The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates over 15% of the world’s population — or 1.3 billion people — self-identify as having a disability.

That’s why creating inclusive and accessible websites isn’t just a nice-to-have in today’s online world; it’s an absolute necessity. 

As hospitals, universities, and nonprofits strive to meet the needs of everyone who visits their websites, it becomes all the more crucial to understand the diverse challenges folks face when attempting to interact with inaccessible content (and the impact this can have on customer acquisition, applications, and fundraising.)

Here at Kanopi, we’d argue that to understand what people with disabilities need from your website, you should develop accessible personas — detailed representations of your different website visitors, particularly those with disabilities.

This blog explores why accessible personas are essential, how they help design better user experiences and the best practices for developing them. Let’s get started!

What are accessible personas?

We’ve written about them before here, but simply put, a persona is a fictional yet data-driven representation of your target customer, written as if the persona were a real person. It’s documented in a way that lists everything from demographic information to hobbies, to pain points, and motivators. 

A persona is a tool you can use to create sales and marketing materials that have a specific target user in mind, rather than a generic one. They are designed to guide content writers, designers, and developers in crafting websites that can be easily accessed and navigated by everyone, regardless of their abilities.

But what many personas lack is taking accessibility needs into account. We can’t forget or ignore that site visitors can have various impairments, including permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities (see below for more on those). This is particularly critical in healthcare, where users come to a website with any number of accessibility needs and need information quickly and easily. 

Example: a persona for a UCSF Department of Urology patient

By focusing on different disability types — such as mobility, visual, hearing, cognitive, and neurological impairments — organizations can better anticipate the needs of folks who may face barriers when interacting with their websites.

Dyslexia alone affects 20% of the population and represents 80–90% of all those with learning disabilities. It’s the most common of all neurocognitive disorders. Limiting all capitalization and breaking up large walls of text to add white space are just a few design solutions that help ensure your site content is dyslexia-friendly. 

It’s also essential to consider the three different types of impairments:

• Permanent impairments, like blindness or permanent mobility limitations.
• Temporary impairments, such as an eye injury or recovering from surgery.
• Situational impairments, like those faced by a person in bright sunlight or within a noisy environment.

There’s a strong business case for developing accessible personas.

Improved usability for everyone

Accessible personas help organizations understand the unique challenges faced by people with disabilities, leading to more inclusive and user-friendly web design. 

The insights drawn from accessible personas ensure that accessibility isn’t an afterthought but an integrated part of the design process. 

By considering different abilities, you create a better experience not only for folks with disabilities but for everyone — whether they’re navigating your website with a keyboard, voice control, or even in a noisy or visually cluttered space.

Helps meet legal & ethical obligations

Most organizations must comply with accessibility laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

Then there’s the issue of ethics. Put simply, ensuring your website is accessible to people with disabilities means equal access to your site’s content for all, not just a few. 

Enhances content, UX, & design

Creating accessible personas encourages teams to focus on key aspects of accessibility, such as content clarity, navigation ease, and intuitive design. 

For instance, a persona with a hearing impairment might require captions for videos and a visual indicator for sound cues. 

Additionally, a person with a visual impairment might need large text options and high-contrast colors. 

These solutions — along with many more outlined in our content scorecard — help ensure that everyone who visits your website can read, navigate and use your content as intended.

Fosters empathy & inclusion

Developing personas based on real-world impairments fosters empathy among strategists, content writers, designers, and developers. 

When teams are guided by detailed personas that represent real-world people, you can create a stronger emotional connection to your organization’s accessibility goals. 

This empathy can shift the focus from mere compliance to a genuine commitment to creating more inclusive and usable digital experiences for everyone.

Best practices for developing accessible personas

Consider permanent, temporary, & situational disabilities

Disabilities can vary widely in terms of permanence. Some folks might have lifelong disabilities, like blindness, while others might have temporary conditions, such as an eye injury. 

Situational impairments — like a noisy environment or bright lighting — also affect how people interact with your website.

Account for diverse impairments

A disability can impact someone’s senses and abilities differently, including:

• Mobility: People with limited motor control may require options to navigate your website without precise mouse movements. Ensure your site provides keyboard navigation, large buttons, and clear visual cues for all clickable elements.
• Visual: Permanent impairments like blindness or color blindness and temporary issues such as cataracts or eye injuries require solutions including alt text, high-contrast colors, and adjustable font sizes.
• Hearing: People with hearing impairments need captions and transcripts for videos and visual cues for audio content.
• Cognitive & Neurological: People with cognitive impairments benefit from clear, simple language, step-by-step instructions, and tutorials that help them navigate your website easily.

Embed accessibility in Drupal

Once you’ve designed your personas, make it easy to implement how you’ll meet people’s needs.

The Drupal A11y Project Checklist created and maintained by developers at Kanopi offers helpful, integrated guidance on interaction methods, navigation, and structure for individuals, organizations, and governments.

Practical solutions for a variety of impairments

Avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Different solutions assist different impairments. For example:

• Mobility Impairments: Ensure folks can navigate your site using their keyboard or screen reader. Avoid requiring precise mouse movements, which can be difficult for people with motor impairments.
• Visual Impairments: Craft high-contrast color schemes and resizable text options, and use descriptive alt text for images and videos. These features benefit people with blindness, color blindness, and even temporary impairments like eye injuries. 
• Hearing Impairments: Use captions, transcripts, and visual cues to replace audio information. Additionally, provide clear, concise language to ensure understanding.
• Cognitive Impairments: Simplify language, use step-by-step instructions, and minimize complex interactions. Visual aids can be beneficial for people with cognitive or neurological impairments.
• Neurological impairments: Avoid extreme flash and strobe of visual content, parallax effects, and scroll-triggered animations, considering the needs of the 50 million people worldwide who have epilepsy and the 1.8 million adults worldwide who have bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH).

Where to start for creating your own accessible personas 

The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has developed seven different open-source accessibility personas that you can use as a reference to get started. However, the GDS also notes that creating accessible personas is not a substitute for including people with access needs in your user testing.

Guidelines from Microsoft’s Inclusive Design methodology provide a comprehensive approach to developing accessible personas as well.

Accessible personas not only humanize your site’s users but also help prioritize and align content, UX, and design solutions to better meet their needs.

At Kanopi, we create personas from many different sources, including:

• user research
• interviews with real people
• data gathered through analytics
• and market knowledge best practices.

We’ve developed accessible personas for many organizations, including Flagler College, the Gilder Lehrman Hamilton Education Program, and the UCSF Department of Urology.

While it may seem like a daunting task, taking small, incremental steps can improve your site’s accessibility over time. For example, you could start by focusing on your website’s forms.