Most people tend to have normal vision, while a minority have some form of visual impairment. There is a big difference between what users with normal vision see and what users with color blindness and low vision see. These users tend to experience blurry text and faint elements when text size and color contrasts are too low.
The goal of accessibility is to meet the needs of the minority because we often forget that. But what happens when meeting the needs of the minority ends up not meeting the needs of the majority? This problem occurs when the interface is made too accessible and is not balanced with the aesthetics.
Aesthetics vs accessibility
In general, the more accessible an interface is, the effective panama mobile numbers list less aesthetically appealing it will be. Highly accessible interfaces are easier on the eyes of visually impaired people, but harder on the eyes of people with normal vision. On the other hand, highly aesthetic interfaces are easier on the eyes of people with normal vision, but harder on the eyes of people with visual impairments.
This paradox of aesthetics and accessibility is what designers struggle with when designing interfaces. The challenge is to meet the needs of both the majority and the minority. However, if you stray too far to one extreme, you will only align with a subset of your users. Most people don’t want to alienate the minority. But alienating the majority of your users is just as bad as alienating the minority.
Below are two forms that illustrate this concept. One form is AAA compliant and accessible to all visually impaired users. The other is not accessible at all, but appeals to users with normal vision.
highly aesthetic-accessible
For people with normal vision, the aesthetic form is pleasing to the eye, while the accessible form is very visually harsh. However, for people with visual impairments, the accessible form is more pleasing to the eye, while the aesthetic form is harsher. Which form should you use?
The correct answer is neither, because neither form respects the paradox of aesthetic accessibility. They are designed towards opposite ends of the continuum, which will either align the majority or the minority.
A truly accessible and aesthetic interface lies somewhere in between. Below is the form that respects the aesthetic-accessibility paradox. Color tones, contrasts, font sizes, and weights are balanced with AA compliance and meet the needs of both the majority and the minority. The result is an interface that is pleasing to the eye for the maximum number of users.
accessibility-balanced-aesthetics
The majority of the minority
An interface that is balanced with aesthetics and accessibility is not necessarily pleasing to the eye for all users. Within the minority subset, there is another majority and another minority. The majority of the minority are users who do not have extreme visual impairments and will be able to use a balanced design. But the minority of the minority who do have extreme visual impairments will still have problems.
Majority-Minority Accessibility
Designing for the smallest minority will make your design accessible to extremely visually impaired users. However, your design will alienate sighted users who make up the majority. For this reason, the best design is one that is balanced and satisfies the largest minority.
What about the needs of the smaller minority? Most users with extreme visual impairments use assistive technologies that provide high contrast modes. These modes allow them to read low contrast interfaces by inverting the colors on the screen.
Local high contrast mode
Sometimes a very aesthetically pleasing or very accessible interface is required depending on the nature of a project. There is a way to offer users these presentations without alienating anyone from your audience.
If you want to maintain a highly aesthetic design, provide a local high contrast mode in your interface. A local high contrast mode is a button that allows users to enhance the contrast of text and elements to comply with AA. On the other hand, if you want to offer users a very accessible design, you could make the high contrast mode display an AAA version.