In the September 2021 Accessibility Talks virtual meetup, Michele Williams spoke about how sighted designers often don’t perceive the differences in how a sighted person navigates a page vs. the strategies a blind person uses to explore a page.
And those designers may not understand why their designs are problematic for people who are not sighted.
Williams used the part-to-whole vs. whole-to-part approach in explaining how a sighted person navigates a page (whole-to-part) when they initially view a web page.
Someone who is blind uses an opposite approach (part-to-whole) to put pieces of information together to understand the full picture.
Examples of Part-to-Whole vs. Whole-to-Part Approaches
A good example of whole-to-part is a sighted person standing in a doorway of a room, where you see everything in a room. You can tell the size, how empty the room is, what objects are in the room, and how it’s decorated.
And depending on your goal, perhaps finding a seat in a conference room, focus on where an empty seat is.
When you’re not sighted and standing in the doorway, you can’t get that information to explore the space. You have to physically explore the space to piece together the information about the room.
Part-by-whole to learn the layout of the room, how it’s decorated, laid out.
That’s the same for a web page.
For example, one of the first things a screen reader user does when visiting a page is to get a list of headings on the page.
Depending on what the headings are, they may decide to visit a specific heading.
What I Learned
I loved the before and after wireframe lessons example Williams used to highlight issues faced by people who are blind or have low vision trying to complete a task on a page.
And the tips she provided on how designers can improve the design by providing additional information for screen readers users, which also benefits sighted users.
Key Takeaways
- Headings are important structural elements on a page
- Create a logical layout. Screen readers linearize a page. Put things in order that make sense.
- Write descriptive link and button text
Check out the 58-minute presentation to discover best practices you can use to create digital designs that everyone can confidently navigate.
