Accessibility Statement
Last update: May 5, 2024
As an ethical and innovative design studio, we take accessibility seriously, considering it from the beginning of each project through to the design and build of each website, campaign, and publication.
We also advise clients about how their content can be as accessible as possible while helping them understand how to meet their users’ needs.
We aim to ensure our websites, brands, and products reach as many people as possible. We’re always working to improve our standards and keep up to date with the latest guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1).
Fundamentally, we recognize that different user groups have different accessibility needs, so consider an audience’s particular requirements before beginning any site build – e.g. the needs of dyslexic users may be at odds with those with temporary vision impairment, so we compromise to deliver a site accessible to the majority.
We are also guided by the principles of the POUR framework, where sites should be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Beyond the specific needs of certain user groups, we aim to maintain a high baseline level of accessibility through:
Recognizing, fundamentally, that accessibility affects all users – not just people with permanent disabilities. We understand inclusive design touches on:
temporary impairments (such as operating a phone with one hand while carrying a baby);
Progressive impairments (e.g. through aging);
Situational impairments (e.g. accessing digital tools while out running) and;
Permanent impairments (e.g. neurodiversity or blindness).
Considering accessibility from the very outset of our process. For example, when we create or enhance user personas as part of our UX phase, we do so from an inclusive perspective and encourage direct participation of users from those groups, where possible.
Designing website features with accessibility in mind. For example, screen readers must know the “status” of an element when they interact with it: e.g. when a mobile burger menu is open or closed.
Paying particular attention to key templates and challenging our assumptions about them. For example, the logical order and presentation of the content may differ for sighted users versus blind or partially sighted users, so we aim to take this into account when writing the markup for each template and layout.
Including accessibility into our testing processes, for example, utilizing screenreading software such as NVDA and Voiceover for Mac when necessary to ensure the content is accessible to blind & partially sighted users.
Recommending clients include alternatives such as transcripts for all audio, video, and time-based media where required.
Keeping accessibility in mind when offering SEO consultancy and training. Often by improving the SEO of a website, we strengthen the accessibility standards and vice versa.
Aiming to maintain all essential functionality for keyboard-only users, for example ensuring all buttons and menus can be toggled without a mouse or touchpad.
Building an intuitive CMS for each project, to make sure that our clients can maintain good accessibility standards when they update the website and are not unnecessarily restricted.
Design Standards
We aim to design and build to the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 A level where possible and within our control. Many of these guidelines affect content as much as design or development, so we advise clients to bear them in mind when creating content.
Achieving an AA level is also possible in some areas of a site, such as color contrast or certain build aspects, but we cannot guarantee meeting AA or AAA levels as much of those standards come down to content creation and entry, which is most often outside of our control.
Site Structure
We have one set of pages for the whole site, which we aim to make accessible to all. We do not separate accessible and less accessible pages into separate sections.
Content
We aim to use clear, plain English in a concise and meaningful way and can guide writing content to appeal to a wide range of audiences. We also partner with accessibility specialists and can broker their services when content creators require them.
Accessible Markup
We aim to use semantic markup as well as page landmarks and roles (ARIA) to help tools such as screen-readers understand the different areas of the page and navigate around the content efficiently. We use page landmarks and roles to guide such tools.
Use of Cookies
For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.
Use of Multimedia
We aim to label all images and include functionality for screen readers to describe the image. We also aim to provide a transcript or other relevant written alternative for all video and audio content.
Text will be scaleable, as will all pages themselves. We set a maximum width for blocks of text based on optimal readability standards.
Browser Support
There will always be small differences in the display between browsers, but we do aim to broadly support:
Internet Explorer for Windows
Safari for Apple devices
Mozilla Firefox for all platforms
Google Chrome for all platforms
Opera for all platforms
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording, or braille:
Email us: hello@nicoles.design
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.
Compliance and Issues
We use a few tools to evaluate our work, including the WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool by WebAIM and Contrast Checker, but ultimately we aim to be responsive to your needs.
Please notify us of any specific problems you encounter (on our site or any of those we have built) or any suggestions you have for improvement at hello@nicoles.design.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Accessibility Statement, please contact us by email at hello@nicoles.design.