Sightsavers hosts accessibility workshop to promote inclusive design
Staff from Sightsavers’ online and design team recently hosted a workshop for graphic designers and other creative professionals to share knowledge about inclusive design and accessibility.
The workshop, part of Sightsavers’ Perspectives initiative, was held at our UK headquarters. It welcomed guests from organisations including Cancer Research UK and the National Deaf Children’s Society, and design agencies MET Studio and Kyan Media.
It featured a talk from typography expert Dr Nadine Chahine, who has carried out extensive scientific research into font legibility. She shared details of her findings, including evidence that the size of a font has more impact on legibility than the choice of comparable typefaces does.
Nadine discussed some interesting work she carried out for car manufacturers, looking at which typefaces, sizes and colours are easier to read at a glance while driving. This has helped to influence the text used on car dashboards, for example.
About Perspectives
This ongoing initiative, run by Sightsavers’ design team, promotes the importance of accessibility in design and communications.
More on Perspectives
The workshop also featured a presentation from Sightsavers designers Matt Roberts and Andrew Balchin. They shared stats showing how many people in the UK have conditions such as visual impairment, colour blindness or hearing loss, and explained the simple steps that can be taken to make sure visual communications are as accessible as possible for everyone.
The final creative session asked guests to work in groups to come up with creative concepts while also taking accessibility into account.
During his presentation, Matt said: “Design is about more than how it looks. It’s about understanding your audience. Our aim is to share what we know about accessibility, learn from others and promote the message that good design is for everyone.”
The Perspectives initiative is an extension of Sightsavers’ mission to promote accessibility and educate people both internally and externally about the principles of inclusive design.
Sightsavers social inclusion coordinator Kate Bennell said: “In terms of design, it’s useful to consider the vastness of your audience and making content fit for all of their needs. Accessible design is beneficial for everyone – it does what it’s intended to do in terms of leaving no one behind.”
“Design is about more than how it looks. It’s about understanding your audience”
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