Digital inclusion: A focus on underrepresented communities

Digital inclusion means making sure websites and services work for everyone, including groups that are often overlooked. Beyond visual and hearing impairments, this includes neurodivergent people, those with cognitive or chronic conditions, older people and anyone with limited literacy or digital skills. Many of these needs aren’t obvious, so they’re easily missed in design decisions.

It’s worth matching the groups listed to the ones the article actually covers, so the opening works as a summary of what follows. Your closing line about keeping these groups in mind would make a nice transition into the main content. I’d also suggest “hearing impairments” rather than “audio impairments” if you keep that phrasing anywhere else in the piece.

Who are the underrepresented groups in digital accessibility?

Some underrepresented groups who face barriers regarding using digital platforms include:

Individuals with cognitive disabilities

Individuals with dyslexia, ADHD, or those with autism may have challenges interacting with complex layouts, fast animations, or long text. All these serve to make it even more challenging for them to navigate digital content.

Making content accessible for these types of users should focus on reducing cognitive burden, writing in Plain English to enhance readability and ensuring intuitive navigation.

Neurodiverse users may also benefit from consistent and predictable layouts, clear and simple guidance on forms, readable fonts and minimal distractions such as pop-ups or unnecessary visuals.

Individuals with motor impairments

Individuals with motor impairments include those who, due to various types of disabilities such as cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, and muscular dystrophy, have difficulties with the fine motor abilities required for operating keyboards, mice, or touchscreens efficiently.

To cater for these users, you should:

• Ensure all interactive elements (buttons, links, form fields) can be accessed and activated via keyboard alone, and don’t require a mouse.
• Support alternative input devices such as voice commands, eye-tracking devices, head pointers, or sip-and-puff systems. Allow users to customise controls or commands to suit their preferred input method.
• Ensure all targets are large enough and spaced apart enough for users to accurately select their intended target
• For tasks that involve time constraints, offer extended time limits or pause options to accommodate users who may need extra time.
  • For example, if you have a carousel header banner, allow users to pause and skip forward and backwards to ensure they have enough time to read each option.

Individuals with low literacy

People with low reading and writing ability may face considerable challenges interacting with complex websites and technical wording, which makes their web experience very unsatisfying.

Using Plain English, simple sentence structure and explaining acronyms helps users with low literacy understand your content. GDS recommends aiming for a reading age of around 9. You can check your site’s reading age using various free online tools.

Non-native language speakers

Similarly to individuals with low literacy, anyone hailing from a different country may have requirements in relation to language choices that complicate their web experience. Even if they are close to fluent, originating from a different place can impact their understanding of the language you have used.

In addition to using Plain English, avoiding and explaining culturally specific slang and references will mean they understand a larger proportion of your product and will have a much less frustrating experience.

Read GDS’s advice on writing for non-native language speakers.

Elderly people

As people grow old, they begin to lose their eyesight, hearing capacity and cognitive abilities, which can make it quite challenging for them to use digital devices and applications.

When we design, we need to ensure we don’t assume that all users will automatically understand our design choices and what they need to do to complete an action on the website. Providing clear instructions and feedback, and avoiding small text and audio without captions, will help this user group.

How can you practice inclusive design?

Now that we’ve highlighted underrepresented users and their needs, you may be wondering what you need to do next.

1. Learn more about accessibility requirements

Explore guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure you are meeting accessibility success criteria. This will become increasingly important as many countries take steps towards legalising these requirements for all. We have a guide to WCAG 2.2 that’s a great place to start.

2. Increase your research base

Ensure you include a wide range of users when conducting user research ahead of any changes to your digital product. They may highlight issues you hadn’t considered. We have a great guide to designing with empathy with lots of tips on how to incorporate users into design work.

3. Test thoroughly

Don’t just test with a screen reader or keyboard, as these checks alone won’t address the needs of all the audiences we discussed above. A full manual and automated review is the best way to ensure you have covered all aspects of accessibility. You can learn more about the best way to test in our article on accessibility testing.

How can we help?

By investing in inclusive design, we create a fairer digital world, one where everyone will have equal opportunities to access information and services. JBi works with our clients to create digital products that give underrepresented groups equal access to the digital world.

If you’d like to discuss how to make your website more inclusive, please get in touch by emailing hello@jbidigital.co.uk or by sending us a message.