7 LX Accessibility Personas

Accessible design is personal for me. A few years ago, I suffered a repetitive strain injury in both hands and used dictation software to type and navigate my computer while recovering. Some software wouldn't cooperate with the dictation program and would crash before I'd saved my project. Certain websites were difficult to navigate, which meant I had to work longer to accomplish the same amount of work. It was frustrating to have to correct spelling errors or repeat a command multiple times to perform an action. I've since fully recovered, but when I'm designing learning experiences, I think often about the emotional and cognitive stress that users with disabilities face.

In the United States, 61 million adults, or 1 in 4 adults, live with a disability. Not only is accessible design the right thing to do, in many cases web accessibility is the law. In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires state and local governments and business open to the public to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities.

Source: CDC Disability Statistics (2022)

When designing accessible learning experiences, envisioning a specific persona can make the design process more personal and emotionally salient. Imagining Ashleigh, a partially sighted 24-year-old who lost her sight as a teen due to a genetic condition, holds me accountable to designing an experience that will help someone just like Ashleigh easily navigate her eLearning course with a screen reader.

This article will focus on issues accessing digital content, but keep in mind that there are additional considerations when designing for instructor-led training, such as mobility needs or assistive technology devices in the classroom. Adapted from a series of user profiles developed by the UK government, the accessibility personas in this article highlight common barriers learners face when accessing digital content and tips for accessible design:

1. Simone – dyslexic user

2. Saleem – deaf user

3. Claudia – partially sighted user

4. Ashleigh – partially sighted user

5. Ron – user with health conditions

6. Christopher – user with rheumatoid arthritis

7. Pawel – user on the autism spectrum

Simone

BACKGROUND

• Diagnosed with dyslexia two years ago but doesn’t really talk about it

• Uses specialist dyslexia software which reads out web content and helps her spell

• Asks a colleague to check important emails she’s sending

• Uses a color highlighting feature to mark important information in dense text

• Prefers audiobooks over written text

CHALLENGES

• Takes a while to fill out forms

• Sometimes needs to ask others to check what she has written

• Relies on search engines to offer suggestions as to what she typed

• Moving content makes it difficult to concentrate

• Struggles when there is a lot of text or language is complicated

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Write in plain English and break up content with things like headings and lists

• Let users change the contrast between background and text

• Avoid using justified text and italics

• Allow save and return on forms

• Do user research and usability testing with people with dyslexia

Saleem

BACKGROUND

• Is deaf and fluent in American Sign Language (ASL)

• Quit a catering course last year when the interpreter they provided wasn’t fully qualified and had little experience

• Signs to his friends on video chat

CHALLENGES

• Struggles with English because of differences with ASL in grammar and vocab

• Captions don’t always make sense, are generic (e.g., “music playing”), or don’t indicate who is speaking

• Finds it difficult to read long blocks of transcript text

• Can contact people by email, chat, or text but not by phone call

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Write in plain English and break up content with things like headings and lists

• Make sure video content has captions, and that the captions have been checked for clarity and accuracy

• Have transcripts for audio content

• Think about having a sign language version for people whose reading ability is limited

Claudia

BACKGROUND

• Partially sighted due to glaucoma and diabetes

• Uses a screen reader and magnification software for reading web content

• Uses speech-to-text feature to compose messages

CHALLENGES

• Difficult to see web content if color contrast is poor

• Clutter on websites makes them difficult to browse

• Inconsistent form layouts can be confusing when using a magnifier

• Easier to make phone calls than send emails or text messages

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Follow best practice for accessible form design

• Make your layout consistent and predictable

• Do user research with people who use screen magnification software

• Use a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 between text and its background

• Use responsive design

Ashleigh

BACKGROUND

• Partially sighted, having lost most of her sight as a teen due to a genetic condition

• Uses a screen reader for reading web content

• Uses voice commands to use her iPhone

• Uses a keyboard instead of a mouse

CHALLENGES

• Needs to call someone for help when a website doesn’t work with her screen reader

• Screen reader can’t read forms without proper labels

• Can’t visualize items online without a description

• Annoying to tab through lots of content before getting to the content she needs

• Hard to tell what’s on a page without clear headings

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Follow best practice for accessible form design

• Test to make sure any new information that appears on screen is announced by screen readers

• Make sure people can use your service with a keyboard

• Write headings that help users find what they’re looking for quickly

• Write descriptive links and page titles

• Use alt text for images that describes the image’s content or conveys the same information

Ron

BACKGROUND

• Has arthritis and cataracts, is losing his hearing, and has had both hips replaced

• Uses a landline phone with amplification and larger buttons

• Wears a hearing aid in each ear

CHALLENGES

• Struggles with background noise when out with friends or when making phone calls

• Has trouble using his computer mouse

• Wishes web content used clearer colors and displayed phone numbers to call

• Large blocks of text are hard to read, and he doesn’t know how to adjust his browser settings so often gives up

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Write in plain English and break up content with things like headings and lists

• Avoid using small text and make sure text has good color contrast

• Follow best practice for accessible form design

• Include older people in your user research

Christopher

BACKGROUND

• Developed rheumatoid arthritis 10 years ago

• Uses a trackball mouse, a keyboard with a wrist rest, and keyboard shortcuts

• Started trying speech recognition software

CHALLENGES

• Difficulty using software and web content that won’t work with just a keyboard

• Takes a while to fill out forms online

• Wastes a lot of time tabbing through navigation menus

• Struggles with pop-up boxes that are outside of tab control

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Make sure all of your content works for people who use a keyboard instead of a mouse or trackpad

• Test to make sure you avoid specific issues for keyboard users, like focus order and keyboard traps

• Test that your content works with speech recognition software

• Include features that make it easy for users to complete forms, like an address lookup feature

Pawel

BACKGROUND

• Is on the autism spectrum and was recently diagnosed with anxiety

• Prefers to use apps over websites as they are simpler and less cluttered

• Prefers to chat with people in gaming communities online over face-to-face interaction

• Gave up social media which made him anxious

CHALLENGES

• Gets easily distracted by too much to read through and too many links on websites

• Finds moving content like banners and video distracting, and finds bright colors stressful

• Thinks websites assume you know more than you do

• Hard to contact companies by email or live chat rather than phone

BEST DESIGN PRACTICES

• Avoid bright colors or garish combinations

• Allow save and return on forms

• Include people with autism in user research

• Write in plain English and break up content with things like headings and lists

• Provide captions for video content

Looking for more? Here are some additional resources for designing with accessibility in mind:

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of recommended and internationally adopted standards for website accessibility.

• WCAG Easy Checks is a simple checklist for assessing webpage accessibility.

• WebAIM Contrast Checker is a tool for checking color contrast.

• Moodle Accessibility Documentation is a resource with accessibility standards for an open-source LMS.

Before you go, don't forget to download the 7 LX Accessibility Personas resource below for your next project.