Essential Color Tools for UX Designers Color is one of the most powerful tools in the designer’s toolkit. At the same time, color is a tricky concept to master — with an infinite number of possible color combinations out there, it can be hard to decide what colors to use on your site or app. To makeContinueContinue reading “Essential Color Tools for UX Designers”
Author Archives: dnw
Slides: London Web Standards; Making SVG accessible
London Web Standards is an established and popular meetup for web professionals. The meetups cover a broad range of topics including design, development, UX and accessibility, and this month I had the opportunity to talk about SVG accessibility. The talk looked at SVG past, present, and future, and explored the benefits and challenges it bringsContinueContinue reading “Slides: London Web Standards; Making SVG accessible”
Accessibility for Visual Design
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As designers, we need to remember that the same is true of color and all visual abilities. It’s estimated that 4.5% of the global population experience color blindness (that’s 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women), 4% suffer from low vision (1 inContinueContinue reading “Accessibility for Visual Design”
Accessibility according to actual people with disabilities
“If you have a disability, what’s the hardest thing about browsing the web?” The answers to Safia Abdalla’s tweet are truly eye-opening and shows us what web accessibility should really be about. In this article I’ll summarize and group the main topics that people bring up in the thread.But do click on the tweet andContinueContinue reading “Accessibility according to actual people with disabilities”
At this month’s WWDC, Apple unveiled refined accessibility tools
… …for all the focus on refinement, there also is a cavalcade of new stuff to be excited about. As it pertains to accessibility, some obvious highlights for me are the 10.5” iPad Pro and the corresponding iPad-centric enhancements in iOS 11. I’m also psyched for smaller niceties too, such as the ability to automatically enter Reader View in SafariContinueContinue reading “At this month’s WWDC, Apple unveiled refined accessibility tools”
Google Maps now lets users add wheelchair accessibility details for locations
Back in December, Google finally added accessibility details to Maps. It was a long awaited addition, but an extremely welcome one for the more than three million people in the U.S. who require wheelchair accessibility. As we noted at the time, however, the available information still left a lot to be desired. Maps has currentlyContinueContinue reading “Google Maps now lets users add wheelchair accessibility details for locations “
The web is awesome and everyone should be able to read it.
These last months I’ve been improving my website accessibility so anyone can understand it. Here’s what I’ve learned: By anyone I mean any person that doesn’t use the internet like I do. Having empathy with the users is one of the things I’ve been learning on web development. You should give it a try asContinueContinue reading “The web is awesome and everyone should be able to read it.”
Microsoft app that tells the visually impaired what’s in front of them
This free app is helping the visually impaired Thursday, 13 Jul 2017 | 8:39 AM ET | 01:36 Microsoft is putting its artificial intelligence technology to work to help the visually impaired. The company said on Wednesday that it’s releasing an iOS app called Seeing AI that uses an iPhone’s camera to tell people about objects in frontContinueContinue reading “Microsoft app that tells the visually impaired what’s in front of them”
Semantic HTML: The Unbearable Rightness of Being
This is the fourth post in a series on accessibility from Shopify’s UX team. We’re publishing posts every two weeks. Check out the introduction. Using valid, semantic HTML is one of the most impactful ways to make your site more accessible. Writing semantic HTML means using the HTML element with the most specific, correct meaningContinueContinue reading “Semantic HTML: The Unbearable Rightness of Being”
The a11y Monthly: get rid of your tables (or fix them)
While the original intended use of HTML tables was tabular data, tables are also used as aids for page layout. This was especially true some years ago when browsers hardly supported CSS. Tables were necessary to overcome limitations in visual presentation. Today, there is much more flexibility in controlling page layout using CSS. Does itContinueContinue reading “The a11y Monthly: get rid of your tables (or fix them) “
Accessibility features in macOS and iOS that everyone should try
If you’re someone who doesn’t have any specific reasons to go there, you may have never explored the Accessibility settings on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. While it’s true that those settings are there primarily for people who have special physical needs to modify how a device’s interface works, the fact is, many people whoContinueContinue reading “Accessibility features in macOS and iOS that everyone should try”
How Design for Accessibility Drives Innovation for All
Comcast recently made a big splash in the world of assistive technology by launching the industry’s first voice-enabled television user interface, or “talking TV guide,” which gives blind and visually impaired customers the ability to independently explore and navigate thousands of shows and movies. Comcast’s vice president of accessibility Tom Wlodkowski, who is blind, saidContinueContinue reading “How Design for Accessibility Drives Innovation for All”
Learn How to Use ChromeVox Next Screen Reader [Videos]
www.lireo.com – When Chrome 56 was released in January 2017, people were excited with the new features, including: One of the new features I think many people may have overlooked in Chrome 56 was the new ChromeVox… Key Takeaways from the Videos Turn on (and off) ChromeVox Next by holding down the CTRL +ContinueContinue reading “Learn How to Use ChromeVox Next Screen Reader [Videos]”
The 7 Factors that Influence User Experience
User Experience (UX) is critical to the success or failure of a product in the market but what do we mean by UX? All too often UX is confused with usability which describes to some extent how easy a product is to use and it is true that UX as a discipline began with usabilityContinueContinue reading “The 7 Factors that Influence User Experience “
Government accessibility standards and WCAG 2
This posting summarizes some detailed research into the state of government accessibility standards around the world, as of March 2016. Usually these evolve fairly slowly, although the Jodhan vs. Attorney General of Canada case may change that (governments don’t like being successfully sued by their citizens). … This table shows government accessibility standards, and relevantContinueContinue reading “Government accessibility standards and WCAG 2”
If you don’t fight, you lose.
Inspired by Redgum this morning to finally write.
How major technology companies are improving accessibility for people with disabilities
The year 2016 saw an increase in focus on accessibility features to allow people with disabilities to access technology. The Microsoft Event that saw the launch of the Surface Studio on October 26, and the Apple event a day later on October 27 which saw the launch of the new Macbook Pro laptops, both opened with aContinueContinue reading “How major technology companies are improving accessibility for people with disabilities”
Former Microsoft design director on shaping Hololens, Xbox and Cortana with inclusive design thinking
https://youtu.be/h42RThsvXxs Kat Holmes is the former principal director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft. In this episode, we talk about the definition of inclusive design, take an inside look at her “special ops” design unit, and dive into the best method for deploying human-centered design. Curated by (Lifekludger) Read full article at Source: Former Microsoft design directorContinueContinue reading “Former Microsoft design director on shaping Hololens, Xbox and Cortana with inclusive design thinking”
What Non-Disabled People Get Wrong About Accessibility
…there are a LOT of disabled people in the world, with most estimates at somewhere between 15% and 25% of people being disabled in some way. It’s also because of the way that abled (or non-disabled) people Just Don’t Get It in a million tiny huge ways that add up and can make being theirContinueContinue reading “What Non-Disabled People Get Wrong About Accessibility”
New Vision-Impaired User Interface – Virgin Australia
Virgin Australia has become the first airline in the Asia Pacific region, and the second airline in the world, to introduce an in-flight entertainment (IFE) user interface for passengers who are blind or have low vision. … The new interface increases accessibility to IFE content through simplified screen layouts, larger icons and voice prompts.ContinueContinue reading “New Vision-Impaired User Interface – Virgin Australia”
Emma – a prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s disease
‘My God, it’s better’: Emma can write again thanks to a prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s disease The Emma Watch and a special Windows 10 tablet that controls it. Engraved on the watch is a name – “emma” – in breezy lettering that, to Lawton’s eyes, looks eerily similar to her own handwriting.ContinueContinue reading “Emma – a prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s disease”
Airpoly Vision us a Truly Visionary App
‘Aipoly Vision’ is a very useful object-and-colour recogniser app that helps the blind, vision-impaired, and colour blind to understand their surroundings. It does so by using artificial intelligence to recognise objects through a device’s camera and then announces the name of each object to the user. … The Aipoly(link is external) developers are on aContinueContinue reading “Airpoly Vision us a Truly Visionary App”
Former Microsoft design director on Hololens, Xbox and Cortana and inclusive design thinking
Kat Holmes is the former principal director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft. In this episode, we talk about the definition of inclusive design, take an inside look at her “special ops” design unit, and dive into the best method for deploying human-centered design. Source: Former Microsoft design director on shaping Hololens, Xbox and Cortana with inclusiveContinueContinue reading “Former Microsoft design director on Hololens, Xbox and Cortana and inclusive design thinking”
How a Smart Home Empowers People with Disabilities
… While advances in personal technology continue at a rapid pace, at times their designers seem to forget about the population that could perhaps benefit from it the most. Stabelfeldt says just the ability to charge a phone with a wheelchair didn’t even exist until a few years ago. But features like Apple’s “Home” appContinueContinue reading “How a Smart Home Empowers People with Disabilities”
How a Smart Home Empowers People with Disabilities
… While advances in personal technology continue at a rapid pace, at times their designers seem to forget about the population that could perhaps benefit from it the most. Stabelfeldt says just the ability to charge a phone with a wheelchair didn’t even exist until a few years ago. But features like Apple’s “Home” appContinueContinue reading “How a Smart Home Empowers People with Disabilities”
