Why ADA Compliance is important!
Apr 27, 2023ADA compliance is important for several reasons. First and foremost, it promotes equality and inclusivity for individuals with disabilities. It ensures that they have the same access to information, products, and services as individuals without disabilities. This is not only a moral imperative, but it is also required by law under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Additionally, ADA compliance can benefit businesses and organizations in several ways. By ensuring that their websites are accessible, they can reach a wider audience, including individuals with disabilities who may not have been able to access their website previously. This can lead to increased revenue, as well as improved brand reputation and customer loyalty.
Moreover, ADA compliance can help to mitigate the risk of legal action, including fines and lawsuits, that can result from failing to comply with ADA requirements. ADA compliance can also help to protect businesses and organizations from negative publicity and damage to their reputation that can result from legal action or negative feedback from customers and users.
Overall, ADA compliance is important for promoting equality and inclusivity, reaching a wider audience, protecting against legal action, and improving brand reputation and customer loyalty. It is a crucial aspect of creating a more accessible and inclusive online environment for everyone.
How does ADA Compliance help others?
Apr 27, 2023ADA compliance helps others in several ways. By ensuring that websites are accessible to users with disabilities, it allows individuals with disabilities to access the same information, products, and services as individuals without disabilities. This promotes equality and inclusivity, and helps to eliminate barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from fully participating in society.
For example, website accessibility allows users with visual impairments to access the content of a website using assistive technologies such as screen readers or braille displays. It allows users who are deaf or hard of hearing to access audio and video content through closed captions or transcripts. It allows users with physical disabilities to navigate a website using a keyboard or alternative input device.
Additionally, ADA compliance can improve the user experience for all users, not just those with disabilities. For example, using descriptive link text and providing closed captions for videos can make a website easier to use and understand for all users, regardless of their abilities.
Overall, ADA compliance helps to create a more inclusive and accessible online environment, promoting equal opportunities and making the internet a more welcoming place for everyone.
What are the legal reasons for ADA Compliance?
Apr 27, 2023The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including websites. There are several legal requirements that businesses and organizations must meet to ensure that their websites are ADA compliant. Here are some of the key requirements:
Website Content Accessibility
The ADA requires that all website content, including text, images, videos, and audio, must be accessible to users with disabilities. This means that all content must be compatible with screen readers, braille displays, and other assistive technologies used by individuals with disabilities. Additionally, all interactive elements, such as links and forms, must be accessible to users who rely on a keyboard or other alternative input device.
Alternative Text for Images
All images on a website must include alternative text (alt text) that describes the image for users who are visually impaired. The alt text should be descriptive and accurately convey the content of the image.
Captions for Video and Audio Content
Video and audio content on a website must include closed captions or transcripts for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. This allows users to access the audio content through visual means.
Accessibility of PDFs and Other Documents
PDFs and other documents posted on a website must be accessible to users with disabilities. This means that the documents must be compatible with assistive technologies, and all text must be selectable and resizable.
Website Navigation
Website navigation must be designed to be accessible to users with disabilities. This includes ensuring that all links and interactive elements can be accessed and activated using a keyboard, and that the order in which elements are accessed follows a logical flow.
Compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of international standards for web accessibility. The ADA requires that websites comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards to ensure that they are accessible to users with disabilities.
Failure to comply with ADA requirements can result in legal action, including fines and lawsuits. It’s important for businesses and organizations to take ADA compliance seriously and take steps to ensure that their websites are accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities.
5 tips for making your website more accessible!
Apr 27, 2023The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including websites. As more and more business is conducted online, it’s important to ensure that your website is ADA compliant. Here are five tips to help you achieve ADA compliance:
- Use Alt Text for Images
Alt text, or alternative text, is a description of an image that is read aloud by a screen reader for users who are visually impaired. When adding images to your website, be sure to include alt text that accurately describes the image. Avoid using generic terms like “image” or “picture.” Instead, describe the content of the image in detail. This will make your website more accessible to all users.
- Make Your Website Keyboard Accessible
Many users with disabilities rely on a keyboard to navigate websites. It’s important to ensure that your website can be accessed and used using only a keyboard. This means that all links and interactive elements should be able to be accessed and activated using the “Tab” key. Additionally, make sure that the order in which elements are accessed by the keyboard makes sense and follows a logical flow.
- Provide Closed Captioning for Videos
Videos that contain audio should include closed captioning to make them accessible to users who are deaf or hard of hearing. Closed captioning provides a text transcription of the audio content of the video. There are several tools available that can automatically generate closed captions for videos. If you create your own captions, be sure to review them carefully for accuracy.
- Ensure Color Contrast
Color contrast is an important factor in making your website accessible to users with visual impairments. Use colors with sufficient contrast to ensure that text is easy to read. A common rule of thumb is to use a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between text and its background. There are several online tools available that can help you determine if your website meets color contrast standards.
- Provide Descriptive Link Text
When creating links on your website, use descriptive link text that accurately describes the content of the linked page. Avoid using generic terms like “click here” or “read more.” Instead, use specific and descriptive text that tells users what they can expect to find on the linked page. This will not only improve accessibility but also improve the overall user experience.
In conclusion, achieving ADA compliance is an important step in making your website accessible to all users. By following these five tips, you can ensure that your website meets the necessary standards for accessibility and is welcoming to all users, regardless of their abilities.
Separate from your time at work, what have you recently been spending your time nerding out about? I.e., what has been captivating your time and attention lately? Why do you love it?
Apr 18, 2023Separate from your time at work, what have you recently been spending your time nerding out about? I.e., what has been captivating your time and attention lately?
Music and exploring different instruments has really captivated me. I’ve recently purchased a mandolin and ukulele to expand my musical thinking. There is always so much to learn!
Why do you love it?
I think it comes down to the ability to combine my love of technology with math, science and art. I’ve also been able to share time with my daughters and have fun teaching them the art of making music. It’s great quality time that we can share together!
Which design system thinkers do you believe are doing especially good work and why?
Apr 18, 2023Which design system thinkers do you believe are doing especially good work and why?
I’ve always loved Bootstrap for how simple it is. In fact, these pages are built using Bootstrap 4. The 12 column grid layout and different responsive sizes make for quick and clean layouts. I also really like Atlassian’s Design system. I think it offers a wide breadth of components, animations and features.
What does your ideal product design process look like? What are your absolute requirements? What are your nice to haves?
Apr 18, 2023What does your ideal product design process look like?
My ideal process is broken into a few parts.
- Research: What would make a good product. Who are your users, what are your goals?
- Development: Now that you know your options, userbase, etc, it’s time to brainstorm. Iterative design processes help as does listing ideas out, chatting with others. This may be a sketch, a prototype, or a mock product.
- Refine: The refinement stage is time to try variations, try new combinations and to really hone in on solving your problem. You may involve user testing or generative design.
- Production: This stage is all about getting things finished and polishing the final product. This may include working with partners and vendors, a special release, making sure the details are getting finished properly, etc.
- Testing: Now it’s time to makes sure your product lives up to it’s name. Are the standards met? Does the product hold up to testing, scaling, reproduction? Will your users use the product?
- Release: You have to give people the key to the bus! You have to let your users know your product is coming, a date, marketing, materials, documentation. Without the key to the bus the dang thing won’t even run!
- Follow up: Once your release is finished it’s time for a retrospective. What went well? What did users really like? Do they need support? Are there bugs? Follow through is very important for maintaining a happy customer base!
What are your absolute requirements?
I think every great product starts with the why. There has to be a need, want, utility or reason. Second, a great product has a great strategy behind it. By breaking the product design life cycle into steps it allows for certain areas to have focus.
What are your nice to haves?
My nice to haves are weighted based on their importance. Time management becomes extremely important. Rating the importance of features can help you determine how to manage your time. I generally favor function over form. It has to work well and complete the task first and then look great!
Tell us about a design system you’ve built. How did your design process inform its development? What do you feel it did well, and what could it have done better? How did it change your thinking for the next one you build?
Apr 18, 2023Tell us about a design system you’ve built. How did your design process inform its development?
Most recently I built a Work From Home app for my current company. The app was designed to synch to the employee’s Outlook calendar. It used a service integration alongside a client side UI built within Sharepoint. It also used a custom branding css file that can be included in all of our projects. The app was designed so that multiple dates could be entered at one time. The dates would then get sent to the employee’s manager and once approved would show on their outlook calendar for the entire company to see. Being a hybrid work from home environment, those dates could change each week, but their could only be two in one week. Requirements were important and so were allowing exclusions.
The design process was done through prototyping an overall layout and then individually working through each tab. Each week the prototype was shown to the executives and the features were thought over and reviewed. It led to important discoveries and new rules/requirements.
What do you feel it did well, and what could it have done better?
The app worked really well with sending dates to outlook and to allow employees and managers to see their schedule as “Working elsewhere”. The app was easy to update and worked off a json REST model in order to deal with requests. If anything could have been done better it would be making sure the employee records were up to date in AD. But the app solved one more issue! Many managers were not correct in AD and the entire process allowed employee’s to discover this.
How did it change your thinking for the next one you build?
The next iteration included features such as manager comments, better exclusion handling, better email notifications, and a faster overview calendar within the app. It made me realize how important design really was. Some features were very intuitive and easy to use while others could have been improved and made easier for users. Overall it highlighted the need for a great user experience that was simple and intuitive!
What’s a product whose design inspired you so much you had to talk to somebody else? What was so great about it?
Apr 17, 2023What’s a product whose design inspired you so much you had to talk to somebody else?
As a programmer I would definitely say ChatGPT. I mentioned it to my co-workers because I could see the potential immediately. As we dug in more we discovered GitHub Co-pilot. Wow! What a great product with so many use-cases. It certainly changed the world.
What was so great about it?
It was helping me in so many ways! As a technologist and musician, there were many things it did well for me!
- Code linting
- Code generation
- Writing help (Chat GPT was not used in my process writing these answers, though I was tempted to use it!)
- Knowledge summaries
- Music progression generator
- Lyric writing tool
It was obvious what a great tool chatGPT would be in my life. While it may not have all the answers and can sometimes be wrong, it is great for the things I listed above and has been a great help to me in my career and life.
What’s a product whose design drove you a bit crazy? What was wrong with it? How would you fix it?
Apr 17, 2023What’s a product whose design drove you a bit crazy?
I can think of few but one service in particular comes to mind. Facebook Live. Facebook Live is a great tool and I am not here to down it but it has one feature that has caused some confusion for us Apple users. Streaming in landscape mode while using my iPhone wasn’t working properly.
What was wrong with it?
Although Facebook Live showed the correct orientation it streamed the wrong orientation and the video was sideways. I tried removing the screen lock prior to going live and still no change. It turns out the fix was much simpler than I thought! In order to do landscape mode on an iPhone, you must change one setting that is not at all obvious. That setting is Display View Zoom. Setting the value to “Standard” under the display and brightness setting was not at all obvious. It drove me crazy that it was something so simple but yet seemingly unrelated!
What would I change?
I think there are a few options here depending on the programming.
- A true fix will take some extra QA, regression testing and specific device tests.
- Warn the user when this setting is enabled. (If possible)
- Let Facebook know of the issue and your frustration with it. Submit a bug fix and alert the team! They may not be aware of the issue.