Accessibility and Usability: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Dominos pizza has been quietly embroiled in a legal challenge concerning digital accessibility since 2016. And unless you specifically follow accessibility news, you may not understand the potential ramifications of the court’s most recent action.

In 2016, Guillermo Robles, a blind customer, sued Dominos for its website and app’s lack of accessibility compatibility. After a series of losses in lower courts, Dominos appealed to the Supreme Court, which denied their petition for appeal. This effectively pushed this and all future accessibility lawsuits back down to the lower courts to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether organizations have satisfied the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) vague guidance that all public spaces must communicate the same information to persons, with or without a disability, equally.

Dominos’ defense? The ADA was written for physical spaces, not digital ones, and there is almost no legal guidance for applying ADA rules to digital properties.

From a documentation standpoint, Dominos is correct. However, there is guidance to help companies navigate the tricky waters of digital accessibility, but it isn’t spelled out explicitly in the ADA, but rather, in common-sense usability testing.

Dominos’ Accessibility Mistake Is an All Too Common One

Dominos thought it was offering an acceptable level of accessibility, complete with alternative methods of access for those with disabilities. These alternatives included a 24/7 hotline, Alexa and Google voice-assisted ordering, and even its own in-app voice-assisted AI called “Dom.”

What Robles sued Dominos over, its web and mobile apps’ incompatibility with his screen reader, touches on a basic tenet of accessibility. Now, maybe Robles’ particular screen reader had a new feature that caused the trouble, or maybe it was not the usual Windows JAWS or Apple VoiceOver reader. We don’t know and according to the Court’s rulings, it does not matter. It didn’t work; end of story.

The net-net here is that any business offering a “place of public accommodation” (a physical or digital presence accessible by the public) needs to take a hard look at what it considers acceptable levels of accessibility and substantiate its compliance through real-world testing for usability by those for whom both standards apply.

Accessibility and Usability – More Similar Than You Think

Experts devote a lot of real estate to explaining the differences between accessibility and usability, along with detailed testing methodologies and philosophies. But, very few discuss their similarities. If you strip away the fact that accessibility is mandated by law and usability is not, what remains is largely applicable to both.

Consider the commonly accepted components of usability:

1. Learnability – how easy it is for new users to navigate around
2. Efficiency – how quickly tasks are accomplished
3. Memorability – is it intuitive enough that users will remember how to operate it later
4. Errors – was it prone to errors either through user misuse or from technical issues
5. Satisfaction – did the user enjoy the experience

Now, consider the W3Cs guidance for web accessibility:

1. Perceivable – can the user access the content she desires using whatever means necessary
2. Operable – can it be used by those with limitations and how easily
3. Understandable – the content appears and works as expected, and was there to help if the user needed it
4. Robust – refers to how well it employs assistive technologies

See the overlap?

Had Dominos applied usability guidance to its website, it would have failed the Errors test alone based on the fact that the user’s screen reader didn’t work. It would also have failed on Satisfaction since the user was unable to actually use the website for his intended purpose.

Design Strategies for Usability and Accessibility – The Startup Approach

There is no shortage of help, by way of software or consultancies, for building digital properties adhering to basic accessibility and usability guidance. Most development environments, including [Name Removed], contain varying levels of compliance recommendations, templates, and automated testing–either natively or through third-party integrations–all designed to ensure coverage for basic impairments, both physical and environmental.

The problem is “basic” doesn’t appear to be enough for accessibility, at least not according to U.S. courts. However, technology is no substitute for real people. And here is, I believe, where many of us fail to “more than adequately” deliver on accessibility or usability.

Why? For starters, nearly every guide for usability and accessibility begins with a basic premise:

“Understand your user.”

But who, exactly, is your user? For retail, it’s potentially anyone, anywhere, of any age. For banking, it’s the same. Government? Same. Media? Same. Restaurants and hospitality? Same. In fact, the category of digital properties that both serve the public and a niche persona is extremely small. This means your users–the people you need to build accessibility and usability functionality for–include potentially anyone and everyone.

Where do you start? How can you possibly build a digital property that successfully meets the physical and mental requirements of everyone?

One approach is to imagine you’re a startup trying to build your customer base. And imagine there is one customer who, if you can attract them to your digital properties and get them to successfully transact with your business across all of your mobile and web spaces, will make your organization the most successful on the planet. The catch is, you don’t know anything about this person. You don’t know where or how they live. You don’t know their education level or what disabilities they may have. Therefore, to get that one, life-changing customer, you need to reach as many people as possible and enable every single one of them to complete the desired action. Anyone could be “the one”, so you can’t build your digital properties based on who you think this person is.

Yes, this strategy flies in the face of everything you know about marketing and personas, but accessibility and usability aren’t about marketing or attracting a particular customer or set of customers to your properties. Save that for your landing pages and SEO strategy.

Usability and accessibility are about facilitating the use of your digital spaces for every potential customer. And in the aftermath of Domino’s vs. Robles,  they’re also about avoiding needless lawsuits.

Now, Understand Your User

Tools and development platforms that facilitate testing, and apply design standards during the development process, are a start, but it’s people who make it real. Employees with disabilities or who have training in accessibility and/or usability are invaluable, as are focus groups and individuals using and interacting with your website and mobile apps in a variety of real-world environments.

Involve them in every step of your digital strategy, from design to deployment. Learn from them and understand how they use your digital resources and then constantly engage with them to ensure any new updates you release meet their needs.

Good intentions are not enough when it comes to accessibility. The only way to show customers you care about them and want them as ambassadors of your brand is by allowing them to connect with you on their terms.