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Alistair Duggin
Head of Accessibility
Government Digital Service
@dugboticus

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Hello!

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GDS

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The community

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1. What is accessibility?
2. How do you know what to consider?
3. 4 steps strategy for accessible design
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What is
accessibility?

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Putting something online makes it more
accessible
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But doesn’t automatically mean that
everyone can access and use it
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Easy to accidentally introduce barriers that
make it impossible or difficult for some
people to use

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GDSAlistair Duggin GDS

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Far too often we design for the fictional
average user
Good vision
Full hearing
Uses a mouse or touch screen
Good literacy skills
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Accessibility is
about designing for
the full range of
human capability
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Vision
2 million people in the UK have significant
sight loss
360,000 people are blind or partially
sighted
8% of men are colorblind
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I have low vision and
need to increase the
text size in my browser

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I need to change the
appearance using my
browser

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I have low vision and
need to use a screen
magnifier to make
things bigger and
cannot read text that
has poor contrast

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I am blind and use a
screen reader

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I am colour blind and
cannot perceive the
difference between
some colours

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Hearing
12 million people in the UK with some kind
of hearing loss
900,000 people are severely or profoundly
deaf
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I am hard of hearing
and struggle to hear
most things

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I am Deaf; British Sign
Language is my first
language and I find
English hard to read
and write

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Motor control
10 million people in the UK have arthritis
145,000 have Parkinson’s
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I have a mild motor
impairment so struggle
to use a mouse with fine
control

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I have a medium motor
impairment so have to
use a keyboard instead
of a mouse

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I have a motor
impairment and am
unable to use a mouse
or keyboard so use
speech recognition
software

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Cognition / thinking
6.4 million in the UK have dyslexia
1.5 million people have a learning
disability
850,000 have dementia
700,000 are on the autistic spectrum
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I have dyslexia and struggle to
process written text and spell

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I am on the autistic spectrum and
struggle to process information

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I have attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) and find it hard to
concentrate

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4 principles of accessibility
● Perceivable
● Operable
● Understandable
● Robust

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Digital products that can be used:
● without vision
● with limited vision
● without perception of colour
● without hearing
● with limited hearing
● with limited dexterity
● with limited cognition
● without speech

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How do you know what to
consider?

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GDSAlistair Duggin

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A 4-part strategy
for accessible
design

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How do we design something that meets
the needs of the broadest possible
audience?
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Every design decision has the potential to
include or exclude people
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1#
Design for most users
without modifications

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Follow best practice that results in inclusion
and usability:
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Design an interface that is simple, and
intuitive and consistent
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Write content that uses plain language and
is clear and easy to understand
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Break up content
with lists and
descriptive headings

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Write descriptive links, buttons
and form labels
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Make content legible with good colour
contrast
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Provide large hit areas for buttons and
controls
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Allow users enough time
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Provide error messages that help people
correct the errors
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#2
Design for easy
adaptation to different
users

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Recognise that many people with have to
adapt the experience
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Allow people to extend time limits
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Allow people to turn video captions on/off
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Allow people to stop/pause animations and
audio
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3#
Complementary design
providing alternatives to meet
the different needs of users

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Identify where solutions exclude people and
an alternative is also required
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“I always find that very very very annoying
with all online forms. They never give me
the opportunity to say text only. So how do
I let people know that I don’t want you to
phone me?”
- User feedback
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4#
Design with a view to
connect seamlessly to
assistive technology

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Ensure it works in the broadest range of
technology possible
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Frontend developers need to write
accessible HTML, CSS and Javascript
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Ensure all
content and
functionality is
available to a
keyboard
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This is for everyone...

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Our goal should be to make our digital
products accessible to the widest possible
audience
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1. Ease to use
2. Adaptable
3. Complementary alternatives
4. Compatible with a broad range of tech
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Designing for diversity helps us create
better products
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And helps us avoid excluding people
accidentally
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“For people without disability, technology
makes things easier
For people with disabilities, technology
makes things possible”
- IBM Training Manual, 1991
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It’s our responsibility to ensure people don’t
face barriers
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The prevalence of disability rises with age:
6% of children
16% of working age adults
45% of adults over State Pension age
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By designing with accessibility in mind
we’re designing for our friends and family
and future selves.
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Let’s make the best, most inclusive
products we can
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Thanks!
Alistair Duggin
@dugboticus