Producing an accessible product removes the barriers often faced by those with physical or cognitive impairments. An accessible website or application is not just a nice to have feature, but often a legal requirement. As an example, all of our work with British Telecom, both design and development had to adhere strictly to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 standards.

At UI Centric, as a rule we strive to factor in accessible design and development into each and every product we produce. Our UX team are well-versed in accessibility and compliance standards and can provide recommendations and guidance to those with existing products to ensure any standards and requirements are met.

Here are some areas addressed through the practice of working to good accessibility standards.

Ensuring those with sight impairments including poor eyesight and colourblindness are not adversely affected by visual design aesthetics and layouts. This includes colour contrast between the foreground and background graphic elements and text, text size should be scalable without adversely affecting the layout of a page as well as suitable tags and markup to code to assit users with screen readers and other assistive technologies

Enabling users with cognitive disabilities to perform tasks without relying on excessive problem solving, memory recall or a prolonged attention span.

Allowing suitable and easy control to users to adjust any audio feedback.

Ensuring users with limited mobility, particularly around the use of their hands are able to adequately control, manipulate and navigate the website or application.

Limiting or eliminating any flashing or strobing effects that may trigger seizures.