All language subtitles for 22 - The importance of accessibility.en

Hi there. Earlier we introduced

inclusive design as
a method for making

design choices that take into

account personal
identifiers like ability,

race, economic status,
language, age, and gender.

One of the biggest parts of

inclusive design is
designing for accessibility.

In this video, we'll explore

the concept of accessibility.

First, we'll review
what accessibility

means in the field of UX design.

Then we'll discuss
how many people

have a disability globally.

Finally, we'll go through

three ways to think
about disability.

Let's recap. The term "accessibility"
refers to the design of

products, devices,
services, or environments

for people with disabilities.

We call it a11Y in the industry, and

it's something that should
guide all of our work.

Because I'm sure
you're wondering,

the 11 in the middle refers to

the number of letters

between the first
letter in the word

"accessibility" and
the last letter.

Alright, let's zoom out a little.
What are some of the groups of

people we're considering when
we think about accessibility?

In academia and
the tech industry,

we tend to think
about accessibility

in four big categories:

People with motor disabilities;

people who are deaf
or hard of hearing;

people with cognitive
disabilities,

like developmental, learning,
or intellectual disabilities;

and people with
vision disabilities.

It's also important
to keep in mind that

some people have
concurrent disabilities, where

for example, a motor or

cognitive disability
can contribute

to challenges with speech.

It's easy to assume
that accessibility

just means solving for
one specific need,

like mobility, but accessibility

is much broader than that.

Accessibility is
about making things

accessible to all people,

whether they have an
obvious disability or not.

You might be surprised
to find out that

more than 1 billion people

around the world
have a disability.

That's right, 1 billion.

That's out of a global
population of 7.8 billion.

This means 13 percent of

people around the world
have a disability.

In the U.S., one in

four adults identifies
as having a disability.

In other words, people with

accessibility needs are
a huge percentage of

the population, and we're
missing out on helping

a lot of users if we don't
build accessible products.

But demographics
can be misleading;

there are a lot more people with

a disability than the
statistics account for.

In the disability community
and as UX designers,

we focus on the social
model of disability,

which defines a disability as

being caused by
the way society is

organized or how products are

designed rather than a person's
ability or difference.

As designers, we need to

account for disabilities
that are permanent,

temporary, or situational
in our designs.

Someone with a permanent
disability might have

permanent loss of
hearing, sight, or smell.

Someone else might have
a temporary impairment,

like a broken arm or

loss of hearing after
a loud concert.

We also need to consider
situational challenges.

Situational challenges

often aren't considered
legal disabilities,

but we still need to solve them.

An example of a
situational challenge

is when you're driving on
a dark road late at night,

your vision is probably not as

clear as it would
be in the daylight,

which is a situational challenge.

Another example is
if you're visiting

a country where you don't
speak the language,

your hearing is
situationally limited.

As UX designers, we need to
keep all of these types of

disabilities in mind as we

design features or new products.

Think about inclusive
product features

that increase magnification,

like enlarged font. Or
features that help

everyone understand videos,
like Closed Captions.

These features were
designed to enhance

the experience for people
with a disability

but are used by a wide variety of

people, and sometimes
products that are

originally adopted by
the disability community

can reach a wider audience.

For example, when the typewriter

was invented hundreds
of years ago,

it was an incredibly
useful device

for people who were blind.

But most people who
did not have a disability

didn't see why it was necessary,

when they could just
write with pen and ink.

Later, the typewriter gained

more mainstream
popularity and of course,

much later, it inspired the
design of personal computers.

Here's the key takeaway:

If we make the design of

a product easier for
people with disabilities,

we also often make it a

better experience
for everyone else.

Designing for accessibility
isn't an obstacle,

but a way to get our products to

as many users as possible.

We'll elaborate on
how you can apply

accessibility principles
to your designs

throughout the rest
of the program.

We'll explore the idea of

equity-focused design in
more detail later.