Author: Jane Bringolf

Creating an accessible online presence

Online shopping is here to stay and increasing rapidly. There’s lots of information about making a shopping site accessible. But people shop for more than goods – they shop for information too. So some of the ideas for shopping translate to information and service sites too. Here are some basic tips on creating an accessible online presence.

Anyone in charge of creating or maintaining a website should understand the basics of accessible design. It’s not just a tech person’s job.

A smartphone with graphics depicting a design problem being fixed.

A short article in SmartCompany magazine takes a business view of an inclusive shopping experience and lists seven things companies should do. Some of these points are well-known to many web designers and developers. When a website is difficult to navigate, people leave, they click away from the site as the video below shows.

Accessible online presence: key points

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): Regularly update your website to comply with WCAG standards. This includes text-background contrast, enabling keyboard navigation, and providing alternative text for images.

Responsive design: Ensure your website automatically adjusts to various screen sizes and resolutions to suit all devices, including smartphones, tablets and different computer screen sizes. 

Site navigation: Organising your site with a clear structure, clear headings and logical sitemap will improve navigability. Utilise Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) landmarks to help screen reader users navigate your site more effectively. Clear and consistent navigation aids users, especially those with cognitive differences, to understand their location within your site.

Enable customisation and ensure content accessibility: Include options for users to customise visual elements, like font sizes and colours, and consider integrating text-to-speech functionality for people with vision impairments. If you have audio and video content, provide captions and transcripts to aid users with hearing impairments. Avoid content that could affect users with photosensitive epilepsy and clearly label any content that could pose a risk.

Optimise customer service channels: Some users have difficulty communicating via traditional channels such as phone or text. Offer email, phone, video calls with sign language support and real-time chat, to accommodate diverse communication needs.

Checkout processes: Simplify the checkout process with clear instructions and error messages to minimise confusion and to enhance the user experience.

Test with users and commit to ongoing improvement: Conduct site testing with a diverse group of users, including people with various disabilities. View accessibility as a continuous effort. Regularly audit and update your site to keep pace with changing technology and standards.

The title of the article is, How to create an inclusive online shopping experience.

Other resources

This website has a section on ICT guidelines for practice. Here are just three items for quick reference.

Microsoft’s inclusive design toolkit.

Google spells out accessible, inclusive and usable.

Which font to use? All of them?

The Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge has done a lot of work on product images and labelling. They claim that their design guidelines help increase sales by 29%.

Aged care design guidelines

Designing aged care facilities is a specialised endeavour but it can include some universal design thinking, such as co-design processes. Some aspects of these specialised designs have application in the design of mainstream homes and neighbourhood places and spaces. The new National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines are worth looking at for that reason.

Design Principles:

  • Enable the person
  • Cultivate a home
  • Access the outdoors
  • Connect with community

Plus, co-design processes involving all stakeholders.

Front cover of the National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines. Yellow background with black text.

The Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines is a comprehensive, evidence-based resource designed for anyone with a stake in residential aged care. This includes accommodation providers and design professionals, staff, regulators and policymakers, and older Australians and their families.

The four design principles underpin the guidance which includes residents with dementia. Around half of aged care residents have dementia and half have reduced mobility. As expected, the designs benefit others with age-related health and care needs. Staff needs are also included. The key point is the importance of ‘home’ to residents – a place that reflects people’s needs and aspirations.

Six Personas

Personas cannot take the place of real people, but they are useful for explaining design ideas. That’s because they often provide the ‘why’ of a design. The guidelines use three resident personas, and three staff personas.

Each design principle has an objective and details on how to achieve it. For example, the objective for ‘Enable the Person’ is to support people to maintain health, wellbeing and sense of identity. Scenarios for residents and reasons why some things are important lead to checklists and a narrative for positive outcomes.

Mainstream applications

Considerations such as noise and clutter are just as relevant for people with dementia living in their own homes. Acoustic comfort is especially important for people with hearing loss, and everyone benefits from clean air and good lighting. Tonal or colour contrast becomes more important as people age rather than the fashionable all-white colour schemes.

The guidelines for bathrooms, ensuites and kitchens also have elements that help people in their own homes as well as home care staff. The main point is make them safe without looking like a hospital.

The title of the guideline is, National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines. The guidelines include design checklists and links to supporting evidence. Photographs enhance the publication.

Think about the windows

Guy Luscombe cover pic

Architect Guy Luscombe recently returned from a study trip in Europe focusing on living arrangements for older people.  His comprehensive report featuring case studies from Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and Netherlands, reveals eight key design features important to older people. Windows was top of the list.

He says, “The traditional ‘nursing home’ and ‘retirement village’ are not only outdated, they can actually foster separation and ‘otherness’, isolating people from their family, friends and interests. The aim of this project is to explore how architects can design better environments for older people that improve their enjoyment of life. It starts with rethinking some of our design language.” Many in the universal design movement would agree with this.

Luscombe found 8 key design features with windows as the first priority for both light and seeing out into the neighbourhood. He makes some good comments. For example,

“Aged-care buildings are necessarily beset with constraints and regulations, some good, some outdated. However, many of the regulations put in place to ‘protect’ older people are very often seen as key design features of the building. They become the ‘end’ product. Buildings are seen as either compliant or non-compliant, rather than, say, promoting wellbeing and liveability.”

Download Guy Luscombe’s report which includes several excellent photos. It’s titled the NANA report

Neurodivergent lens on public transport

Lucinda Miller asks the same questions any follower of universal design and inclusive practice asks. “Who are our built environments planned for?” Disability access standards are framed around people with physical and sensory disabilities. But what about people with invisible disabilities? Miller puts a neurodivergent lens on public transport and challenges the way policies are ‘decorated’ with the language of access and inclusion.

“What does ‘public’ mean if it does not serve the needs of all people in the community?”

Creating inclusive environments is not only bricks and mortar, but also the belief systems held by society.

Cover image by Miller and Leddie

Front cover of the document, the invisible city. it has a mid blue background and white text. The graphic is of wiggly lines with small dots with different means of transport.

Miller highlights the gap between the words and deeds in policy documents. There is a chasm in the translation of access and inclusion in addressing invisible disabilities.

The thesis reviews both disability literature and policies and looks at ethical considerations. New South Wales state and local government policy is the basis of the policy review.

The diversity of lived experience must be baked into the design recipe – the planning instruments – rather than bolted on as an afterthought.

A man stands on a train platform looking at his smartphone. He is wearing a hat and has a bright yellow backpack.

Discussion and recommendations

The Disability Discrimination Act and the Disability Transport Standards define disability as both mind and body, but are skewed towards physical disabilities. These documents guide planning instruments and so the diversity of invisible disabilities goes unrecognised in action plans. Consequently, environments are accessible to some, but not inclusive of everyone.

Recommendations include mandating hidden disability training and taking a whole-of-government approach to universal design. A universal design approach should be at everyone stage of projects and include people with lived experience.

The title of the honours thesis is, The Invisible City: Public Transport through Neurodivergent Lenses. Miller’s concluding remarks begin:

“This thesis explored how terminology such as accessibility and inclusive in policy and urban design translate to public transport from neurodivergent perspectives. It revealed that accessibility currently equates to a compliance-based mindset favouring minimum design standards. In contrast, inclusive is less concrete and highly decorated in strategic documents, yet its translation is absent from public space.”

From the abstract

Designing public transport to accommodate people with physical disabilities has gained momentum. The consideration of invisible disabilities, the experiences of neurodivergent individuals, navigating public space is yet to catch up.

This thesis interrogates the terms ‘accessibility’ and ‘inclusive’ in transport planning, and examines how these terms translate to the built environment.

This thesis emphasises the social value of public services in its fundamental role in serving communities. Despite the importance of compliance-based thinking there is a need for a cultural shift that moves beyond minimum standards..

The diversity of lived experiences should be embedded in planning instruments – “baked in, not bolted on”. It accentuates the Transport ‘Customer’ as more than a transactional member of the community.

The design of public transport must reflect the spectrum of disability, where transport journeys are about dignity. All users and their intersecting needs should feel a sense of autonomy over their right to participate in everyday life.

Accessible Gold Coast Guide

Creating a visitor guide highlighting accessible accommodation, attractions and events is a challenging task. The accessible Gold Coast guide has all the essential elements for visitors looking for accessible places and experiences. It’s a good example of what an access guide should contain.

The guide is comprehensive and covers just about everything anyone would want to do as a visitor. However, this does make for a large document of 158 pages. Queensland made 2023 the “Year of Accessible Tourism” and this guide is a great legacy.

Front cover of the Accessible Gold Coast Visitor guide showing two images: one of the buildings at twilight, and one of a swimming pool.

The guide has an accommodation map covering northern and central Gold Coast, and the southern Gold Coast and hinterland. Each hotel and resort listed provides detailed information about accessible rooms. The information covers reception, the room, the bathroom, bedding, kitchen, balcony, furniture and fittings, and public areas including the pool.

There is also a map listing the key attractions for the Gold Coast. Each of the attractions listed has an overview and an accompanying “access statement” provided by the operator. These statements promote their service as well as provide an overview of what is inclusive or accessible. It’s not clear which experiences are specifically for people with disability or for everyone – inclusive. Also, the way the information is presented varies from operator to operator.

Information about transport modes and their accessibility is also provided.

What it doesn’t cover

It’s clear from the access statements that the focus is on mobility disabilities and wheelchair users. Invisible disabilities are missing from the statements. Some of the language needs vetting for outdated terms such as “special needs”. Choice of font and layout for the statements would also benefit from a review.

The font for the main document uses a narrow typeface which isn’t the easiest to read. It’s one thing to have an access statement, but the statement itself needs to be accessible. More plain language would also make the document more accessible to more people.

This is the first iteration of the guide, and as such it shows how to go about at providing detailed access information for visitors. Making the guide itself more accessible would be a useful improvement.

Destination Gold Coast is a separate website and provides similar information with a link to the accessible Gold Coast guide. This website looks like it was designed by the same graphic designer with the same narrow typeface, and headings in both upper case and script style text. The Handbook for Accessible Graphic Design addresses these issues.

Continuous footways for pedestrians

The design of driveways and their impact on footways is often forgotten in street design. That’s because not many people realise that crossing over driveways and roadways at side streets to continue a journey is part of a footway. Consequently, the design of continuous footways has a role to play in creating walkable neighbourhoods.

Living Streets is a UK based charity focused on safe and accessible walking and wheeling. As part of a major project to encourage walking they have produced a report on inclusive design and continuous footways.

The research project included a literature review, GIS mapping, working with professionals, working with people with disability, which led to detailed site work. The issues raised in this project are likely to be similar in other jurisdictions.

Key conclusions are:

  • There’s confusion over what constitutes a continuous footway, their design, and what their use aims to achieve
  • Many designs being called continuous footways in Britain do not convincingly continue the footway
  • Most of the designs called continuous footways in Britain do not provide high levels of pedestrian priority
Bright green front cover of Inclusive design at continuous footways.
  • The use of these designs can create problems not just for some disabled people, but for a wider group
  • Where there are fewer vehicles travelling at lower speeds, it’s easier to establish pedestrian priority
  • What we call “real” continuous footways might be more effective in prioritising pedestrians
A narrow cobbled roadway and paved footpaths with a view of a tall skyscraper building in the background.

Many pedestrians find crossing over delivery driveways and car parking driveways unsafe. This is largely due to drivers and pedestrians not knowing who has the right of way.

Design issues

Researchers found that some designers wanted to design for maximum pedestrian safety, but were forced to compromise by “highway engineers”. People who are blind or have low vision are particularly impacted where the footway is not clearly delineated by kerbs or clear transitions. This results in that journeys not made when pedestrians feel unsafe.

Design factors having potential significance for pedestrians are:

  • Continuity of main carriageway kerb
  • Lack of visible (kerb) radii at the main carriageway
  • Continuity of markings (white line)
  • Height different and ramp design
  • Visual continuity of materials and colour of footway
  • Contrast between footway and carriageway colour
New housing development showing narrow footpath and nature strip.

Findings from the study

Overall there was a broad failure to prioritise pedestrians at all study sites even where designers were aiming to prioritise pedestrians. Failure to reduce vehicle speeds and use visual cues so that drivers know when they are crossing a footway were two findings.

The title of the Living Streets report is, Inclusive design at continuous footways. There is a separate document of appendices that has many illustrations. The Living Streets website has more about the project and links to further documents.

Dementia + Urban Planning

Dementia is a medical diagnosis that needs consideration beyond that of health care. Living with dementia is just that – living. Urban planning has a significant role to play in supporting people with dementia to maintain an active life in their neighbourhood. Samantha Biglieri’s magazine article on dementia and planning provides some useful advice.

Around two thirds of the population with dementia live in the community not a residential care setting. How can planners understand and meet the needs of this group?

A row of blue and white apartment units that all look the same.

Dementia is diverse

Dementia is an umbrella term to describe a set of symptoms that affect memory, visual perception, judgement and ability to sequence tasks. People who are neurodiverse or have an intellectual disability, also have similar experiences. When added together this becomes a significant portion of the population needing consideration in urban planning and design.

Designing urban settings for people with dementia provides benefits for others as well. For example, we all appreciate good wayfinding design with the use of landmarks and signage.

The importance of wayfinding

Getting lost and not knowing your way home is a common fear for people with dementia. When intersections and suburban houses look the same it becomes easier to get lost. Based on a UK study, briefly Biglieri suggests the following:

  • A short, irregular grid pattern of streets to create identifiable intersections and allow residents to visualize their travel path.
  • Streets with ample space for pedestrians with wide buffer zones between pedestrian paths, cycling paths and roads;
  • Variated architectural styles within the same development, mixed land-use, designs incorporating diverse styles of street furniture, public art, and vegetation to provide unique landmarks for improved navigation;
  • Signage that uses textual information (‘5 minute walk to the library’) and realistic photos (instead of icons, which can create confusion).
  • Development of memorable landscape features, open public squares, and community facilities.

The title of the article is, Dementia + Planning: Expanding accessibility through design and the planning process.

Older adults, colour and design

Population ageing and the design of the built environment are receiving more attention. As with many aspects of inclusive design, it’s the small details that make a difference. Colour and colour contrast is one of those details for older adults.

Visual perception changes for many people as they grow older. So what colours and contrasts are most helpful? Two researchers found some answers.

A pile of brightly coloured squares sit untidily on top of each other. The colours are very bright.

The researchers found that vision loss and changes in visual perception are linked to disorientation in the environment. Disorientation can increase anxiety levels and impact wellbeing. Suggestions for improved orientation include:

  • Flooring that contrasts with walls so they don’t blend with each other
  • Alternate colours of floor coverings to indicate different purposes for each room
  • Floor tiling free of glare and shine
  • Door furniture should contrast with doors
  • Contrast between stairs and walls
Kitchen with white benches contrasting with the light brown floor.

Mono-coloured interiors can hinder orientation and identification of architectural elements. However, too many colours can overstimulate sensory perception. People who lose the ability to see bright colours, yellows and pastel colours appear white. Shades of blue, green and purple are seen as grey.

The paper includes detail of the study and includes images demonstrating the different colour choices. Some of it is related to residential care, but the findings are also relevant for individual homes. The discussion section makes links to human-centred design and universal design.

Colour is a powerful tool that can enhance the aesthetics of a design and help older adults feel independent and safe.

The colours of the rainbow arranged as a wheel

The title of the study is, Colour in the environment for older adults.

From the abstract

Moving in space is a multisensory experience. People use most of their senses such as sight, hearing, smell, and touch in addition to moving their bodies. How we feel indoors depends on the indoor climate, lighting, surface colours, air quality, floor plan, and furniture layout.

Studies show that the materials and colour of products have an impact on how we navigate a space, how we feel and, in some cases, they can even have healing effects. We investigate the association between colours in the environment and the orientation of older adults in living spaces.

We found colours have a significant impact on orientation in space and can be an effective tool for spatial orientation. Warm colour tones such as yellow, orange, and red are preferred over cold ones. Red tones are more easily recognizable for older adults who have a loss of colour recognition.

Colours and contrast in indoor environments help stimulate brain function, shorter reaction times and the perception of space.

Anxiety conditions and mobility

Most of the research and about accessible transport focuses on people with physical and sensory disabilities. But people with anxiety conditions experience mobility challenges as well. Consequently, they adapt or restrict their movements to minimise anxiety triggers. Sometimes the trigger can begin before leaving home when information about the trip is lacking or inadequate.

Not much is known about the travel behaviours of people with anxiety conditions, but they are complex and varied. However, active travel in familiar surroundings lessens the impact on their anxiety.

An aerial view of crowd of pedestrians walking closely together. They are wearing summer clothes. Anxiety conditions and mobility.

People with anxiety disorders can be restricted in their mobility because of their concern about having an anxiety attack away from home. This can be as a driver or passenger in a car, travelling by public transport and even going on foot.

Anxiety disorders take many forms: panic attacks, fear of open spaces, fear of social embarrassment, and specific phobias such as fear of dogs. The researchers look at these and related cognitive conditions as well as different modes of transport triggering anxiety.

It’s complicated

While some reduced their anxiety triggers by driving a car, others experienced higher levels of anxiety as a driver. That also means that for some, catching a bus is preferable, while for others this raises anxiety levels. One of the key factors is the sense of being in control of their situation. Anxiety levels for most interviewees are increased when more than one travel mode is needed

Staying in familiar environments was an important coping strategy for most interviewees. Travelling with a family member of friend also helped. Taking a universal design approach to make transport systems, information and infrastructure can help mitigate anxiety levels. Knowing what to expect and when provides a the necessary sense of control.

Co-design processes should include people with anxiety disorders as well as people with physical and sensory disabilities.

Two young women stand at a pedestrian crossing. One is holding the arm of the other. There is a car in the background on the crossing. Are they feeling safe?

From the abstract

People with anxiety disorders may encounter anxiety triggers when (planning to) travel(ing) to a destination. This affects their ability to actively participate in society.

In-depth interviews were held with 40 Dutch adults which revealed that most interviewees experience a mix of problems in using various transport modes. Interviewees often experience the feeling of being locked up and not being able to escape as anxiety triggers. They perceive the mobility system as complex and overwhelming, while mobility-related information can trigger panic attacks or lower respondents’ stress level.

Coping mechanisms include: avoidance of transport modes; avoidance of highways, bridges, tunnels; remaining in a familiar, predictable environment; asking for social support when travel is necessary; and searching for adequate travel information to use before and during travel. 

Coping with anxiety disorders and mobility-related problems impacts on professional life, including job switching and job relocation. It is almost impossible to develop a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to alleviate this population’s problems. We end with transport interventions that could benefit people with anxiety disorders.

The title of the paper is Moving around with an anxiety disorder.

This study brings to light some of the hidden barriers to mobility that are experienced by people with anxiety disorders. It adds to the literature on barriers experienced by people with physical and sensory impairments.

Spaces for all ages: three guides

Population ageing is a global phenomenon and the policy response is to focus on aged care and congregate living. The majority of older adults live in ordinary neighbourhoods, in ordinary homes. This policy blind spot means that anything to do with ageing is seen as a health or care responsibility and not an urban planning one. We need places and spaces for all ages and that means planning policy has to catch up with demographics.

It’s likely that ageist stereotypes underpins the policy blind spot. The World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Communities Framework covers all aspects of life. Assumptions based on ageist stereotypes might also be why education is not on the WHO’s list.

Image: Eight Domains of Age-Friendly Cities by WHO.

The 8 domains of the WHO Age Friendly Cities Framework. They are presented in a circles and listed as: transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, community support and health services, outdoor spaces and buildings.

An article in Rethinking the Future briefly covers the issue of population ageing from a global perspective. High income countries are reaching the peak of their population ageing where up to 30 percent of the population is over 60 years old.

Making cities age-friendly is everybody’s business. It is the business of policy, planning, housing, transport, social services, corporations, small business, etc. The article introduces three guides for age-inclusive cities and public spaces.

The Alternative Age-friendly Handbook for the Socially Engaged Urban Practitioner discusses actions such as mapping, auditing, fixing and collaborating.

Age-Inclusive Public Space is a book that documents interaction with 19 practitioners – architects, geographers, psychologists, and social scientists. Each has a view of designing, using and transforming public space to be more inclusive.

Shaping Ageing Cities focuses on 10 European cities facing ageing populations. This report looks at the built environment, housing, mobility and digital environments.

The article concludes by saying cities will have to adapt to changing needs with inclusivity – age-inclusive design practices. There is a short reference list at the end.

Social media: hashtags and images

Social media posts rely on hashtags and images so it’s important to present them in a way that everyone can access. Access Central has two useful posts about digital accessibility: one about using CamelCase and the other is image descriptions. Of course, making online social media content accessible makes it easier for everyone to use.

CamelCase hashtags

A hashtag is a way to reach more audiences on social media, and most people use all lower case letters in their identifier. When the hashtag is multiple words strung together, it makes it difficult to read and interpret. For example, #universaldesignaustralia”. If this is written in CamelCase, it becomes #UniversalDesignAustralia”.

CamelCase is named after the way its capital letters protrude like a camel’s humps.

Camel Case helps people with vision impairment and people with dyslexia.

A graphic of a hashtag symbol with the word hashtag next to it. The background is deep blue and the text is white.

Using Camel Case shows consideration for readers especially people who use screen readers, and people who are neurodiverse. It makes technology more accessible for everyone.

Image descriptions

Images are an important part of social media posts, so it’s important that everyone has the chance to benefit from them. That means, people who are blind or have low vision need a text description of images. This is referred to as alt-text, or alternative text. Screen readers access the alt-text descriptions and read them out to the user.

The description of the image will depend on the purpose and context of where an image appears. For example, a photo on a dating app has a different context and purpose than that same photo on a book cover.

Some social media platforms prompt you to apply a description of your image when you upload it, which is a useful reminder.

Applying alt-text

Using examples, AxessLab has a useful guide on writing meaningful descriptions. The key is to keep it relevant and concise. A sighted person will glance a photo and it is that glance that you should try to convey.

Screenshots of text are also images and therefore all the text should be repeated in the alt text description. Avoid beginning the alt-text with “image of…” or “photo of”. The screen reader will say “image image of…” And remember to put a full stop at the end so the screen reader knows to complete the sentence. It makes for a more pleasant reading experience.

Descriptions of images are also picked up by search engines, so it is worth taking an extra minute to write a description. The AxessLab guide to alt-text is full of good tips.