“Accessibility addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments. For the web, accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools, and that they can contribute equally without barriers.”

This is an excerpt from the W3C website, who are basically the people in charge of the internet. They develop the web standards for the entire world. Their mission is to make the internet a place that is easy for everyone to use, communicate, and work with, including those with disabilities.
In a time where companies are under more scrutiny than ever to meet consumer demands and make it easier for people to make decisions, it’s imperative that companies make their websites and applications accessible, usable, and inclusive for everyone.
Samsung is one of those inspirational companies leading the charge towards a more accessible world wide web. Watch this video:

Now try and tell us that didn’t make you all warm and fuzzy inside.
This new tablet application, called PizzAut, was created to help people with Autism confidently run their own businesses, specifically a pizza restaurant. Samsung Italy released this service just this past April. The user interface and user experience of the app was designed with the cognitive process in mind, including all the most essential features to take the employees from the order to the payment of the pizza, and (more importantly) excluding all other needless operations.

You might be thinking: “Why are these people ranting on about this accessibility stuff? I already have a good website that’s pretty easy to navigate, so what else do I have to do?”
In the spirit of believing ‘you can always do better’ we’re going to go ahead and say “you can always do better.”
Remember, we live in an era where half of web users will close a website if it doesn’t load in under 3 seconds. You shouldn’t just be ensuring that you aren’t losing those visitors, you should be considering usability and inclusion. These are two more terms defined by W3C, which they heavily emphasize the importance of considering when creating a website or application. Usability is about helping users achieve their goals in the most effective and efficient way possible. Being inclusive simply means designing your product in a way that makes it easy to use by everyone, even those with poor computer literacy.
If there’s one thing we can learn from watching Samsung’s video about PizzAut, it’s that
Simplicity is key.
Get rid of the unnecessary operations, buttons, features that aren’t helping your business profit, and focus on what is. It’s a win for your company, and a win for the consumer.
If you have any more questions about accessibility or are even more confused about accessibility, usability, and inclusion then we have achieved our goal. Give us a call and we would be happy to help out.