
- Notion 60 - Take stock of what you know and what you need to know
- Notion 61 - Make sure everyone on your team is on the same page
- Notion 62 - Include accessibility into your budget
- Notion 63 - Make note of the technical requirements needed for accessible design
- Notion 64 - Test and evaluate your ideas with experts and tools
- Notion 65 - Test and evaluate your ideas with your target audience
- Notion 66 - Review of the main concepts
Notion 65
Test and evaluate your ideas with your target audience
Target skills
People and companies often underestimate the impact that people with disabilities can have on the market. They often turn away thinking that this audience is not their core target. However, people with disabilities now represent no less than 1.3 billion potential customers! The emergence of new professions related to the integration of accessibility issues in the world of work is also an opportunity. This is why it is very important to take this public into account from the beginning, in your design process.
To succeed in making a web medium accessible, it is necessary to scrupulously apply the referentials and standards in force.
Accessibility tests are carried out in several phases; first of all during the design of your project – but also as the components are developed and integrated (menus, forms...).
Integrate your target audiences from the design phase
Beyond technical evaluations, it is essential to test your digital service with your target audience, including people with disabilities or comprehension/perception disorders. You can involve them from the beginning of your project, at the mock-up stage (first drafts).
Web navigation and interaction with a website varies depending on the type of disability of the user. In other words, the way a person with motor difficulties uses your website is different from the way a person with impaired vision or hearing uses it.
Their feedback will be invaluable to amend the interface and content of your digital service and ensure that you reach the greatest possible number of users and capture their attention.
Organize on-site tests
These tests can be organized on site, with a group of target people. You can record their screen to study how they navigate your digital service. You can also collect their testimonials through quality questionnaires and interviews.
You can also make them choose between two interface proposals.
Use online services
These tests can also be organized online. Various technical providers offer their online services to have your site evaluated by different panels of target groups.