The Importance of Inclusion - 3 Takeaways From axe-con 2022
Last week we had the opportunity to attend axe-con 2022, an inclusive accessibility conference for people from all areas of digital development—professionals and beginners alike. The conference featured many exciting and knowledgeable guest speakers from around the globe, from designers and programmers to product managers and accessibility specialists.
With keynote speakers such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the World Wide Web), Preety Kumar (the CEO and founder of Deque Systems, which hosts axe-con), Jenny Lay-Flurrie (the Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft), and many, many other professionals, the combined experience and expertise at axe-con would be enough to fix the most extreme UX problems.
axe-con 2022 highlighted the answer to the question: Why is accessibility in design so important? There are endless reasons why, but we have compiled a list of three major reasons for your convenience.
1. Accessible design expands your customer reach
By designing with accessibility in mind, you can access a larger user base and reach more customers. For instance, as of 2022, there are no treadmills on the market that include a screen reader. According to a 2018 National Health Interview Survey, 13% of adult Americans reported that they have trouble seeing, even with vision correction. That’s nearly 32.2 million people who either can’t access or have a diminished ability to experience treadmills.
To help close this gap, Peloton, a rather famous exercise equipment company, decided to make significant changes to its products and services. One of the events presented at axe-con 2022 was called “Peloton: Setting Accessibility in Motion.” The main speakers at this event were Oliver Warfield and Be Birchall, who work at Peloton, and Glenda Sims, the A11y Lead at Deque.
The talk “Making the Peloton Bike Accessible for Blind and Low-Vision Members” highlighted the journey developers at Peloton went on to bring more accessibility to the Peloton bike and tread. The main focus was on implementing screen reader functionality. However, the speakers also emphasized some of the other accessible attributes that are included in Peloton products, such as features that help amputees experience the same features as others.
To begin bringing accessibility to the bike and tread, Birchall and Warfield started by gathering community insight. They had heard from blind or low-vision members that while they loved their bikes, they found navigating the touchscreen nearly impossible without assistance from sighted people.
Peloton, which preaches “empowering people to be the best version of themselves,” wanted all members to be able to meet their personal goals independently. Developers worked with the American Council for the Blind and eventually were able to implement TalkBack, which allows users to hear their athletic statistics, instructions, and UI components in addition to seeing them on the screen.
Not only did Peloton demonstrate a devotion to their own community but they also increased their potential user base by a significant amount.
2. Accessible design fosters a sense of community
You just read a wonderful example of the power of accessible design in the Peloton community, but what about communities of people who, like many, aren’t huge fans of fitness?
axe-con featured a charming and charismatic speaker in an event titled “Sea Of Thieves: From Landlubber To Pirate Legend.” The speaker, who goes by his gamer tag SightlessKombat, describes himself as a “gamer without sight.” He is completely blind and always has been.
SightlessKombat is an accessibility consultant and an avid gamer. In his talk, he detailed in-depth the mechanics of Sea of Thieves, a first-person adventure game in which the player navigates island to island via boat, either by themselves or with a crew. Through haptic feedback and audio cues, SightlessKombat and other blind or low-vision players are able to participate in a surprising number of features in the game unassisted. Although this accessibility seems to have begun as a coincidence, developers have pivoted since release to include a number of inclusive updates.
While highlighting each game mechanic, SightlessKombat told the story of a growing community within Sea of Thieves. What began as incredulous players accusing SightlessKombat of trolling (while insisting that a sightless person would not be able to participate in the game) evolved into a thriving community of gamers inclusive of those with various impairments—all able to connect and relate to one another through gaming and various Discord servers. All of this community engagement was only possible because the developers listened to people like SightlessKombat and implemented important features for accessibility, like adding more haptic feedback and audio cues and improving those that already existed in the game.
This talk then opened up an interesting discussion - what about VR? VR refers to virtual reality, which has become much more financially accessible over the last few years. What about other types of accessibility? Using VR in any form, but especially VR headsets like the Oculus, is a very visually-oriented experience, with immersive graphics that typically fill a user’s field of vision. SightlessKombat discussed his disappointment with current VR options for visual impairments. He said that he has only played one fully accessible game, which had been part of a research project. The VR space could certainly use more attention in terms of accessibility, especially when there’s such an opportunity for a thriving community in applications such as VRChat.
3. Accessible design improves the user experience for everyone
One final important takeaway from axe-con this year was that while accessible design allows more people to experience your digital products, it also improves the experience for everyone. We’ve seen this concept in the other takeaway points. Peloton creating options for bike riders to adjust their bikes hands-free benefits not only amputees but also anyone who prefers to bike without their hands on the handles. Including haptic feedback and audio cues in Sea of Thieves makes the game more immersive for all players.
Another solid example of this concept was demonstrated in “Accessible by Design – The NAB Mobile Banking App,” a talk featuring Alison Ennis, a Senior Digital Accessibility Specialist at National Australia Bank.
Ennis extensively discussed her team’s process to create an accessible, well-designed app for National Australia Bank. They began by establishing the goalposts for accessible design. They wanted the app to be accessible to use for those with limited or no vision, color perception deficiencies, limited or no hearing, dexterity and mobility impairments, cognitive disabilities, different age groups - young and old, “digital power users” or casual users, and “everyone who enjoys a quality experience!”
As you can see, many of these points cover a wider range of people than one might think—designing for “dexterity and mobility impairments” would also heavily benefit someone who may have a temporary impairment, such as a broken arm. Designing the app to be usable for someone who may have limited or no hearing is also extremely helpful for a hearing user who perhaps has broken speakers, or is in a public location and isn’t able to listen to audio cues.
This presentation was targeted towards designers, with the clear intention of encouraging those who have a hand in digital product design to consider different strategies and techniques to be more inclusive in their work. However, anyone from CEOs to users can take valuable lessons from this talk.
How you can learn more
Those were only three of the many, many reasons why accessibility is so important. axe-con 2022 demonstrates plenty more reasons and examples in some of the other talks they hosted, which you can watch here for free for the next six months. If you’d like to look outside of axe-con, here are a few other resources where you can learn more:
