Crafting Connection: Your Guide to Inclusive Web Design

Summary

In this video, Christina Testana delves into the significance of inclusivity in web design, particularly for art therapists. She highlights how stereotypical web designs often alienate certain demographics, such as elders, children, neurodivergent individuals, and those with disabilities. Christina emphasizes the importance of considering accessibility and cultural nuances in website features to reach a broader and more diverse audience. From embracing diverse imagery and offering multilingual support to advocating for accessible features such as keyboard navigation and color contrast, she shares practical tips for creating more inclusive websites. Christina concludes with actionable takeaways including testing with a diverse audience and using respectful, inclusive language.

Highlights

• Shift focus towards inclusive design to eliminate barriers 🚀
• Include features like audio greetings and multilingual support 🎧
• Simplify navigation and enhance color contrast for accessibility 🌈
• Images should depict diverse individuals to foster a sense of belonging 👥
• Evaluate cultural symbols and language for sensitivity and inclusivity 📚

Key Takeaways

• Embrace diversity in website visuals to promote inclusion 🎨
• Prioritize accessible features like easy-to-read fonts and ALT texts 🔍
• Consider cultural nuances to respect and include all users 🗺️
• Test website functionality with a diverse audience for feedback 🌎
• Use inclusive and respectful language to engage everyone 🌐

Overview

Christina Testana kickstarts the discussion by shedding light on the stereotypes prevalent in web design which can often exclude certain users. She argues for the importance of inclusivity, especially catering to a wide array of demographics like elders, children, and neurodivergent individuals. Christina passionately talks about the need for making online spaces more accessible and how forward-thinking designs will become a norm by 2025. She pushes for strategic simplifications in design, such as using ramps in lieu of stairs, to ensure accessibility for all.

Moving forward, Christina touches upon the idea of a global audience and how website designers should embrace cultural diversity. She suggests using images that resonate with various cultures and languages, deploying plugins or translators to break down language barriers. This, she believes, is crucial for building a positive brand image and enhancing user experience, allowing websites to truly become international havens of communication.

Finally, the video emphasizes prioritizing accessible features like responsive keyboard navigation and clear color contrast. Christina also stresses the importance of using diverse imagery and conducting user testing with a wide variety of people to gain insights on navigation and accessibility. She encourages everyone to use inclusive language that encompasses gender, ethnicity, and cultural nuances, thereby creating a harmonious online atmosphere for all.

Crafting Connection: Your Guide to Inclusive Web Design Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey Art therapist friends welcome back to my channel and my name is Christina Tana here to help art therapists build their brands and finding their Niche so they can build a loyal community that values them and their work so again uh today I'm going to be talking about stereotypes and to really bring in more inclusivity when we are designing websites so the first thing I want to
• 00:30 - 01:00 talk about today is this importance of inclusivity so unfortunately websites cater to a certain demographic and we want to eliminate that as website designers because being more inclusive to other communities so it could be Elders maybe it could be like little little kids or maybe it's NE Divergent individuals who
• 01:00 - 01:30 maybe need more simplified readings or maybe more visuals or maybe they need audio and visuals to really have the best experience but again we need to really utilize this inclusiveness in our communication materials and a website is a communication tool and it really needs
• 01:30 - 02:00 to be more inviting to other minorities that need help as well right cuz there could be elderly that are looking for art therapy but maybe can't um use a website maybe they don't know how to navigate it or use a computer you know you don't know there's so many possibilities or maybe uh there's people out there that you know really want to
• 02:00 - 02:30 devil into art therapy but maybe they're more of an auditorial learner so you have to use different tools on your website to meet those needs again um there's a lot of different branches that you can go here again you don't have to tick all the the check boxes on this but really start leaning towards that and this idea of the philosophy around
• 02:30 - 03:00 creating more inclusivity in design work is really becoming something that is very go very much going to be normal in the next couple of years because accessibility in general and inclusivity you know is for sure going to be a very big priority in 2025 especially on the accessibility note cuz as somebody who has studied accessibility there is this big goal goal that globally everyone's trying to
• 03:00 - 03:30 reach and and it's to be fully accessible by 2025 whether that be in buildings or websites Etc so there's no rush obviously but to really start thinking ahead and and being proactive in these in these big times because accessibility is something that is going to really change the world when it comes to univ ival design where maybe instead of
• 03:30 - 04:00 stairs we're using ramps for everyone so that it's included and this is no different than actual website work as well so maybe we go to simplifying even more in the navigation system so that there's not too many buttons and maybe our buttons in general are maybe buttons that are larger than normal because they have to meet the
• 04:00 - 04:30 phones and maybe people who have you know trouble navigating around or clicking so there's a top feature maybe we need to really dive into auditorial uh Speech when it comes to loading up our page maybe our page has to greet via audio you know to the user for those who prefer audio again these are all things that we are exploring as humans but as a Universal Design level
• 04:30 - 05:00 the goal here is to try to eliminate as much barriers as possible in the communication Realms and if we could do this in a couple of different steps we're already on the right track so that's something that I really just wanted to share because there's this lot of chat about you know inclusiveness whether it's you know gender equality
• 05:00 - 05:30 whether it's the minority equality whether it's you know the disabled community that needs more inclusiveness here there's a lot of different Avenues but in general we're really trying to shift towards something that a collective we all understand as human beings whether we speak whether we just uh sign language whether it's just reading through colors Etc there's so
• 05:30 - 06:00 many different uh tools so the next point I wanted to talk about is really embracing the diverse audience and it's not even just about addressing you know the minorities so the neurod Divergent individuals you know the individuals with disabilities or individuals that have cultural barriers as well because there's language barriers so what would be really essential here is to kind of dive into some of the cultural aspects
• 06:00 - 06:30 of people around the world because again your website is international it's a global it's a global place so anyone from around the world can access your website and what would be really cool here is to dive into ways that you could still communicate with those that have a language barrier so using images uh understanding you know what is
• 06:30 - 07:00 okay to use and what is not okay to use in you know several different types of cultures but it also comes back to your ideal client as well because maybe your ideal client is a little bit more of a focused on the culture so maybe you're targeting a certain culture who knows but you still want to be very open and receptive to the other cultures out there and knowing that would certainly
• 07:00 - 07:30 make sure that you're keeping a positive image on your brand in general and the overall user experience too so even though there's language barriers you could still opt in for doing translations on your website that's a great way to create you know user experience in a simple way where maybe you hire a translator maybe for Mandarin or maybe for French to have different versions of your website in
• 07:30 - 08:00 different languages I think that's a great way to start implementing things and I think there's plugins as well so if you can't hire anybody you know to actually change the language and translate it you can use plugins I believe on WordPress for sure um you could probably use something on Squarespace but I'm not too sure on that one but I know that there are tools out there to help you translate and you
• 08:00 - 08:30 could probably use chat GPT as well to shift your languages I think chbt might be a good tool for that as well again uh these are all new uh to me as well I'm still learning in terms of how to shift translations over but through my experiences there are plugins out there and that you can use to change from Mandarin to French to English to Spanish but really enforcing that into your
• 08:30 - 09:00 designs really is a step in the right direction for more inclusivity and reaching more of a diverse audience not just maybe the locals but more of the Internationals cuz you could be missing out on possible um opportunities so another thing I really wanted to talk about and this is probably more um towards the community of the disabled but to
• 09:00 - 09:30 really access the barriers in accessibility so what I mean by this is if people can't use a mouse they have to use a keyboard to toggle through your website make sure that you run a test on your website of using just your keyboard to see if the functionality still work the same that could be one step in the right direction of eliminating those barriers
• 09:30 - 10:00 and as I mentioned before the language barrier to use those plugins as another stepping stone into eliminating those barriers uh color contrast so this is a big one as well to those that might not see all the colors they might only see selective colors so what would be essential here is to run a test on those but also do the grayscale test where where you take a screenshot of your
• 10:00 - 10:30 website and put your website in grayscale using any visual editor tool that you have um on your phone or on your computer it doesn't matter particularly which one as long as you can change the image to grayscale and when you change it to grayscale you'll see if any of the colors that turned gray are merging together because if they're merging together the the grays then that means there's not enough
• 10:30 - 11:00 contrast so if you can push more with making it more lighter or darker in your color tones then you're on a path of creating more contrast and that eliminates another barrier of not sure you know differentiating sections or differentiating colors in a picture etc those are different types of barriers that you can address in terms of accessibility in that manner I'm going to leave you today with five takeaways
• 11:00 - 11:30 that you could start implementing more inclusive content and inclusive elements in your websites so the first one that I really wanted to talk about first one I want to talk about is embracing diversity in your images and what I mean by this is bringing in different types of people people of color people from the disabled
• 11:30 - 12:00 Community maybe some elderly maybe some younger individuals again it really depends on your actual ideal client as well but either way you still would want to bring in different individuals so maybe uh different individuals in terms of you know gender different cultures you know different uh maybe looks
• 12:00 - 12:30 different uh attributes there's so many different things that you could do to really bring in more diversity but that's a step in the right direction because when you take pictures of individuals that you know are you know more uh there more there's more variety there's more Community there's more social acceptance then that's going to get you in the right direction of being
• 12:30 - 13:00 more inclusive looking more inclusive and feeling more inclusive where you bring in all different people shapes and sizes as well that they'll feel more comfortable working with you when you communicate through the images not just you know all women of white you know or all women that are skinny or you know all individuals who
• 13:00 - 13:30 are black or you know all male dominant um communities Etc you are bringing in more people from different minority groups or different cultures to make it much more harmonious because that's really what we're trying to do we're trying to bring in more Harmony and what a not better way to do it with images right and through the images you're having these individuals interact
• 13:30 - 14:00 with each other and they're creating emotion and when you do that then that definitely stimulates more emotional connections and that makes it a whole lot easier and a whome because people love seeing other people interact with each other even from different backgrounds and different um you know Generations or different cultures countries you know
• 14:00 - 14:30 backgrounds you who knows there's just an abundance of of different things out there but imagine them interacting it would be such a beautiful Symphony I want to really share is prioritizing accessible features so yes you know you don't have to do everything in one day to make your website accessible but great ways that you can just start implementing is look to your fonts how
• 14:30 - 15:00 are your fonts doing are they easy to read ask a friend to say hey can you look at my page and see how my fonts are doing uh do do they read okay can you read them easy is it comfortable on your eyes etc those are great ways to start changing up some of your fonts and if some of your fonts are you know not too easy to read then I would definitely just simplify your fonts to a very clean
• 15:00 - 15:30 font so I would maybe suggest like helvetica um that's an easy quick fix to making something easy to read on the web there's probably other ones out there too that you could just opt in for but they have to just be clean clean fonts nothing curly nothing script Nothing cive because that really causes problems
• 15:30 - 16:00 when it comes to reading now another thing you can start implementing is putting text with your images so when you're uploading an image to your website you usually have an option to put in an ALT text and that is just describing what the image is about that's pretty much it but when you do that that's already putting you on the right right path to being more
• 16:00 - 16:30 accessible that you're putting on your website or even blog posts you always want to put in subtitles and having you know a a big header a small subtitle and then paragraphs the more you break it down like this the much easier it's going to be for a regular person to read of course because it's organized and sectioned accordingly and when a screen
• 16:30 - 17:00 reader goes through your website they'll tell the user this is the title this is the subheader and this is the paragraph and when it's broken down like that the user will feel much more comfortable with sitting and listening and reading and when it comes to let's just say Google when they are indexing your page for search engine optimization when you have your content broken down like that the header the
• 17:00 - 17:30 subhe header and the paragraphs that's already a step in the right direction on an SEO standpoint because now you're actually taking the right steps in becoming more recognizable and to becoming even easier in searching so it's a win-win on both sides wait to you is to do some testing with a diverse audience because yes you can ask your friends and
• 17:30 - 18:00 family but they are very similar to you I would reach out even further to ask your maybe one of your ideal clients or ask just a complete stranger just to go through your website so that they can give you the feedback that you need because again your website is not supposed to just be something pretty it needs to be functional and it needs to work for you know a collective
• 18:00 - 18:30 amount of people so if one person is having trouble navigating your site that means the collective is going to have the trouble as well because they're all quite the same when it comes to navigating something so really collect enough feedback for your site so that you can make the proper decisions to improve your website because again your website will never be finished is always going to be something to improve on the
• 18:30 - 19:00 website but what you need to do is certainly take the steps to really implementing it much further to really iterate here is be careful of the the cultural nuances so make sure that it's you know cultural sensitive to whatever nuances are out there in the cultures in other different cultures because something that you might be showcasing on your website might mean something
• 19:00 - 19:30 different in another culture so being very wary about that is so key to creating a good reputation for yourself but also continuing to be very inclusive as a brand so really haunting into all the cultures and understanding each of them to ensure that nothing would cross any boundaries or create any kind of negativity because that is very essential when it comes to building relationships with those culture any of
• 19:30 - 20:00 the cultural sensitivity content look to the language that you're using any kind of symbols or imagery that you're using those are usually triggers to some other cultures so just be very mindful of what you're putting out there so that there is no misunderstandings cuz that's where problems run out and when it comes to communication gaps that's usually where where some of the issues do come up so
• 20:00 - 20:30 just look at all of the elements that you're using and just be very wary of what it could mean to another culture and if it's something that is concerning and to obviously change it and make it more harmonious so that it's not going to trigger anybody so the last takeaway for the day is creating more inclusive language so the language is basically
• 20:30 - 21:00 ensuring that the language that you're using is respecting you know gender ethnicity etc those really sensitive areas for other individuals so just make sure that your tone is respectful when you're talking through your your writing or your videos just make sure each of those areas are just something that brings a rad range of curiosity to
• 21:00 - 21:30 people when it comes to using you know the right tone that it's not coming off offensive and it's being more harmonious and creating you know positive feelings and something that's more inspiring to someone else five takeaways for eliminating those stereotype issues and becoming a little bit more inclusive within your website design work so I hope that that was helpful in today's video and that you could take those valuable tips with you
• 21:30 - 22:00 today and if you have any additional questions feel free to put it in the comments box below and I'll be sure to answer them as soon as I can so I hope to see you around for more future videos bye