What is Visual Accessibility?
"Visual disabilities range from mild or moderate vision loss in one or both eyes (“low vision”) to substantial and uncorrectable vision loss in both eyes (“blindness”). Some people have reduced or lack of sensitivity to certain colors (“color blindness”), or increased sensitivity to bright colors. These variations in perception of colors and brightness can be independent of the visual acuity."
From W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, "Diverse Abilities and Barriers."
Designing for users with low vision
Do
- use good contrasts and a readable font size
- publish all information on web pages (HTML)
- use a combination of colour, shapes and text
- follow a linear, logical layout -and ensure text flows and is visible when text is magnified to 200%
- put buttons and notifications in context
Don't
- use low colour contrasts and small font size
- bury information in downloads
- only use colour to convey meaning
- spread content all over a page -and force user to scroll horizontally when text is magnified to 200%
- separate actions from their context
This poster is made available by UK Home Office via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence.
Visual Accessibility Resources
- American Foundation for the Blind Accessibility Resources"The Internet is tremendously important in our daily lives, including the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired. Not every website, however, is optimally designed for use by people with visual impairments. When a website is built without regard to proper web design, they become inaccessible by people with vision loss who use access technology."
- “There is Nothing Inherently Mysterious about Assistive Technology”: A Qualitative Study about Blind User Experiences in US Academic Librariesby Adina Mulliken, from Reference and User Services Association
