avatar-3127928_1280This post is the second of a series about accessibility, the first post presented a brief Introduction to Accessibility.

The accessibility cards introduce 16 personas, archetypes of users with diverse disabilities. The cards illustrate and describe potential users who may interact with a web application and therefore should be taken into account when designing its interfaces and interaction. The card descriptions include examples of assistive technologies and accommodations that users commonly employ when accessing web contents. Five major categories of disabilities are included in the cards:

  • Vision: macular degeneration, color-blindness, blindness, low vision
  • Hearing: deaf, American Sign Language (ASL) speaker, hard of hearing
  • Motor: cerebral palsy, repetitive stress injury, hand tremor
  • Cognitive: Autism, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, dyslexia, mild short-term memory loss, Down syndrome
  • Multiple impairments: Deaf and blind, low vision with hand tremor and mild short-term memory loss

The personas were inspired in the user stories published by W3C and they are also based on the book “A web for everyone: Designing accessible user experiences” written by Horton, S., & Quesenbery, W. in 2014.

The cards serve as educational material, helping to bring examples of accessible design for students in class to foster the discussion about accessibility guidelines in the design of web applications and interactive systems.

The contents are shared under Creative Commons with Attribution license and they have been developed thanks to the financial support of TeachAccess. Teach Access is a unique collaboration among members of higher education, the technology industry and advocates for accessibility, with a shared goal of making technology broadly accessible by infusing accessibility into higher education, with enhanced training and collaborations with people with disabilities. Teach Access includes members from leading tech companies, academic institutions and disability advocacy organizations and other non-profit institutions. Teach Access operates as a fiscal sponsorship fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF). To learn more visit teachaccess.org or email info@teachaccess.org.