As the world’s population continues to grow, so too does the number of individuals living with visual impairments. According to the World Health Organization, there are currently an estimated 285 million people with visual impairments worldwide, and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. As such, product, website and app accessibility is becoming an increasingly important consideration for designers and manufacturers. As technology continues to advance, it’s important to ensure that products, apps and websites are designed with accessibility in mind. One group that often gets overlooked in this area is individuals with visual impairments.

Our team will work with your designers and developers to review your product from the perspective of a person with a visual impairment. We’ll then generate a report including our observations about the product’s usability. The goal of this service is to provide a cost-effective quick accessibility check on your product before you conduct any further market research. We will provide prompt feedback and recommendations based on our own personal experiences as individuals with vision loss. Our team will provide unique insights into whether a design or prototype is something we ourselves could use; we’ll identify the features that would work best for us.

When we review your physical product, we’ll take a holistic approach. We’ll analyze everything from the packaging to the instructions, to the actual product itself. Is the product itself something we can take home and immediately put into service, or would we require assistance from somebody sighed to teach us the controls and affix tactile markers before use?

If the product can be used with the addition of tactile markers, we can work with you to design adhesive overlays available upon request by a blind consumer. If the product has training videos or video instructions, we can collaborate with your marketing staff to audio describe that content. Additionally, we can produce electronic and hardcopy braille instructions available upon request to your customers.

For digital or online products and services, we’ll test your product using a variety of assistive technologies. On the PC side, we’ll utilize various web browsers (Chrome and Edge) and screen readers (Jaws and NVDA). We’ll then incorporate our Braille displays to ensure they display all content properly under a user’s fingertips. On the mobile platforms side, we’ll test app and mobile browser responsiveness and general user experience with the iOS screen reader voiceover.

Once we have completed our review, we’ll generate a personalized report that includes our observations and recommendations for you and your physical product, website, or app. This report can be used by product designers to make improvements to the user experience and ensure accessibility  for everyone.