With the rise of digital devices, accessibility is the bare minimum expectation from products today. As inclusivity becomes more and more the norm, born accessible design is on the rise.

Companies that prioritize inclusivity earn an enhanced brand reputation for being more socially responsible. The innovations made in the process have long-term benefits not only for the business but for humanity overall.

New research launched by the Centre for Inclusive Design in partnership with Adobe and Microsoft has revealed that products and services designed with accessibility compliance in mind can reach 4 times the number of intended consumers and impact the bottom line of organizations.

In light of the evolving scenario, born accessible design is now one of the primary goals in product design.

Table of Contents:

The Gap in Digital Content Accessibility: Why it Matters?

Recent statistics highlight the critical need for accessible digital content. According to the World Health Organization, over 1.3 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability, representing nearly 16% (1 in 6 individuals) of the world’s population.

Given the current state of affairs, ensuring that digital platforms are inclusive has become paramount. The web accessibility standards, such as the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), aim to provide a universal standard for digital accessibility solutions.

A recent report by WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) revealed that 97.4% of the top 1 million home pages had detectable WCAG compliance failures. This highlights a significant gap in digital content accessibility, which exists for several reasons:

  • Lack of Awareness: Many educational institutions and website developers are not fully aware of the importance of accessibility or how to make their content accessible. This leads to the creation of digital content that is not optimized for users with disabilities.
  • Technical Challenges: Making digital content accessible often requires specific technical knowledge and tools. Many content creators may not have the resources or expertise to implement accessibility features effectively.
  • Cost Considerations: Some organizations may perceive accessibility efforts as costly, especially if they are retrofitting existing content or websites. This can lead to reluctance to invest in accessibility improvements.
  • Legal Compliance: While many countries have laws and regulations that require digital content to be accessible, enforcement and compliance are not always stringent. This can result in a lack of incentive for organizations to prioritize accessibility.
  • Changing Technology: As technology evolves, new challenges and complexities arise in making digital content accessible. Keeping up with these changes can be challenging for organizations.

Closing the gap in digital content accessibility requires a combined effort from EdTech companies, developers, policymakers, and technology providers. This emphasizes the need for effective accessibility evaluation and implementation strategies.

Understanding Born Accessible Design

Born accessible refers to a design approach where accessibility is not retroactively fitted. Instead, the primary goal from the start is to make it easy to use for everyone, including those with disabilities. This saves a lot of time and effort later on.

Born accessible design is thus legally compliant with accessibility laws and regulations from the get-go. Its universal usability enhances the user experience and promotes equality.

Furthermore, accessibility allows for a larger market reach and, at the same time, usually results in more search engine-friendly content.

Characteristics of Born Accessible Content Creation Tools

born accessible content creation tools are pivotal in ensuring digital content is inclusive and accessible to individuals with disabilities. These tools adhere to stringent international standards, including:

1. W3C WCAG 2.2

Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, these guidelines set the benchmark for web content accessibility, ensuring content is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for all users.

2. Specification 1.1 for EPUB Accessibility

This specification ensures that EPUB reading material meets accessibility standards, making it navigable and comprehensible for individuals with disabilities.

3. Title Accessibility Metadata (EPUB and ONIX)

Metadata standards play a crucial role in promoting the discoverability of accessible publications, facilitating easier access for users with disabilities.

Moreover, these tools align with industry best practices, serving as benchmarks for reviewing complex elements such as mathematical equations and extended images. By facilitating the creation of accessible content from the outset, these tools address the needs of readers who may otherwise be excluded from traditional eBook experiences.

Furthermore, by incorporating accessibility features during the content creation process, publishers can mitigate the need for individual remediation efforts, leading to significant cost savings in production. Overall, accessible content creation tools not only enhance inclusivity but also promote efficiency and cost-effectiveness within the publishing industry.

How to Achieve Born Accessible Design?

Once you understand the need and potential for built-in accessibility in your product, the next question is usually, “How do we achieve it?”

International bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the United Nations (UN) have put guidelines in place to ensure inclusivity. Design principles based on these guidelines will show you ways to access content creation and product design.

1. International Standards for Accessibility and Compliance

The W3C has designed WCAG 2.0 as an international standard for recommendations for making born accessible websites accessible. It is an ISO/IEC 40500-compliant standard, making it a truly international standard.

It operates under 4 principles:

  1. Perceivable
  2. Operable
  3. Understandable
  4. Robust

Each criterion has testable success rates at three levels: A, AA, and AAA. Depending on the level of compliance of your website, a rating is granted.

The 2 main articles in CRPD that guide digital accessibility are Articles 9 and 21. These principles align with the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which promises everyone the right to life, liberty, and security.

  1. Article 9: The article specifies that states need to take all possible measures to ensure people with disabilities have access to all possible services and facilities. This includes the physical environment, transportation, information and communications, and other facilities and services.
  2. Article 21: This article mainly pivots around the right to peaceful assembly. It also extends to the right of individuals with disabilities to express themselves collectively, which brings it to the digital accessibility realm.

2. Standards and Guidelines for born accessible Design

There are many ways to create a product that is born accessible. The best way to ensure this is to keep the following standards and guidelines in mind:

The key to user-centered design is “empathy.” As a result, when you create a product based on these principles, it is born accessible.

The idea is to create a workflow that is intuitive in its approach, as opposed to being focused on the task to be achieved. It considers all aspects, such as age, gender, ability, etc. As a result, user-centric design guidelines are always in tune with accessibility compliance.

Universal design principles, as the name suggests, are marketed towards people of diverse abilities. It uses easy-to-understand designs with a high tolerance for error while minimizing physical effort.

Products designed with these principles in mind communicate necessary information effectively while allowing for size and space for use. It is flexible, offering a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.

Inclusive design guidelines draw on the full range of human diversity, with user involvement right from the beginning to test out if the system being designed is truly accessible.

Usually, the product team gets together to stress-test concepts right from the beginning, making this a naturally accessible design method. Sometimes, the problem you solve in the process can have a long-term impact on people with disabilities.

3. Achieving Inclusivity with Digital Accessibility Best Practices

The following rules must be kept in mind when designing a truly accessible system:

  1. Adequate contrast between text and background colors improves readability. This makes content more accessible to users who have visual impairments.
  2. Relying solely on color excludes the color-blind population from being able to use a product. Other markers that make it accessible are a must.
  3. Marked buttons, links, and other interactive elements make navigation easier for everyone. It is especially helpful for those with cognitive disabilities.
  4. Consistent placement of navigation elements that are in line with common practices helps users with memory-related disabilities.
  5. Providing alternative text for images is a must to make a product accessible to visually impaired users who use screen readers.
  6. Similarly, for those with hearing impairments, audio and video content must be made accessible through captions and transcripts.
  7. Ensuring that all functionality is available on a keyboard makes content accessible to users who cannot use a mouse.
  8. Forms must be clearly labeled for users with cognitive disabilities and those using screen readers.
  9. Flashes more than three times per second risk inducing seizures in users with photosensitive epilepsy. Avoid using such effects, or at least put a flash warning before them to ensure they can turn away.
  10. Fonts must be easy to read to help users with visual impairments and dyslexia.
  11. Texts should be scalable to ensure users with low vision can also read them.
  12. Tables need to have proper headers and captions to assist users with cognitive disabilities and those using screen readers.
  13. Visible keyboard focus indicators help users who rely on keyboards for navigation.
  14. Skip links are great for improving the experience for those using screen readers and keyboards.
  15. ARIA Landmarks, which are attributes added to HTML elements to create semantically defined sections of a webpage, help screen reader users understand the layout of a page and navigate it more easily.
  16. Increased error tolerance must be kept in mind when designing the layout and navigation of a page to minimize unintended actions.

Three Challenges in Born Accessibility Implementation

Implementing born accessible strategies may seem simple on paper, but in reality, it can be different. Some obstacles can make adoption difficult.

Here, we have listed some of the common challenges businesses face:

1. Lack of Collective Awareness

One of the major challenges in born accessible adoption is the lack of collective and comprehensive awareness.

Many publishers remain unfamiliar with the intricacies of born accessible principles, lacking a comprehensive understanding of this approach’s best practices, guidelines, and standards. This limited awareness ultimately impedes the seamless creation and adoption of accessible e-books.

2. Technical Complication

Creating accessible books requires proper coding. In addition, the content needs to adapt to advanced assistive technology devices so users can easily comprehend it. Also, the accessibility standards are updated periodically. Such technical complexities can make them difficult to implement born accessible.

3. Converting Printed Content to Digital

Publishers worldwide often contend with substantial backlogs of content, spanning both the print and digital realms, and lacking adherence to accessibility standards. The endeavor to convert this legacy content into an accessible format is time-consuming and demands a significant allocation of resources.

7 Effective Strategies to Overcome Challenges in Born Accessible Implementation

While you may encounter roadblocks in implementing born accessible across the organization, there are some practical ways to clear these obstacles.
Here are some basic yet effective ways to overcome the challenges:

1. Identify Barriers to User-Centric Accessibility

For implementing born accessible practices, you need to identify various barriers.
For example, apart from print disabilities, people with visual impairments and cognitive disabilities have difficulties in perceiving or understanding printed text. It’s important to identify these disabilities to implement accessibility standards smoothly.

Let’s understand this with an example: Most academic books have color-coded graphs. This information can be inaccessible to people with low vision or color blindness. Born accessibility focuses on using alt text so the screen reader can scan and comprehend it.

2. Make Digital Content Adaptable to Different Devices

As assistive technology advances, new devices and platforms have emerged. Each of these devices has unique characteristics and features. Implementing born accessible adoption ensures the content is displayed and accessed properly across different devices.

For example, your book should be accessible via desktop, laptop, e-readers, and wearables. It will help you reach a huge user base, irrespective of future device trends.

3. Compatibility with Different Assistive Technologies

Assistive technologies have evolved over the years. There are advanced screen readers, alternative input devices, and screen magnifiers, ensuring that users with disabilities can access and interact with the content more effectively.

Make sure the books are compatible with different kinds of assistive technologies. It is also a great way to future-proof the content, as it remains usable with evolving technology.

4. Adapting to Evolving Accessibility Guidelines

Accessibility standards are continuously upgraded to fit the changing technological landscape and user requirements. It’s important to adapt to the latest accessibility guidelines and requirements. Taking this proactive step will make your books future-proof and stay updated with changing accessibility standards.

5. Repurpose the Content

Structured and formatted the content to make repurposing easier and more streamlined. Such content will help you reuse it in various formats. You can repurpose the content for an audiobook or EPub. It will help you create content that is adaptable for future formats without making additional modifications.

6. Adoption of Future Technology

Futuristic technologies are becoming more mainstream. There are VR and AR devices, along with voice assistants.
Make sure your content is seamlessly integrated with emerging technologies. Integrating a kid’s storybook into a VR device can help children with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, understand the content most effectively.

7. Ensuring Longevity and Budget-Friendliness

Implementing born accessible content from the outset helps reduce the overhead and time-consuming process of retrofitting accessibility measures. Since accessible content has a longer lifecycle, you can maintain and update it to meet future needs. In the long term, accessibility is cost-efficient and reduces maintenance expenditures.

8 Ways Born Accessible Design Steers Growth

Now, the first impression of accessibility and its main focus is to foster an inclusive place for all users, no matter how diverse.

Here are 8 ways that born accessible design is full of perks for your business:

1. Maintaining Legal Compliance

Maintaining legal compliance is paramount, yet a basic goal for every business. born accessible design is a powerful tool to achieve and maintain this objective. By designing for accessibility principles, your web design aligns with the established accessible design standards outlined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), offering a proactive approach to meeting and exceeding legal expectations.

2. A Better and More Consistent Audience Reach

Businesses that implement accessible design take longer to understand the expanded audience’s needs. The born accessible design has opened a business to an additional 1.3 billion people since its inception.

With more time and experience on their side, businesses have a head start in blending their strategy with the needs of this audience. The result is a higher, more consistent, and well-understood volume of organic web traffic, lead generation, and sales.

3. Enhances User Experience for All

The fundamental approach to digital accessibility is that it focuses on developing web pages with a user-centered design. Aspects of an accessible user experience include high-contrast themes and minimalistic content layouts.

Considering that these changes improve the reading experience and content retention, it is an improved user experience for everyone, not just those who need it.

4. Get Prioritized by Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization involves constructing content for the best visibility on search engines like Google or Bing. Content must be visible to reach a wider audience.

Accessible web design delivers more value to more users, and search engines recognize the content as a better fit. With better accessibility, your content will be among the top results when users search for certain keywords. born accessible design boosts your business’ SEO rankings and helps with higher web traffic.

5. Fostering Brand Reputation

Embracing born accessible design isn’t just a design choice; it’s a forward-thinking step. The approach of web accessibility from inception signifies a dedication to inclusivity and showcases a brand’s integrity and empathy.

Businesses enhance their reputation through born accessible design and organically cultivate positive customer sentiment. The overall advantage of advertising is that it solidifies a brand’s position as one that values and embraces the evolving needs of its audience.

6. Immensely Cost-Effective

Reconstructing web design to include relevant accessibility standards involves a ton of additional costs. According to a survey by Hubspot, a web redesign costs between USD 15,000 and USD 30,000, and through born accessible design, the cost of retrofitting accessibility is mitigated.

7. Builds Brand Loyalty through Social Responsibility

Born accessible design is a massive step towards societal inclusivity and is perceived as a commitment to a brand’s social responsibility. Through born accessibility, businesses can carry out their responsibility toward building a better environment for the global user community.

Incorporating accessibility at such an early stage helps foster a stronger and more loyal community for the brand.

8. Future-Proofs the Business

The primary intent behind accessibility is to create a supportive and inclusive environment, and through that intent, this large audience that requires accessibility also helps steer the future of business. As our digital and technological landscape constantly evolves to enable people to surpass their limitations, embracing born accessible design helps companies ensure longevity and adaptability.

While accessibility brings a lot to the table, born accessible design has such tremendous potential and impact on our present and future that its importance is more apparent than ever. Let’s dive into essential practices that you must incorporate to boost accessibility.

5 Key Practices that will Elevate Accessibility

Born accessible design is crucial for the growth and continuity of every business. Here are 5 accessibility best practices that, when implemented during the design phase, have the most significant impact on building an inclusive future:

1. Keep the Platform Technologically Relevant

With technology constantly growing, your webpage and platform must be compatible with assistive technologies such as voice recognition software, screen magnifiers, braille displays, switch devices, and screen readers.

Incorporating a developer’s dashboard that keeps updating compatibility with moving times is also essential to stay accessible and avoid future redesign costs.

2. Develop Accessibility through Multisensory Content

Immersive technologies have constantly excelled at delivering an elevated experience. Through its multisensory content, it successfully engages its users and also works phenomenally well with assistive technologies that aim to bridge any gap brought about by impairments.

Presenting content and product information through intricate audio descriptions, haptic feedback, or voice-guided interactions serves as an excellent area to imbue with VR and AR and enrich the overall experience, especially for users with diverse abilities.

3. Prioritize a Conscious UI and UX Design

A crucial part of born accessible design is developing an optimized and empathetic User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). While building a platform’s UX and UI, each function and element must be crafted with as much consideration as elements of accessibility.

For example, to deliver detailed research on appropriate color themes, contrast styles, retainable page layouts, and a clear web page organization structure, a conscious UX and UI design is imperative.

4. Pay Close Attention to Multimedia Accessibility

To deliver an equally engaging experience for users with and without visual impairments, delivering accessible multimedia makes a huge difference. This is done by incorporating explicit alternative texts for pictures, detailed product descriptions, well-captioned videos, and transcriptions for audio files.

5. Incorporate AI-Powered Audits and Tests

Regular accessibility audits and testing processes are fundamental to staying relevant and keeping the quality of accessibility strong. With the help of AI tools, setting up troubleshooting algorithms helps automate the identification of potential accessibility issues. This reduces the time for identifying and resolving any dip in accessibility standards.

The Future is Accessible

Born accessible design is now the standard for any website or application being created. However, achieving a truly accessible product may prove to be difficult. But only if you do not have the right partner for the job. Here is where Hurix Digital can come to your rescue.

Hurix Digital leverages AI to revolutionize the field of accessibility compliance. With automated captioning, image recognition, voice interfaces, adaptive content, and a range of personalized experiences, they are market leaders in the field of accessible design.

So, if you are looking for the right digital partner on your journey towards digital inclusivity, choose Hurix today!