Principles for Ensuring Accessibility: An Overview of the POUR Approach

In today's digital world, accessible design is no longer an option, but a necessity. With 1.3 billion people, or 16% of the world's population, living with disabilities, it's crucial to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to understand and interact with designs.

Our platform recognises the importance of accessible design and has developed an Accessible Design Tool to make the process seamless.

The Importance of Accessible Design

Accessible design is essential for several reasons. Firstly, it improves people's lives by ensuring they can access and interact with digital content effectively. Secondly, it helps to reach a wider audience, making content more inclusive. Lastly, it's about adhering to the law, as many countries have regulations in place to ensure digital accessibility.

Key Features of Our Accessible Design Tool

Labeling Interactive Elements: Our tool makes it easy to label interactive elements, ensuring they are distinct from static content and easily identifiable for everyone.
Setting Reading Order: The reading order in a design is crucial for people using keyboard navigation and assistive technologies. Our platform allows you to set the reading order in designs, ensuring the content is accessible to all readers.
Adjusting Font Size: WCAG does not provide an official minimum font size recommendation, but a font size of 16px is considered good practice. Our platform allows adjusting font size easily to cater to various users' needs.
Alt Text for Non-Text Elements: Alt text is necessary to make your design accessible for people on screen readers. Our platform makes it easy to set alt text to non-text elements in your design.
WCAG Color Contrast Checker: High contrast designs are easier to perceive and thus more accessible. Our platform has a WCAG Color Contrast Checker to check color contrast in a few clicks.
PDF Accessibility Checker: Our platform offers a free PDF accessibility checker to help meet accessibility standards.
Accessible-Friendly Fonts: Choosing accessible fonts is another pillar of accessible design. Our platform offers many accessible-friendly fonts to choose from.

Why Accessible Design Matters for Everyone

Creating an inaccessible design can lead to lawsuits and lost business. Investing in accessible design from the start is more cost-effective than remediating a design later to address accessibility issues.

Remember, accessible design matters for three reasons: to improve people's lives, to ensure content reaches a wider audience, and to adhere to the law. By embracing accessible design, we can create a more inclusive digital world for everyone.