Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility

Some fantastic design accessibility information from Karwai Pun an interaction designer currently working on Service Optimisation to make existing and new services better for our users. Karwai is part of an accessibility group at Home Office Digital, leading on autism, and has created these dos and don’ts posters as a way of approaching accessibility from a design perspective.

See all the poster designs click here

Posters showing the dos and don'ts of designing for users with accessibility needs including autism, blindness, low vision, deaf or hard of hearing, mobility and dyslexia

Dos and don’ts

The dos and don’ts of designing for accessibility are general guidelines, best design practices for making our services accessible. Currently, we have six different posters in our series that cater to users from these areas: low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, dyslexia, those with motor disabilities, users on the autistic spectrum and users of screen readers.

Designing for users with dyslexia

Do

• use images and diagrams to support text
• align text to the left and keep a consistent layout
• consider producing materials in other formats (for example, audio and video)
• keep content short, clear and simple
• let users change the contrast between background and text

Don't

• use large blocks of heavy text
• underline words, use italics or write capitals
• force users to remember things from previous pages - give reminders and prompts
• rely on accurate spelling - use autocorrect or provide suggestions
• put too much information in one place