Coronavirus Accessibility

The Problem

The pandemic has been a stressful time for everyone, made even more stressful by conflicting information from official sources and straight up misinformation from others.

Now more than ever, especially when dealing with potentially life-saving information, it’s important to present things in a way that is accessible to as many people as possible. As I’ve looked at the CDC’s website, especially the sections about how to protect yourself from the virus, I couldn’t help but notice that more care could have been taken to accommadate people with cognitive disabilities.

The main page and the majority of the linked subpages are mostly comprised of a wall of text with a handful of icons or small image thumbnails. This isn’t ideal for disabled individuals who rely more heavily on visuals.

The Solution

To make this information more accessible to people with cognitive limitations, I decided to design a web app with the following guidelines in mind.

Clear and Simple Writing

People with intellectual disabilities often struggle to understand wording that is not short, simple, and unambiguous. The CDC did a good job of using language that is easy to understand, but I wanted to further simplify and condense the protective measures into something more easily remembered and understood.

I split them into “the 3 Cs”, each with a corresponding icon and short description. This mnemonic device would aid not only those with memory deficits and other disabilities but also the average person.

Supplemental Media

Many people with cognitive disabilities rely heavily on visuals. I animated the CDC’s small thumbnail images and then expanded them into full-screen, immersive pages to provide a more helpful visual experience.

The animations supplement and act as an introduction to the textual information.

Distracting Animations

Though animations can be a great way to convey information to certain groups, they can be a distraction to those with attention deficits. For that reason, I chose to make the animations play through only once. That way they still provide their benefit without being a hindrance.

Whether there’s a global pandemic happening or not, it’s always important to design with accessibility in mind. Adding or enhancing supplemental visuals and other accessibility improvements only takes a little extra effort, but it makes a world of difference to those living with disabilities.