Discussions about digital accessibility often focus on making online content accessible to people with visual or hearing impairments.
Still, digital accessibility challenges aren't limited to visual or auditory disabilities.
Around 15-20% of the world’s population is thought to be neurodivergent. These people have differences in attention, learning, social skills, and mood. Their way of interacting with the world is diverse.
The needs of neurodiverse people are mostly overlooked while creating web content. Still, it is important to include the needs of neurodiverse people in designing websites and other web content to ensure the Internet is accessible to everyone.
But how are digital accessibility and neurodiversity connected and how can you design websites accessible to neurodiverse people and others who have special needs?
What Is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is a well-known nonmedical term describing the idea that there is no single “correct” way of thinking. It assumes that people can behave and communicate in many different ways.
Rather than seeing these differences as deficits, neurodiversity recognizes them as unique approaches to thinking, acting, and acquiring knowledge as their brains function differently.
The term “neurodiversity” was popularised by Judy Singer, an Australian sociologist, who supported the promotion of inclusion and equality for neurodivergent people.
People who are considered neurodivergent such as people with autism, dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), and others feel and experience the world from a different angle.
These conditions may create challenges that hinder neurodiverse people from pursuing their desired activities.
How Are Digital Accessibility And Neurodiversity Connected?
Neurodivergent people face unique challenges online. For example, people with autism might find websites with bright colors and complex elements overwhelming, which can make it hard for them to focus.
People with dyslexia may have trouble reading and understanding text, making engaging long articles difficult. People with ADHD might struggle with distractions like blinking ads or tight time limits on websites.
The obstacles mentioned above aren't just medical issues but reflect different ways of experiencing the world. That’s why it's important to create inclusive and accessible websites that meet the needs of people with different forms of neurodiversity.
This is where neurodiversity and digital accessibility come across. Websites that do not meet digital accessibility standards may lose a large portion of their audience and potentially face financial losses from accessibility lawsuits and other legal issues. To avoid both, you need to make sure your website is accessible and inclusive.
The simplest and fastest way is to perform an audit for accessibility and ADA compliance to find and eliminate any issues beforehand.
Guidelines to Design Accessible Websites For Neurodiversity
To create an inclusive and accessible online ecosystem, each business and individual should ensure their websites are easily understandable for everyone, including those with neurodiversity.
Here are some key guidelines you need to follow to design and maintain websites that are accessible to people with neurodiversity.
Provide a Structured and Predictable Layout
Provide a clear, structured, and predictable website layout. It ensures that all users including neurodiverse people can easily find what they are searching for.
Keep the design simple, and add consistent headings, colors, and spacing for all web pages and online forms.
Your website content needs to be with a clear visual hierarchy. Apply distinct headings, subheadings, and visual markers to structure your content effectively.
This will assist neurodiverse people in quickly identifying key information and understanding the organization of the material.
Choose Legible Fonts
Choose easily readable fonts and appropriate font styles and sizes to enhance readability.
San serif fonts such as Calibri, Helvetica, and Times New Roman are considered the most commonly used accessible fonts.
Just selecting the correct font isn't enough to ensure your website text is accessible. The font size also matters. It is recommended to use a size larger than 12pt.
Additionally, you can allow users to zoom in on the text. According to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the golden standard for web compliance, website text must be able to be resized up to 200 percent without losing any content or functionality, except captions and images of text.
Provide Proper Color Contrast
Creating a strong contrast between the text and background can make it easier for people with neurodiversity to see the content clearly and reduce strain on their minds.
However, keep in mind that extremely bright, contrasting colors may be too intense and overpowering. The optimal contrast ratio between text and background suggested by WCAG is 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large-scale text.
Neurodiverse people often find softer, pastel colors and neutral tones more comfortable. Consider using a matte black background with a few pastel colors to present information, or choose neutral colors like tan, gray, or white as a background to prevent overwhelming the reader.
Minimize Distractions
Distractions are a big challenge for people with neurodiversity. Your goal should be to avoid them or minimize them at least.
Make sure to simplify your website and web forms by avoiding any unnecessary animations and busy backgrounds.
A streamlined design will help you minimize distractions, allowing users to easily focus on the key information.
Use Icons
Icons are important for improving website accessibility for neurodiverse people. They visually simplify information, making it easier to understand.
This can help neurodivergent people navigate websites more easily and intuitively. Additionally, icons efficiently communicate messages, direct users through various sections, and make the website layout more visually engaging.
Include Descriptive Alternative Text for Images
Add descriptive image alternative text (alt text) for all visuals like images and diagrams. This will help neurodiverse people, and also those with visual impairments who use screen readers to access and understand your website content.
By providing clear alt text, you can ensure that everyone can fully engage with your site and contribute to a more inclusive experience for all users.
Provide Transcripts and Captions for Audio and Video Elements
If you add video or audio to your website, then you must add transcripts and captions to it. This way you will help people with hearing impairments and neurodiverse people to understand your information. When adding captions, think about your audience's language preferences and whether open or closed captions would be better for them.
Prioritize Sensory-Friendly Design
It is important to prioritize website designs that are sensory-friendly. It includes providing a clear layout, options to change font size, and line spacing. Avoid adding any flashing visuals or those that change rapidly. This may trigger sensory discomfort for neurodiverse people
Providing choices for managing moving, blinking, or automatically updating content aligns with WCAG's guidelines for accessibility and contributes to a digital environment that minimizes distractions. This way you can create user-centric websites accessible to people with special requirements.
Use White Space
To make your website more accessible to everyone including neurodiverse people, include enough spacing between paragraphs and elements. Add white space to improve the content readability, reduce clutter, and help readers easily concentrate on every piece of your web information.
Avoid Autoplay for Media
Media autoplay is a no-no for digital accessibility.
For people without any disabilities, autoplay media can be annoying. For neurodiverse people and those with different forms of disability, it can make a website unusable.
Autoplay can be distracting for neurodiverse people. It can also trigger seizures and other physical reactions. Finally, media autoplay can make it difficult to navigate your website for people with neurodiversity.
Provide Auditory Options
Auditory options, like text-to-speech (TTS) tools allow auditory learners and those with reading challenges to read content through their preferred sensory channel.
While text-to-speech tools have been around for a long time, there are even more that are currently available with different capabilities and features, such as AI-generated voices, which have increasingly made voices sound more natural and human-like.
There are many tools available online, it is easy to provide neurodiverse people and others with the option to find and select the tools that meet their specific needs.
Use Clear And Concise Language
Apply clear and concise language for crafting your website content. Complex words and technical terms can make it difficult for neurodiverse people to understand important information.
If you need to use any acronyms or abbreviations, use the commonly known ones and provide the full version for the first time used in the text.
Final Thoughts
Digital accessibility isn't just another task to complete—it's about ensuring everyone has a smooth and accessible experience, especially those who have special needs.
Creating accessible websites for neurodiverse people is a win-win strategy for any business and individual. You make the website easily understandable for people with diverse needs and increase your website's popularity and credibility.
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