Upcoming Events

Accessibility - What is it, and why is it important?

6:00 p.m. The Albany Club - 91 King Street East, Toronto, Ontario

Speaker: David Best

Usability, Inclusion, Design!

The accessibility challenge is the deficit gap between the disability of the user and the system capabilities, and the goal is to bridge the accessibility gap, through inclusive design, that will create the best possible end-user experience.

Accessibility is a measurement of productivity not disability, and accessibility is a subset of Usability. Usability is concerned with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction through multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement. So, design is the bridge between information and understanding, built upon three pillars of security, performance, and accessibility.

If you do not understand the information then it is just noise, and if any one of the pillars is weak then people are put at risk. That is, cognitive considerations for visualization and the information interface design, are important for making products and services accessible and usable. The bridge design must consider the physical and cognitive characteristics of people with a holistic user interface that incorporates vision, audio, and touch, so as to close the gap of inclusion.

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