Designing for the visually impaired

A style guide for those who design for everyone

4.6 percent of the world population is visually impaired

(4 percent has low vision and 0.6 percent has a substantial loss of vision in both eyes and is considered blind). This might not seem much when one just looks at the percentage but it is a group of over 285 million people (Fulton, 2016). This doesn’t even include the 7 to 12 percent of the population that experience some sort of color blindness (O’ Conner, 2014).

This means that over 285 million people will perceive an application, website or digital medium differently than one might expect. Perhaps they do not perceive the aesthetics as one had planned when designing a website or, worse, they can not find a button or contact-link on your homepage. Which renders the website unusable for the visually impaired user (VIP).

In the 21st century we do no longer just want to design for the masses. Accessibility has been a trend for a few years now and we see it everywhere around us. More and more minorities are included in our design processes and we think about the how and the why. This is why this brand book is created: to help (digital) designers with making their projects more accessible for the visually impaired people. It is our aim to do our part to make the world a little more accessible.

Click here if you want to read more about us.

History

A brief history on the designs made for the visually impaired and existing aids.

Target Audience

The target audience and persona’s to help you with your design.

Colors

The best colors and color combinations to use to make your project accessible.

Typography

Help to pick a font that is easy to read for everyone.

Visuals

How to use visuals for the VIP, image descriptions and more.

Back end

What is going on behind the scenes of a website or app?

Feedback

How to give feedback, what works and what doesn’t?

Testing

How to test your project, during and at the end of the process.

Future

Future technologies that might be beneficial to design for VIP.