At Unc Inc, we see accessibility as part of a broader topic that has been widely discussed: inclusivity. It’s why we don’t limit ourselves to design our products to be usable and accessible for people with functional disabilities. We also include the elderly, people with socio-economic limitations, even people with a poor internet connection (e.g., our work on the international knowledge centers for information resources on leprosy and neglected tropical diseases). In fact, we even created a mobile app that helps you experience a disability yourself. In this case for educational purposes by enabling nurses in retirement homes to ‘experience’ dementia.
To make sure we tick every box, we’ve been using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) to inform our designs. At times this can be discouraging as these guidelines can feel like limits to your creativity. We however, would much rather see them as a challenge as we feel accessibility should not be a barrier to great design or innovation. So instead of limiting ourselves we try to go beyond the guidelines by adding aesthetic touches to not only make it accessible but also beautiful.
By means of inspiration, please check out some examples below of how we approach this challenge.