Software For People With Disabilities

Nowadays more and more people with disabilities are using all kinds of software. It means that developers have to keep in mind this group of customers. I’ll describe several approaches to address this situation in the following article.

Use Native Features

You as a developer have to use the native features of your platform as much as possible.

Operational systems at desktops have tons of native features that simplify work for people with disabilities, like zooming, simplified key mappings, custom color schemes, etc. All these features already can make life a bit easier, you just have to support them. Mobile devices also have several nice features to help such people make their life easier, just make sure your application is using them properly.

If you are developing a web application then it is worth checking native browser tools, like defining elements order, highlighting, and so on. You can make an easy test: if you can use your application using only basic keyboard keys without a mouse or touchpad then there is a good chance that it will be good for challenged people too.

Finally, it is worth making your application adaptive, so it will be automatically changed depending on the device configuration or resolution. Modern approaches like PWA already have some nice things, but you can take another step forward and adapt it for challenged users.

Enable Existing Plugins

The next step in adapting the environment for disabled people's needs is the usage of additional tools and plugins. Both desktop and mobile platforms have 3rd party tools and plugins developed by the community to help such people. These tools can automatically adapt application content, use custom output channels (like reading text aloud), and save preferences depending on the device and application.

Some groups of people with disabilities could require additional help to use the application. It could include hiding or moving some content depending on who is using the application. Some tools, especially browser plugins, can offer that. For example, Screen Reader can help blind people read or rather hear the content.

If you are building a web application, you can use online services that can adapt the look and feel of a regular website to make it more usable for challenged people. Such modification can include changing of color scheme, content placement, etc. You just need to use general best practices and test the results before going live.

Specialized Versions

Built-in and community-developed features are definitely good, but sometimes you have to build specialized versions of your application to meet your customers’ needs.

But before doing that you need to check your customer segments and understand which of these segments indeed require a custom application version. For example, older people could you standard version with bigger inputs and/or custom colors, while blind people will definitely need a separate version.

There is also a third way: have the same application with configuration options to adapt it to the specific group of people with disabilities. These options could remove specific elements, change their order, and do many other things to make the life of customers easier.

So, these are all recommendations for building the software for people with disabilities. You should follow them to satisfy your customers and make them happy!