As we hunt for better ways to serve our customers and differentiate ourselves from the competition, there is a critical approach to creating better digital experiences that businesses need to take note of. That approach is inclusive design.
Defined as creating a solution for a specific user, then extending that solution to many, inclusive design can be leveraged to drive a company’s long-term customer and user experience strategy. When done right, organizations set themselves up for greater customer acquisition, retention and referrals.
Now you may be thinking, we do start with a specific user when we’re designing an experience, called a customer persona. With inclusive design it is a little different. It is starting with a customer who likely struggles with your experience as it is today because they have a disability. It could be temporary like having a broken arm, situational like carrying a suitcase or child, or permanent like being deaf, blind, neurodiverse, etc.
Inclusive design looks at the needs, wants and abilities of specific individuals, and designs a solution that works for them. In creating a solution for this user persona, a better experience is extended to all users.
Don’t believe me? When was the last time you texted someone? Whether you realize it or not, text messaging was created so that deaf consumers could use mobile devices. This solution, created for a specific user, is something that is now used by millions of people everyday as a key form of communication.
Understanding inclusive design
Before we dig into how to incorporate inclusive design into your digital UX and the benefits it provides, we need to take a moment to understand the broader disability landscape.
According to statistics published in 2023 by World Health Organization, 16 percent of the global population has a disability. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 26 percent of adults have a disability. And, depending on where your organization conducts business, that number could be higher.
The main takeaway? People with disabilities make up a huge segment of the population and it is a population that any one of us could join at any time. It does not have to be something major like having an accident or injury. It can simply happen through the natural process of aging.
What’s also important to be aware of is the immense purchasing power of this population. According to the American Institutes of Research working age adults with disabilities had a total disposable income of $490 billion in 2018.
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Developing experiences for customers with disabilities
So where does one start to shift to inclusive design and developing solutions for future and existing customers with disabilities? Two words: start small.
Accessibility and inclusive design is a vast space that can quickly become overwhelming. The best approach is to start small with things that require little in the way of budget, but can start to help you gain insights and build a case for larger inclusive design initiatives at your organization.
First, begin by looking at your current digital UX and asking users with different disabilities how they navigate similar experiences. Ask what features they find helpful, distracting, difficult to use, etcetera. Ask what works for them.
If you’re not sure where to start with recruiting people with disabilities for these conversations, start with your employees with disabilities or reach out to disability organizations that provide resources and education around specific types of disabilities.
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The most important piece of inclusive design is actually including people with disabilities throughout the design, development and testing of your UX. A persona will get you so far, but it is lived experiences and the vital nuggets of information in those direct conversations that will lead to better experiences.
In addition to speaking with people with disabilities, you will want to review the latest version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). These guidelines provide recommendations on how digital experiences should be designed and coded to enable users with various types of disabilities to engage with your content.
Now, I’ll be honest, WCAG is very in-depth and can be a little overwhelming at first. However, there are plenty of resources out there that can provide an overview of the guidelines to help your organization start to get familiar with what needs to be considered when creating a new experience.
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The third piece you will want to assess is how accessible your current digital UX is. To do this, you can check the accessibility of your web pages with a free tool like Deque’s axe plugin for Chrome. You can also use your native screen readers on your iOS and Android devices to see how the screen reader navigates the mobile version of your web pages or your native mobile apps.
There is an important caveat when using free tools and automated software that checks for accessibility: these tools only catch 20-30 percent of accessibility issues according to Level Access. The provide a starting point, however, to see where your UX is and help determine the additional investment required to further inclusive design in your organization.
Finally, see if you have any accessibility related complaints or feedback from existing customers. If so, take a look at where they struggled. Ask them if you could have a follow-up conversation to get their perspectives on how you can improve.
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Implementing inclusive UX
As you learn more about where your user experiences currently stand and where the opportunities are to improve, you can begin to work with your design, development and testing teams to begin making changes.
Just remember that to truly leverage inclusive design, you have to include the people you are solving for throughout the process. In doing so, you are ensuring the changes you implement are going to make the user experience better and will build a foundation for better design that will be able to flex with your customers’ evolving wants, needs and abilities.