And what are some good examples of accessible products?
>> So one example I like to share are Google Docs and Drive.
I feel like they've come a long way over the past year and a half.
>> Yeah. And
what sorts do you feel like they've done really, really well?
>> Well, as you can see here on the Google Docs app,
there's a lot of good things that they have considered.
One is good contrast between the text and the background colors.
They allow, they support large fonts really well.
So that when you do enlarge the fonts on here that essential items or
elements aren't getting cut off, either able to zoom in where you need to.
And they also have really have good screen readers support.
Screen readers are interesting assisted technologies to design for.
There's a lot to consider, because they not only read the content,
like the words that are on the screen, but they also, read and
announce the different elements that are on the screen such as buttons and
links and menus.
And some of the aspects of a good experience with a screen reader and
things you need to take into consideration are one,
ensuring that the way the user goes through the page and
the screen that the elements are in a logical order.
So it kind of goes left to right, top down,
if that's how the elements are laid out on the screen.
And but another key thing that is really important is what we call the labels.
Or how things are labeled on the screen.
So again, getting back to the notion that the buttons and
links and elements like that are read to the user.
You want to ensure that those have clear and concise labels.
And they're very contextual.
I think a good example here is, let's say you have a screen that has,
let's say, emails, or search results on there.
And you have pagination controls, like a next and previous button below.
Instead of having the screen reader just read out next or previous, having a bit
more context, like next 50 emails, or next 50 results, is really really
beneficial and a very small change from the designer's point of view.
>> Right. I mean,
I could imagine like maybe seeing a buy button, but it's like well, buy what?
>> Right. One thing that's really
important to understand is the way screen readers work.
They go through the page very linearly.
And so, by the time they traverse through the site and
reach the buttons that are usually at the bottom of the page,
they might have lost some context of where they were.
>> Yeah. So how can I work with a screen reader?
Like, where would I go to use that, or use it with a product?
>> The great thing about screen readers especially on mobile is that they
are already built in.
So if you have an Android or Apple phone, you can easily go to
the settings and within there, there are accessibilities settings.
And you can turn on Talk Back for Android and in Apple, it's Voice Over.
And what I tell everybody is, turn that on and try to use your phone for a day.
And get that experience doing your daily tasks,
but only using a screen reader and the key there is to not look at your screen.
So closing your eyes or dimming your screen for a day and
just see if you can achieve your everyday tasks.
>> Wow. That sounds pretty tough.
What sort of other concerns are there for maybe mobile accessibility?
>> I think one of the unique things about mobile is, it's a touch screen.
So one key thing to keep in mind are the touch target sizes and
ensuring that they're large enough.
And this isn't just for people with disabilities.
We all have different shaped hands and levels of dexterity.
And so considering that, and that ensuring that you don't need
a small pen tip to actually focus in on a button or
something like that is extremely important and valuable.
>> And what other considerations are there for accessibility?
>> Well, there's definitely a lot more, but I think one other
important one that we touched on a little bit before is color contrast.
And I think, it's It is a good one to focus on,
because you can focus on it early just in the design and mock stage.
And it's an easy thing to consider.
And so there is a specific Color Contrast Ratio that you need to meet
in order to achieve these standards.
The great thing about this is, there's a ton of online Color Contrast Checkers
that you can simply plug in your hex codes of your text color, and
your background color, and see if you meet these, these standards.
So it's really easy, and again, just something you can take care of and
think about really early on in the design process.
>> Yeah.