Disability Types
There are several major categories of disabilities that you will want to be aware of when designing user interfaces for the web:
Blindness, low-vision, color-blindness.
- About 5% of people, and 10% of all men are partially color blind.
- Red-Green color blind is the most common. Due to their color blindness, they will often confuse certain colors if they are together, especially if the are in the red or green color schemes.
Deafness and hard-of-hearing. People in this group may range from those with mild hearing loss to those with minimal or no ability to hear. There are many different kinds of communication used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, including sign language and lip reading. It is important to recognize that American Sign Language is a distinct language with its own advanced grammar and vocabulary conventions that differ from spoken English, and can be an important first language and cultural tradition for deaf individuals and their families. People who are deaf may also feel a strong sense of shared culture and connectedness with the broader Deaf community.
The inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control, Repetition is difficult for these audiences and fatigue is exhibited frequently (i.e. Cerebral Palsy, complete paralysis).
Keep in mind that some users may have difficulty using a mouse, accessing interactive or dynamic JavaScript elements on a page, or clicking on small buttons and links. Conditions such as severe arthritis or fibromyalgia may also limit users' ability to engage with tactile elements on mobile devices.
The largest disability group which varies greatly and includes: learning disabilities, distractibility, and the inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information. Cognitive/invisible disabilities may be temporary or permanent, and may effect cognition, or someone's ability to process information, impacting their ability to access websites. There are lots of different cognitive disabilities that may affect your users' ability to effectively interact with your web maps.
Consistent and simple organization, focused on important content, goes a long way with these audiences. Website designers and software engineers should keep in mind that people living with these types of disabilities may have different design needs than people who do not. This means that people using your websites and software products may be experiencing challenges with:
- Visual Comprehension
- Reading/Linguistic/Verbal Comprehension
- Math Comprehension
- Attention
- Memory
- Problem-Solving
In general, keep your maps as simple and well-organized as possible will help your users with cognitive disabilities get the most out of your maps!