Abstract
I can’t tell you what to do as, unfortunately, we can’t include everybody and we can’t design for all. At least, in the literal sense. But we might not even have to, in the majority of cases. In order to design and, consequently, develop a website that can be used by as many people as possible, we need to identify which people are going to use our product in the first place. Not everybody will use what we’re offering, and not everybody cares about it to begin with (except for Suzie and Frank, you gossip freaks). However, we need to recognize the ones that will do. One safe assumption to make would be that our digital product will be used by people of different backgrounds and in diverse ways. Our users will be of different ages, different experiences, different educational levels, as well as different abilities and skills. And some of them might be using assistive technologies.
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Notes
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In the USA, to be considered legally blind, you need to have a vision of 20/200 or worse, meaning you would need to be 20 feet away from an object to see it clearly, where people with normal sight could see it from 200 feet away. In addition, you would need to have a vision field of 20 degrees or less in your better-seeing eye.
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Hearing loss refers to how loud something needs to be before you can hear it.
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At least within the boundaries of reality, that is, you can’t identify as hard of hearing if you’re completely deaf. I mean, you can, but most likely you’d be lying to yourself. I’d like to think the categorizations are objectively linked to a medical professional’s diagnosis.
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Equality Act 2010, www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/6
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www.scope.org.uk/media/disability-facts-figures/ (accessed August 23, 2022)
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Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021, www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-2020-to-2021
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Fineberg, N., Haddad, P., Carpenter, L., Gannon, B., Sharpe, R., Young, A., Joyce, E., Rowe, J., Wellsted, D., Nutt, D., and Sahakian, B. (2013). The size, burden and cost of disorders of the brain in the UK. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 27(9), pp. 761–770.
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Hss.gov
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Mostly my wife. I think confrontation is a waste of time.
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Unless you live in England, and it happened to be one of the 360 gloomy days of the year.
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The NHS classifies it as a difficulty because it doesn’t affect a person’s intelligence levels, although its origins are neurobiological, with some genetic factors affecting a person’s working memory and sequencing skills (at least, that’s the prevailing theory according to the European Dyslexia Association, but what is this – a book around web design or a biology class?).
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Science has also revealed that dyslexia can in fact be critical to how humans adapt, since dyslexic brains are more specialized to explore the great unknown, be more creative, and find new solutions to old problems using novel problem-solving strategies. This interesting study can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889245
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For those of you who need an extra reminder, a sans-serif font (unlike a serif font) is one that doesn’t have those annoying little protrusions at the end of the strokes of each letter.
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You can read this very interesting study here: https://doi.org/10.1145/2513383.2513447
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Shorter Lines Facilitate Reading in Those Who Struggle. It’s science. Have a look in this link and thank me later: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0071161
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A study presented in a 2012 online symposium around text optimization for better readability found just that. Have a look in this link if you’re interested in more: www.w3.org/WAI/RD/2012/text-customization/r11
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Cognitive load has to do with a human’s working memory capacity, where working memory is simply the retention of bits of information so you can do different things efficiently. It helps with reasoning and problem-solving, and some users with dyslexia might have trouble retaining information for longer periods of time. So the less they have to deal with, the better. You can find out more about working memory here:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-013-9246-y. But not right now. Now you’re reading something else.
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Usability Testing with People on the Autism Spectrum: What to Expect, www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2015/10/usability-testing-with-people-on-the-autism-spectrum-what-to-expect.php
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Georgakas, D. (2023). Tell Me What to Do: Designing for People with Disabilities. In: A11Y Unraveled. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9085-9_5
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