Ever had a difficult time using a site for some odd reason? Did you get it figured out by getting on support? If you did that’s great! Now, what if you weren’t so able to call for support because you weren’t able to use the site the way you wanted to. For some people, it’s not so easy for them to do the same things we do every day. When we’re looking up information we just click a few buttons and find the answer. For some, it’s not as easy as clicking a few buttons to get to our destination. So instead we need to accommodate those peoples to better help them get to their destination.
A great way can do that is by making it easier to use websites and applications. Not just being able to access the information but the ability to aid someone into getting there. So what we need to do as designers, coders, and any content creator is to enable users of different abilities to be able to use our site the same way someone without those disabilities would too. So when making our website, one great thing to keep in mind not everyone might be able to see simple text. So we need to add a speech reader. so people who may not be able to read so well or see can have the speech read to them. Another addition would be, adding high contrast which makes the site’s colors easier to see for people with eyesight problems. If you go to Dunkin Donuts you can see they have a button for this. Another great option to add in is buttons. this seems like a common thing but some sites and apps don’t really use much since everyone grew up phones and knows a touch screen works. This isn’t the case for older people. They may have a problem navigating somewhere so better to put clear and easy to buttons on places they would be useful. For example a list of items that they use a button/scrollbar to move up and down on the page. Another great example would be, voice commands. Kinda like Siri, So if someone who can’t physically move their hand or such, can talk and tell where the cursor should click or go. There are numerous ways of helping aid people who are not so able to do the things we find normal. It’s best to accomplish those tasks to help people out and make their lives a bit user friendly in a different way.
If you want to try the speech reader, all you have to do is highlight text, left click and go to speech to have this article read to you.
