Blog Post 9 (Summary)
The two RDG accessibility projects that struck me as really powerful were the guide dog advertisement and the masks that help people read lips. The simple illustrations and limited colour palette helps the accessible design for the guide dog advertisement. The masks made with clear plastic help people who are hard of hearing read lips even when someone's wearing a mask. These projects are really inspiring that people decided to fix these problems and make the solutions inclusive and accessible. The pill bottle redesign was absolutely genius. I found the overall layout much more beneficial to the user and simplified for minimal confusion. I like the addition of differentiating by coloured containers the pills for each person in the same household.
A study contracted addressed the problems with designer and client communication about visual accessibility. Accessibility is important because users need to understand the information given to them. This study decided to focus on visual accessibility for print design. Unfortunately, tools for visual accessibility and print design are widely underused industry. Often, clients don't express the need for visual accessibility or they assume designers will automatically incorporate visual accessibility in their designs. The study resulted in finding both graphic designers and clients care about visual accessibility. People considered visual accessibility in half of the projects. The majority of people used personal judgment and relied on design guidelines to judge whether visual accessibility should be considered. A few people relied on either the client or the designer to figure out visual accessibility. Often visual accessibility is not taken into account due to time and cost restraints. Talking about the problems with visual accessibility between graphic designers and clients will improve graphic designs visual accessibility for everyone!
Accessibility works best as a core part of planning in graphic design. To help clients understand the importance of accessible design, explain that almost every person will experience a disability at some point in their lives and accessible design will reach a wider client audience. There are also legal requirements for accessible design. Clients will expand their potential client base and more effectively communicate to their entire audience. A company's efforts to increase accessibility shows their audience the company is socially responsible. If the client's time or budget cannot allow a fully accessible design, propose a realistic option to address the most important and necessary accessibility issues. Let clients know if certain design requests will propose a problem with accessibility. Accessibility can cause constraints to designs but this still creates cool results. Educating your client on the ongoing ability to improve accessibility is crucial to encourage its growth in the design industry.
Take Aways
Assess access
Diversability not disability
Seek to help all people understand
Use accessible design constraints make designs amazing
Design for everyone’s ability
Accessibility is very important to me especially concerning legible typography because I have trouble reading. Simple clear letters make reading a lot easier. Usually, I completely skip over content if the font is too confusing. I don't want to give myself a headache. In the image below are some bad fonts that would not want to read in any practical scenario.
