AccessAbility 2: Handbook Release

AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design

We were honoured to be contributors on the AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Graphic Design, an initiative produced by the Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) in Partnership with the Government of Ontario.

Our recent work for the Vancouver School Board (VSB) was featured inside this wonderful resource. We were able to share some of our best-practices for creating accessible digital media in terms of your websites navigation, creation of landing pages, search and proper focus order.

Why is this important?

Accessibility is no longer an option — it’s a necessity.

At some point in our lives all of us will experience disability in one form or another. It may be a condition that we are born with, a temporary ailment or the inevitable changes that come with age.

Today more than 15% of people have some form of disability. As the population ages, the number of people who have a disability in an area of their lives will only increase. Beyond what we might call a disability, we must also consider the wide range of human diversity in how we think, what we sense and how we move our bodies.

Who is this book for?

Accessible design is for everyone.

This book is meant for anyone involved in the process of designing communication materials. This is a broad group of individuals, including professional graphic designers, clients, educators, students and many others.

This Handbook addresses how we can plan a project to help ensure it is as accessible as possible for the intended audience. What special considerations do we need to make for accessibility across various media? And how does our desire to communicate effectively with people of varying abilities and potential impairments translate into specific design decisions?

It is designing for the users who are outliers or edge-case scenarios. When we design for those groups, we are designing for the disabled, we are designing for our parents and grandparents, an we are designing for those we may have never met or considered. Ultimately, we are also designing for ourselves, as we define the level of accessibility that we will eventually come to experience as our lives change in unexpected ways.

Released May 2019

For more information, you can download a PDF copy of this wonderful resource from the RGD website.