Hi.
I'm with Jen who's a lead designer with Google Apps Accessibility.
And Jen has over 15 years of design experience.
And today, Jen, I'm really curious to get your insight.
Our students have learned about user interaction and information design.
What else is important when it comes to designing a good product?
I think one of the key things that a lot of people overlook initially, but
is extremely important is accessibility.
>> Mm-hm.
And what's accessibility?
>> Accessibility is about trying to make products that are accessible and
usable by all people regardless if they have a disability or
not It's closely related to universal design, which is all about the process
of making products usable by people with all ranges of abilities,
as well as they can use them in all ranges of situations.
So just thinking about if you can envision a user using
your product with one hand, maybe it wasn't designed intentionally for
that, but can they use it with one hand?
And this would benefit users that might have certain motor impairments, but
it would also benefit users that maybe have a hand busy holding a baby or
a large bag of groceries.
That's kind of the idea behind accessibility design.
>> Okay, and you mention some of the impairments that someone might have.
What other sorts of impairments might people bring to a product that
might prevent them from successfully using a product in the first place?
>> There's a number of common impairments that we consider, and
they range from having visual impairments, being color blind,
having hearing impairments, cognitive impairments, and motor impairments.
And the thing to note with all of these is that
there's a wide range of severity within each of these impairments, so
you could have just slight vision loss to being totally blind.
And the other thing is that a lot of people
tend to have multiple impairments at one time.
It definitely makes things interesting to design for, but
it's certainly a reality that we need to consider.
And one of the things that I always love to talk to people about and remind them,
when you start to think about designing for people with disabilities a lot of
people tend to kind of treat them as like they're in a separate group.
And it's a group of people that you could consider or could not consider.
>> Mm. >> But in reality, we're all going to
have some sort of impairment most likely and within our lifetime.
One of the important things that I feel that people need to keep in mind is that
when you're thinking about people with disabilities a lot of designers and
different people tend to think of them as a totally separate group that may or
may not, or can or can not be considered in the process.
But in actuality,
all of us are going to have a disability at some point in our lives.
And these things can be temporary, like a broken arm.
They can be situational,
like if you're riding a bike and maybe can't see your small phone screen.
And they can be just natural progression of aging.
So it's really important to consider these things.
because if you're not, in a sense you're not considering
how to design these products for yourself at some point.
>> Yeah.
So, what other considerations, I guess, or why would it be important for
entrepreneurs to think about accessibility first?
>> Well, one huge thing is that there is a large population of people
with disabilities.
There's a lot of great research out there about the demographics of people
and we compiled some research and noted that there are more people with
color blindness than there are native English speakers in the world.
>> Oh wow. >> So this is a huge population.
>> Yeah.
And just thinking as an entrepreneur, that's a huge pool of people, and
an audience that you can tap into from a financial profit standpoint.
Obviously, another motivator if you're looking to get involved
in education or government.
>> Mm-hm. >> There's some legal considerations
there and some legal standards that you need to meet.
But I think most importantly, what we have found is that, when you consider
accessibility up front, it often leads to a much better product for everybody.
>> Yeah.
And what's one example of a product like that that you've seen?
>> Well, one really simple simple example and
a straightforward thing that everyone can start doing if you're designing
a digital product, is think about can a user
complete all the necessary tasks on your product using just a keyboard.
So, not only is this beneficial to somebody that uses a screen reader or
doesn't have the dexterity to use a mouse, but it's also really powerful,
or useful, for the power users that you might have.
>> Yeah. >> That like to use keyboards,
because they feel it's more efficient.
>> Mm.
Cool.