Accessible UX presentations at the CSUN 2014 conference

I spent last week in San Diego at the amazing CSUN Conference on Disabilities, absorbing the presentations and even better hallway conversations. And, I gave three presentations on UX and accessibility.

It was very encouraging to see how much focus there is on moving beyond checklist compliance and towards making user experiences that are delightful for everyone.

Many presentations from internal accessibility groups talked about efforts to work more closely with product and UX teams from the start. And when I asked the audience in one session how many of them had run or observed usability testing, most of the hands went up.  Breaking down the silos is a good place to start.

My three presentations are all on my Slideshare page.

Accessibility note: You can read the presentation online as a series of images, or download an accessible Powerpoint file. There’s also a transcript of the text in the presentation at the end of the page.

Where usability meets accessibility

Jayne Schurick and I looked at the intersection of usability and accessibility in the user experience:

• How usability problems can be more severe when there are also accessibility barriers.
• When accessibility problems can amplify usability issues and make them more noticeable.
• Looking beyond the noise for the problems that have the most impact on the user experience.

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Need a little usability? What you can learn from usability testing

Every study starts with a question. This session started by examining the questions that usability testing can answer and then matching them to different approaches and methods. It will help you know what you can (and can’t) learn from working with real people as they try to use a web site or other product.

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Accessibility as innovation: Creating accessible user experiences

Accessibility can be a “wicked” problem – one that is difficult to solve because the requirements are incomplete, contradictory, or changing. It’s especially hard to keep advances in technology, standards or regulations, attitudes, work processes, and personal habits all in line.

But, if we take diverse participation in the design process seriously, we might find that we change the question and end up with even more innovative products.

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