World Usability Congress
Just like last year, the World Usability Congress gave me a lot of really great insights. After my experience last year, I already knew what to expect, which helped me organize the time spent there and focus on the talks that seemed the most important to me, since seeing all of them was not possible. I spent most of my time in the “Accessibility & Inlcusion” room this year, and one talk from the second day left the biggest impression on me, especially because I was listening with my master thesis topic in mind.
Mari-Ell Mets from Trinidad Wiseman gave a talk titled „Website and Apps for Everybody – Making Accessibility Easy.“ The presentation focused on practical strategies to make digital platforms more inclusive, offering advice for creating user-friendly websites and apps for everyone, including those with special needs. The presentation laid out ten essential rules for improving accessibility, each of which provides valuable guidance for my own work. I summarized the key takeaways and how they connect to my research.
1. Avoid Moving Content
Mets stressed the importance of avoiding autoplaying videos, animations, or sounds, which can overwhelm users. She also recommended providing a „stop“ button for any moving content and eliminating flickering elements entirely.
2. Use Contrasted Colors
Proper color contrast is essential for readability. Mets outlined the recommended contrast ratios: at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for larger or bold text. She emphasized avoiding text over images and using tools like contrast checkers to ensure compliance.
3. Adapt to User Settings
Websites and apps should respect a user’s browser or device settings, such as font size or color preferences. Mets encouraged the use of relative font and container sizes to ensure flexibility.
4. Ensure Keyboard Navigation
Accessibility isn’t complete without full keyboard navigation. Mets highlighted the importance of using native elements, avoiding drag-and-drop actions, and carefully managing focus order.
5. Make Focus Visible
It’s crucial for users to see where their keyboard focus is on the page. Mets advised keeping focus styles visible and maintaining a logical focus order throughout the site.
6. Specify Language in Code
To support screen readers and multilingual content, the language of the page must be defined using the lang attribute in the code.
7. Reflect Visual Relationships in Code
Visual structures, such as headings, lists, and tables, must also be coded correctly to make sense to assistive technologies. Mets recommended testing with screen readers to ensure usability.
8. Clearly Define UI Elements
Each user interface element must have a defined name, role, and value in the code. Mets encouraged the use of native elements and careful research before implementing ARIA attributes.
9. Provide Text Alternatives
Mets highlighted the importance of providing text alternatives for informative images and hiding decorative images from assistive technologies.
10. Deliver Clear Error Messages
Error messages should clearly indicate what went wrong and how to fix it. Mets emphasized providing clear labels, marking errors visually, and ensuring screen readers can announce the messages.
Conclusion
Mari-Ell Mets concluded the talk by emphasising that accessible design benefits everyone, not just those with disabilities. For my research, this presentation really showed the importance of accessibility as a foundation for designing educational tools. Incorporating these principles into my work will ensure that the tools I create are inclusive, empowering children with autism to engage confidently with technology.
