Many of us have built or designed award-winning digital experiences… but do they work for people of different abilities? Or are we building and designing only for the fully-abled, leaving others out? Join accessibility leader Claudio Luis Vera as we explore the crucial role that design plays in inclusion and independence.

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The Role of Design
in Discrimination
Are we building UX for the fully abled only?
Claudio Luis Vera - Accessibility Leader, UX Designer, human
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2. CLAUDIO LUIS VERACLAUDIO LUIS VERA
Royal Caribbean
Cruises, LTD (RCL)
Digital Accessibility
● Websites
● Apps
● Augmented reality
● Kiosks
● Gaming stations
● Digital experiences
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Going back in time…
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80 years ago
on a Saturday
afternoon,
at a movie house,
in the Mississippi
Delta

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Marion Post
Wolcott
29 years old,
photographed
poverty and
deprivation

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Racial
segregation
was so common, it
would have been
overlooked

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Corporate
sponsorship
Today, this photo
would have triggered
boycotts and
divestment

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Jumping
forward to
today
Segregation based
on ability to pay

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Two-class
system
Those who pay and
those who can’t

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What’s the
breaking
point?
How does it feel to
be unable to use it?
$139.50

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What does discrimination look like?
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Are we
looking for
this?
Today’s kind of
discrimination is
more subtle, but just
as effective
ABLED

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Dominos.com
A pizza site that doesn’t
serve blind people

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“ADA doesn’t
apply here”
Rather than address
the issues,
Domino’s argued
that the ADA
doesn’t apply to
websites.

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Today:
A restaurant
reservation system
that doesn’t work
for blind people
Based on
White v. Square
lawsuit

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Today:
What does discrimination
sound like?
Blind people don’t use our app.
These are edge cases.
Accessibility is not MVP.
Accessibility is not core
to our mission
Accessibility is not in our budget.

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Minimum Viable Product
● Would you ship a product that doesn’t
work for a large segment of your
users?

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Hierarchy of UX
Can you read the content?
P E R C E I V A B L E
F
Is it operable?
O P E R A B L E
D
Does it make sense?
U N D E R S T A N D A B L E
C
Can we brag about it?
G R E A T U X
G O O D U X
B
Will it win awards?
E X C E L L E N C E
A

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Disparity in the real world
P E R C E I V A B L E
98% of the web
F
O P E R A B L E
DWCAG-compliant
Baseline
U N D E R S T A N D A B L E
C
G R E A T U X
G O O D U X
B
E X C E L L E N C E
A
Award-winning
digital experiences

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The usability gap
P E R C E I V A B L E
98% of the web
F
O P E R A B L E
DWCAG-compliant
Baseline
U N D E R S T A N D A B L E
C
G R E A T U X
G O O D U X
B
E X C E L L E N C E
A
Award-winning
digital experiences
The
usability
gap

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Mismatches and disabilities
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Spectrum of abilities
Quadriplegic
My 92-year-old
mother
Me
Usain Bolt
Superhero
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Our view of
disability
Medical model
● Highly visible conditions
● Origins in the Reconstruction, when
benefits were given to permanently
disabled veterans of the Civil War
Charity model
● People with disabilities are
dependent , to be pitied.
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The social model
of disability
● The problem is not the impairment,
it’s the barriers we create as a
society.
● We create and perpetuate our own
disabilities.

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Not every impairment is
permanent
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Dirty window Cataracts

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What is a disability?
Disability is not
a personal health condition.
Disability comes from
mismatched human
interactions
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A world without barriers
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Basic assumptions
1. Everyone has the right to
live independently
2. The built world must be
free of barriers
3. The digital world is part of
that built world

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Built-in
accessibility
Is as elegant as the
rest of your design
experience

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Bolt-on
accessibility
Is added after the
fact

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Hyperloop:
bolt-on in the making
Public transportation with
disabilities as an afterthought.

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Today
The state of the digital world

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WebAIM
Million
Report
Percentage of
websites that have
detectable barriers
(WCAG 2.x failures)
98.1%

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Who is affected?
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30.3%

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30.3% of Americans over the age of 18
● Have a severe disability
● Have a mild disability
● Does not include those who need
assistance to get through daily
routines
US Census Bureau, 2018
● 93% of disabilities are invisible

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58.5% of Americans over the age of 65
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
0–17 years
18–24 years
25–34 years
35–44 years
45–54 years
55–64 years
65–69 years
70–74 years
75 years and older
People with disabilities other

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If you build for the 30%, everyone wins
● Automatic doors
● Hands-free fixtures in restrooms
● Curb cuts
● Autocomplete
● Captions on videos
● Voice UI
● Phone screens you can see in
broad daylight
● Dark themes

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How the law came about
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Americans with
Disabilities Act
(ADA) 1990
Sweeping civil rights law
signed in 1990

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What does the ADA cover?
Public accommodations Workplace accommodations

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…and digital experiences
Websites
Apps
Kiosks
VR/AR/MR
Games
ATMs

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21st Century Video
Accessibility Act
(CVAA) 2010
Affects everything with an IP address

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10 Performance Objectives from the CVAA
● Operable without vision
● Operable with low vision and limited or no
hearing
● Operable with little or no color perception
● Operable without hearing
● Operable with limited manual dexterity
● Operable with limited reach and strength
● Operable with a prosthetic device
● Operable without time dependent controls
● Operable without speech
● Operable with limited cognitive skills
Provide at least one mode that is:

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Short break
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Which personas
do you need to consider?
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10 Use Cases from the CVAA
● Operable without vision
● Operable with low vision and limited or no
hearing
● Operable with little or no color perception
● Operable without hearing
● Operable with limited manual dexterity
● Operable with limited reach and strength
● Operable with a prosthetic device
● Operable without time dependent controls
● Operable without speech
● Operable with limited cognitive skills
Provide at least one mode that is:

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Vision
● Low vision
● Low vision (without hearing)
● Little or no color perception
● No vision
● Has light sensitivity
● Is in bright surroundings

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Hearing
● Without hearing
● Hard of hearing
● Limited or non-typical speech
● Has heavy accent
● Does not understand English
(or your primary language)
Speech

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Dexterity
● With limited manual dexterity
● Has tremors or shaky hands
● Has one or no hands available
● Uses a prosthetic device
● Uses a cane or a walker
● Uses a manual wheelchair or a walker
● Uses a scooter or motorized
wheelchair
● Needs extra time
Mobility

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Cognitive/pyschological
● Has motion sensitivity or
a vestibular disorder
● Disoriented
● Limited attention span
● Has anxiety
● Is on the autism spectrum
● Limited cognitive skills

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Physical
● With limited reach
● Is too large
● Is too heavy
● Has limited strength
● Is easily fatigued
● Has food allergies
● Has underlying medical conditions
(Diabetes, late-stage cancer, e.g.)

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Gender
● Is trans
● Is gender-non-binary
● Is gender-non-conforming

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How do we portray disability?
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First,
do no wrong
Fix your trouble
areas or you’ll be
called out

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Never, ever
do this
Don’t use abled
models as stand-ins
for people with
disabilities.

58. Is this your brand’s view of disability?

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The active
disabled

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Explorers
with
disabilities

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Be subtle
Don’t make the disability
the centerpiece

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Leveraging technology
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Update your
data models
Genders aren’t binary
• What genders do you use, then?
• Can customers update their gender?
• Do you need to know their gender?
• What about pronouns?

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Or you could
use another
field
Citi now offers a
preferred first name
field

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Find other
modalities
Look for other ways
to interact
Head tilt javascript
frameworks

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Here’s
another
example
Eye gaze
technology

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Play nicely
with built-in
technology
An amazing amount
of assistive
technology is built
into your operating
systems.

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Intelligent
hardware
Amazon Echo
Show and Tell

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Accessible
Gaming
Xbox Adaptive
Controller

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Hardware
3.5 mm jacks on the
back turn the
controller into a hub
for switches

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What can I do as a designer?
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Try out some testing tools
Beginner
WAVE by WebAIM
Developer
Axe by Deque Systems
Enterprise
Siteimprove’s
Accessibility Checker

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Check color
contrast
You may be familiar
with this product…

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Learn about WCAG:
The de facto standard for
web accessibility, made up of a set
of hundreds of guidelines.

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WCAG levels
A
Obsolescent standard
that doesn’t meet legal
requirements
AA
Nearly-universal standard
AAA
Advanced requirement
where near-perfect
accessibility is imperative

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Avoid common mistakes
● Missing alternative “alt” text
● Missing form field labels
● Insufficient color contrast
● Broken tab index
● Hidden focus
● Using styles instead of headings
● Using buttons where links should
go
● Missing “Skip navigation” link
● Social toolbars that don’t skip links

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Resources
Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit
Derek Featherstone’s courses on
LinkedIn Learning
IAAP education and certification programs
Level Access blog and webinars
Deque Systems’ publications
ACCESS Florida meetup group
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
Accessibility Testing on a $7 budget -
Medium Article
Deque University

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Join the
conversation
stark-community.slack.com

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Thank you
Claudio Luis Vera
Feel free to connect on LinkedIn or the Stark Slack community!