Our five-pronged approach focuses on your individual strengths to develop your unique qualities towards making you an exemplary pi- designer.
Deepali Chauhan
08/05/2024
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The digital age presents a double-edged sword. While every click unlocks a vast landscape of visual communication, a significant portion of the population remains excluded due to the digital divide.
The digital divide refers to the gap between those who have access to digital technologies and the internet and those who do not. Beyond technological disparities, the digital divide represents a broader societal divide—a gap in access to modern information and communication technologies. It transcends geographical boundaries, affecting education, employment, healthcare, and even civic participation. In a world where digital literacy is increasingly intertwined with socio-economic status, bridging this gap is imperative for building a more equitable society.
Did you know that nearly one-third of the global population remain disconnected from the digital sphere, trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide? This staggering statistic sheds light on the pervasive challenge faced by marginalised communities, remote populations, and individuals with disabilities, who encounter barriers in accessing the digital world.
Enter accessible visual communication design—the bridge that dismantles barriers and crafts inclusive digital spaces. It ensures equal access to information and opportunities, empowering both people with disabilities and the spaces they navigate. By embracing these inclusive practices, businesses tap into a vast market segment while driving innovation and enhancing brand reputation.
Moreover, accessible design elevates the user experience for all. Clear navigation, adaptable layouts, and features like high-contrast text are testaments to the power of visual communication design in shaping user experiences. They make digital content more intuitive, engaging, and accessible to everyone.
Visual communication design is about people. By prioritising inclusivity, we can create a digital world that's not only accessible but truly transformative for all.
Visual communication design cuts through the noise in today's information-dense world, effectively conveying ideas and building emotional connections. That is its value! Mastering the fundamentals of visual communication unlocks the power to tell clear, compelling stories through engaging visual elements. But the true impact lies in accessible design. It bridges gaps, unlocks opportunities, and enriches lives—a catalyst for positive change that benefits society, businesses, and individuals alike.
Careers in communication design are booming! The field offers a lucrative and fulfilling path for those passionate about crafting impactful and inclusive visual stories. With the ever-growing demand for accessible design, skilled visual communication designers are in high demand across various industries.
Let's explore the manifold advantages of accessible visual communication design:
Social Impact: Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of their abilities, can effortlessly engage with visual content. Effective visual communication design makes this a reality by breaking down barriers and fostering inclusivity. By offering the opportunity for a visually impaired person to use screen readers or someone with colour blindness to access well-contrasted graphics, accessible visual communication design ensures that nobody is left behind.
In this case, Swiggy is off to a great start. The app offers accessibility features such as screen reader support and customisable text sizes, allowing individuals with visual impairments to easily order food and access the platform's services, further promoting inclusivity and independence in daily activities.
Market Advantage: With an estimated 16% of the global population living with disabilities, accessible design opens doors to a vast market waiting to be tapped. Take, for example, the rise of accessible ride-sharing apps like Uber and Ezy Mov. They allow users to book wheelchair-accessible vehicles with trained drivers, ensuring safe and convenient travel for people with mobility challenges.
These platforms have revolutionised transportation accessibility for individuals with disabilities, offering wheelchair-accessible vehicles and specialised services tailored to diverse needs. By catering to the accessibility needs of a diverse user base, they not only address a critical need in the market but also demonstrate the business potential of inclusive visual communication design.
Enhanced User Experience: Accessibility isn't a feature reserved solely for those with disabilities; it's a game-changer for everyone. By adhering to accessible design principles, user experience is elevated to new heights. Clear typography, intuitive navigation, and adaptable layouts benefit all users, making interactions smoother and more enjoyable. What's more, accessibility fosters innovation by encouraging creative problem-solving and pushing the boundaries of design excellence. Accessible design doesn't just level the playing field; it raises it for everyone.
For example, consider the curb cuts initially designed for wheelchair users that now benefit parents with strollers, travellers with luggage, and cyclists. Similarly, closed captioning, originally intended for the deaf and hard of hearing, enhances the viewing experience for everyone in noisy environments or when watching videos in sound-sensitive situations. These examples illustrate how accessible design not only improves usability but also enriches the lives of all users.
Traditional visual communication design, the bedrock of graphic and digital design, has long been celebrated for its aesthetic appeal and capacity to convey messages effectively. Rooted in principles of visual hierarchy, typography, and imagery, communication design has shaped the visual landscape of our world. However, amidst its allure lies a critical flaw: the tendency to prioritise visual aesthetics over accessibility.
This approach, characterised by its heavy reliance on visual cues, intricate layouts, and lack of alternative text descriptions, inadvertently excludes a significant portion of the population from accessing and interacting with digital content. Despite the undeniable benefits of graphic design, this oversight highlights the pressing need to prioritise accessibility in design practices to ensure inclusivity for all users.
Here's how these barriers can be broken down for an inclusive approach:
A. Focus on Visual Information:Traditional visual communication design, along with the evolution of graphic design, tends to prioritise visual cues, inadvertently excluding individuals with visual impairments such as colour blindness or low vision. For instance, consider the design of traffic signals, which heavily rely on colour-coded information to convey meaning. Red typically indicates "stop," while green signals "go."
However, individuals with colour blindness may struggle to differentiate between these colours, leading to potential safety hazards. Similarly, intricate graphics and subtle visual elements in user interfaces or printed materials may be lost on those who rely on alternative means of accessing content. This reliance on visual information raises a formidable barrier, effectively shutting out a significant portion of the audience.
Complex Layouts and Navigation: Elaborate layouts and intricate navigation systems may dazzle the eye but prove daunting for individuals with cognitive disabilities or motor limitations. Complex interfaces can overwhelm users, leading to frustration and disengagement. Moreover, intricate navigation schemes may pose challenges for those who rely on assistive technologies to navigate digital spaces. For individuals with disabilities, these design complexities transform what should be a seamless experience into an insurmountable obstacle.
The BBC website stands out in the complex digital landscape, prioritising accessibility to create an inclusive experience for all users. It serves as a powerful reminder that accessibility isn't a secondary concern, but rather the cornerstone of a truly successful digital experience.
C. Lack of Alternative Text Descriptions: In case of traditional visual communication design, images often reign supreme. However, the failure to provide alternative text descriptions (alt text) for images renders crucial information inaccessible to users who rely on screen readers. Alt text serves as a lifeline for individuals with visual impairments, providing them with a textual description of visual content. Without this essential feature, users are left in the dark, unable to access vital information embedded within images.
Social media giant Instagram has faced criticism for its limited support for alternative text descriptions for images. As of recent updates, Instagram allows users to manually add alt text to their images, but this feature is often overlooked or underutilised by users. This lack of alt text makes it difficult for individuals who are blind or visually impaired to access the content shared on the platform, excluding them from fully engaging with visual content.
The cornerstone of accessible design lies in adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These internationally recognized standards provide a framework for creating digital content that is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR). The responsibility of a communication designer here is to ensure that digital products meet these accessibility standards to foster inclusivity and ensure equal access to information and services. Let’s understand the four key principles of WCAG.
Incorporating these principles into visual communication design practices not only ensures compliance with accessibility standards but also fosters inclusivity, enhances user experience, and extends the reach of digital content to a broader audience.
As digital platforms continue to proliferate, ensuring that visual content is accessible to users of all abilities has become paramount. Fortunately, designers have access to a set of tools and resources specifically tailored to aid them in creating accessible designs. From built-in accessibility features in popular design software to online tools and resources for assessing and improving accessibility, designers have an array of options at their disposal. Let's take a look at a few of them.
Online Tools and Resources: A plethora of online tools and resources are available to assist designers in assessing and improving the accessibility of their designs. WCAG checkers, such as WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool), allow designers to evaluate web content against accessibility standards and identify potential issues. Colour contrast checkers, such as Contrast Checker by WebAIM, enable designers to ensure that text and background colours meet minimum contrast requirements for readability. By utilising these online tools and resources, designers can proactively address accessibility challenges and create more inclusive designs.
Accessibility Testing: Accessibility testing plays a crucial role in the design process by ensuring that digital products and services are accessible to users of all abilities. Designers can employ various methods to test the accessibility of their designs, including manual testing, automated testing with assistive technologies, and user testing with individuals with disabilities.
Manual testing involves reviewing designs against accessibility guidelines and identifying potential barriers. Automated testing tools, such as axe and pa11y, can help designers identify accessibility issues in code and design elements.
As we aspire for a more inclusive digital world, the future of visual communication design is filled with promise and potential. Here are some key factors making this future more accessible:
Role of Technology in Accessible Design: Advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and voice interfaces, are revolutionising the landscape of accessible communication design. AI-powered tools can automate the process of generating alternative text for images and identifying accessibility issues in designs, streamlining the accessibility evaluation process for designers. Voice interfaces offer new avenues for interacting with digital content, providing alternative modalities for users with disabilities to access information and engage with visual content.
Legal Landscape: The legal landscape regarding website accessibility is evolving rapidly, with an increasing number of countries enacting laws and regulations requiring websites and digital content to be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
In the United States, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act mandate accessibility standards for federal agencies and organisations receiving federal funding. Similarly, the European Union's Web Accessibility Directive requires public sector websites and mobile apps to meet certain accessibility requirements. These legal developments underscore the importance of integrating accessibility into design practices and highlight the need for proactive measures to ensure compliance with accessibility standards.
Let's design an inclusive digital future. Prioritise accessibility for everyone to engage!communication design. Together, we can shape a future where accessibility is not just a goal, but a fundamental aspect of design excellence.
- If you enjoyed reading this one, then you might also like to dive into 7 best examples of visual communication. - Want to become a graphic designer? Get a better perspective on career opportunities in visual communication. You might also find help reading about scope of communication design. - Need expert opinions? Watch this comprehensive webinar on the career opportunities in communication design.
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