Inclusive by design: Learning from discomfort

I rarely feel disabled in my own home. The ability to control the brightness of the lights, the temperature, the layout, the furniture – it all supports me in exactly the ways that I need. However, this level of support for my needs is inevitably left behind when I step outside.

As a designer living with a disability, I often contemplate the phrase 'disabled by your surroundings' when navigating the physical world. For those unfamiliar, this notion suggests that a person can be hindered more by designs that don’t accommodate their needs than by their actual impairments. And let me tell you, these challenges are pervasive!

So, picture my horror when I recently took on a sizeable web accessibility project and realised just how much I still have to learn about designing accessible digital spaces. My own disability doesn't often impair me in digital spaces the way it does in physical ones, and so my own blind spots were uncovered.

Embracing empathy in design

Designers bare the responsibility for considering challenges they almost certainly don't have lived experience of, in order to allow individuals with all sorts of needs equitable access to spaces, information, and services. This, fundamentally, requires something we seem to encounter less and less in the world: empathy.

While I can say with reasonable certainty that I've never encountered a designer who intentionally creates user experiences that are inaccessible or likely to cause pain, unfortunately, it happens more often than we'd like to admit.

In my evolving design practice, as I delve deeper into accessible features, I've noticed that I can make more informed decisions by putting myself in the shoes of person who is impaired differently than me, having familiarised myself with the technologies they might use.

Learning from discomfort

One of the most impactful exercises I undertook was closing my eyes and navigating a page with a screen reader, especially one I wasn't familiar with. Questions flooded my mind: Will there be a coherent list of headings to get me where I need to go on the page? Where on earth do those three identical "read more" links go? You don't have waste time reading an entire page start to finish just to get context for poorly worded links too many times to realise that beautifully crafted layouts mean nothing here.

Experiencing this firsthand allows you to better empathise with your users, leading to more thoughtful and inclusive designs from the outset.

Encouraging mindset shift

Let's call a spade a spade - creating genuinely compliant accessible digital products can be difficult. It neccessitates compromises, rigorous testing, time, money and effort.

Shifting the mindsets of stakeholders to fully embrace inclusive design can pose a significant challenge, demanding a delicate balance of education, advocacy, and a commitment to prioritising users at every stage of the design process.

When you feel like you're not making progress, remember that even seemingly small adjustments can drastically enhance the user experience. Focus on what you can control, and continuously iterate improvements.

Integrating accessibility into design ideations as early as possible in a project facilitates a much smoother and more natural path to an inclusive final product. It's not just about compliance; it's about leveraging your emotional intelligence and empathy as a designer to create digital spaces that everyone can enjoy.