Accessible design is an essential part of the development of products and services. Designers and engineers need to gain an understanding of core accessible design principles to design effectively on a global scale.

1. Interfaces,
Accessibility
& Superheroes
by Yvonne So & Livia Veneziano
Beloved superhero Daredevil
squelches his enemies with
speed and precision, completely
uninhibited by his blindness.
Overcoming adversity, discovering
superpowers, and saving the world
are common themes in comics
and graphic novels. Our mission
is to bring those themes into the
world of accessible design.
Interfaces, Accessibility & Superheros © Livia Veneziano & Yvonne So, 2012 Page 1

2. Today, the World Heath Organization
and the World Bank report that nearly
1 our of 7 of
the world’s
population has
some form of
disability.
Important variables to consider
are physical, sensorial, cognitive
disabilities and how their abilities
affect daily functions, and the
growing number of people over the
age of 65 losing abilities as they age.
Interfaces, Accessibility & Superheros © Livia Veneziano & Yvonne So, 2012 2012
Interfaces, Accessibility & Superheros © Livia Veneziano & Yvonne So, Page 2
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3. As new technologies rapidly emerge for people
to engage in, creating products and services that
don’t include alternate interaction models is a
failure on a global scale.
It is our duty as designers
and engineers to create,
understand and practice
accessible design
to maintain or improve the quality of life for
disabled individuals.
Interfaces, Accessibility & Superheros © Livia Veneziano & Yvonne So, 2012 Page 3

4. The Growing
Ability Gap
With the bracket of people over 65
increasing, the concern becomes
how to assist persons with limited
abilities in such significant
percentages. Understanding and
creating for the
changing needs Current and projected population growth
of this growing population is an in U.S. of all age groups with highlight to
essential part of maintaining quality population over 65
o
f life for all individuals that are 4
classified as disabled physically,
sensorially and cognitively.
3
0
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5. 12.8%
Total % of people with 38.1%
22.4% Severe
a disability in the U.S.
21.3%
People over 15 years old
with a disability.
11.9%
6.2% Severe
51.8%
People over 65 years old
with a disability
Walking/Mobility Seeing/hearingM
15+ years old 15+ years old
6.4%
65+ years old 65+ years old
1.3% Severe
ental/Cognitive All Catagories
15+ years old Children 6-14
18.6%
11.4%
4.2% Severe
7% 5.4% Severe
65+ years old Severe disability
4.2% Severe
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6. What’s next?
What is the future of
accessible design in
digital components
of services?
Interfaces, Accessibility Superheros © Livia Veneziano Yvonne So, 2012 Page 6

7. Hi!
Yvonne is a user experience designer Livia is a visual designer with a penchant
Yvonne So and
with superpowers in providing innovative, for pixel perfection. She is passionate about
user-centric interaction design solutions maintaining the core values of universal
Livia Veneziano
for web and mobile platforms. She is design and accessibility and creating
passionate about maximizing accessibility scalable systems for cross-platform
and usability on all projects with a cross- projects. With a background in publishing
are designers at Fjord, a global
functional understanding of information and advertising, she brings a unique
service design consultancy. architecture, user engagement and content approach to designing for digital. Livia
Bringing a fresh and unique strategy. At Fjord, Yvonne is a problem has worked with clients including PayPal,
perspective on cross-platform solver and service design consultant Apollo Group and Google for projects
that has worked with numerous high- in the banking, mobile payments and
design, their goal is to spread
profile clients in industries such as music, education industries. Livia received her BFA
awareness about the importance social media, finance, banking and mobile in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island
and potential reach of accessibility payments. She has a BS in Advertising School of Design (RISD).
from the University of Texas at Austin.
in UX design for today’s fast-paced
and digital-dependent world.
Interfaces, Accessibility Superheros © Livia Veneziano Yvonne So, 2012 Page 7

8. Thanks!
Interfaces, Accessibility Superheros © Livia Veneziano Yvonne So, 2012 Page 8