A Bookseller's Diary: Some new ways to be "open for business."

Publicity photo of comedian Fred Allen from his radio program Allen's Alley. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fred Allen used to say "the reason television is called a medium if because nothing on it is well done."

On the Internet, however, the new (-ish) site Medium is very well done indeed, and there we found an article by Jesse Hausler, "7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About Accessibility." It's a real eye-opener if you do business on the web, or just want everyone who visits your site to have an equally easy and gratifying user experience. While we thought we were pretty au fait with accessiblity issues (another story, another day), we have learned a lot reading this piece, and have realized there is much we can do better.

So we're going to be working to build HBB into as accessible a site as we can, thanks to Hausler's- and Medium's- gentle prod. Here's an excerpt:

Accessibility will not force you to make a product that is ugly, boring, or cluttered. It will introduce a set of constraints to incorporate as you consider your design. These design constraints will give you new ideas to explore that will lead to better products for all of your users.

As you read through these guidelines, consider that we don’t want to design for our design peers.

Design for the diverse set of users who will interact with your products.

This can include people who are blind, color blind, or have low vision, those who are Deaf or have hearing difficulties, people with mobility impairments which may be temporary or permanent, or people with cognitive disabilities. Design for people who are young, old, power users, casual users, and those who just enjoy a quality experience.

Embrace these accessibility guidelines as you would any set of design constraints. They are part of the challenge of creating amazing products.

Related articles

• Accessibility is not what you think