
Inclusive Design at Microsoft - kawera
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/design/inclusive
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cjcenizal
I love the manual [1] they've published. I recently used it as part of a
presentation at work about the importance of web accessibility.

There's a great chart on page 41 that breaks out disabilities into
"permanent", "temporary", and "situational". When I saw this, it opened my
eyes up to the reality that everyone can and will experience a sub-optimal,
disabled experience when trying to use a product. One example from that chart
is that you can suffer a permanent sight disability by losing your sight, a
temporary one by dealing with a cataract (pre-surgery), and a situational one
when you're in an environment with a lot of distractions or poor lighting
conditions.

This all underlines the spirit behind "inclusive design": improving a
product's accessibility for one person does more than benefit that one person
-- it will provide benefits for everyone. In essence, accessible UX is good
UX. If anyone's interested in these ideas, I strongly recommend watching Rob
Dodson's fantastic presentation on the topic [2]!

[1]
[https://download.microsoft.com/download/B/0/D/B0D4BF87-09CE-...](https://download.microsoft.com/download/B/0/D/B0D4BF87-09CE-4417-8F28-D60703D672ED/INCLUSIVE_TOOLKIT_MANUAL_FINAL.pdf)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qjgxH384Nc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qjgxH384Nc)

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pcunite
There is some really good stuff here. Keep politics out of this train of
thought, Microsoft … and you'll go far to help the human experience.

About 14 years ago, I created a software company that produces software _that
just feels right_ from truths in kinesthetic learning. I target the Microsoft
platform, because that was where I got my start. The way I helped to make the
world a better place is very tiny droplet in the grand scheme of things. But
it felt rewarding to do something.

Since Microsoft is a big company, they make a lot of mistakes. This is to be
expected, and a natural thing. The Microsoft platform effects millions of
people who can at times get disillusioned and frustrated by the design choices
made by the old Microsoft - not the new one shown here today.

Those of us in this industry forget, or maybe never knew, that there are
people who _have_ to use technology for their work, for their life. They are
not geeks like you and me who like to toy with technology. They are people who
expect things to work and help them to be efficient, and to follow _their_
train of thought, not ours.

So, good on you Microsoft for thinking about this. This is a beautiful
presentation and I would love to see the software that will come out of this.
It's time for technology gate-keepers to have the skills and empathy of
_product_ designers. Programmers can make the code beautiful - they always
did. Graphical designers can make it sparkle - they always did - now let's
make sure the _software experience_ is beautiful too and based on what users
need, not what we need.

The best software in the world _feels_ wonderful to use, its a _beautiful
experience_ , it's an extension of what your mind saw and a tool that helped
you do something.

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gcb0
they should put their money where their mouth is.

site fails spectacularly using Firefox mobile.

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pcurve
Also, the colossal 21MB PDF for a 32 page manual with solid black color runs
counter to technological constraints inclusiveness. They could have easily
made it into 20 page 2MB, or just make a web version.

