A11Y Accessibility for Digital Products
Accessibility is an important consideration in product design and development, as it ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, are able to access and use the product. A11Y accessibility guidelines, also known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), are a set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to help ensure that digital content is accessible to people with disabilities.
The term A11Y comes from the fact that the word "accessibility" has 11 letters between the first "A" and the last "Y". The guidelines cover a wide range of accessibility considerations, including visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor disabilities.
The A11Y accessibility guidelines are organized into three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. Level A is the most basic level of conformance, while level AAA is the most advanced.
The guidelines cover a wide range of accessibility considerations, such as the below.
Perceivable: This includes considerations for providing alternative text for images, providing captions for videos, and ensuring that content is easy to read and understand.
Operable: This includes considerations for making it easy for users to navigate and interact with the product, including keyboard navigation, allowing users to skip over repetitive content, and providing clear and consistent navigation.
Understandable: This includes considerations for ensuring that content is easy to understand, including using clear and simple language, avoiding jargon and complex words, and providing instructions that are easy to follow.
Robust: This includes considerations for ensuring that content is compatible with different assistive technologies, such as screen readers and voice recognition software.
Incorporating A11Y accessibility guidelines into product development has several benefits. First, it ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, are able to access and use the product. This is not only a legal requirement in some jurisdictions, but it is also the right thing to do from an ethical and moral standpoint.
Second, incorporating A11Y accessibility guidelines can help to improve the overall user experience of the product. By designing for accessibility, product managers can ensure that the product is easy to use and understand for all users, not just those without disabilities.
Third, incorporating A11Y accessibility guidelines can help to improve the reputation and brand of the product and organization. Organizations that are seen as inclusive and accessible are more likely to be viewed positively by customers and stakeholders.
To incorporate A11Y accessibility guidelines into product development, product managers should work closely with their design and development teams to ensure that accessibility considerations are integrated into the product development process from the outset. This may involve training and education for the design and development teams on the A11Y accessibility guidelines, as well as incorporating accessibility testing and evaluation into the product development process.
That said, even if the product doesn’t yet conform to WCAG accessibility guidelines, product managers can still work with designers and engineers to refactor the product appropriately.