Evolving for Digital Accessibility
EyeMed
Our client, because of a changing clientele, requested our assistance in bringing their brand and digital materials into compliance with ADA and WCAG Level AA. My research took me all over the web to study the extent of the laws, accessible design, universal design, WCAG web standards, and what tools Adobe and Microsoft have made available for documents exported from their programs.
I embarked on creating a recommendation of color adjustments that would allow for design flexibility on the web and within downloadable PDFs. This involved understanding the contrast ratio guidelines, and numerous testing of color options, their tint values, and how they can work together. EyeMed's brand is heavily relient on the use of colors and their tints.
We developed a recommendation based on tints and allowable type sizes, and crafted brand standards around those recommendations to make complying with the rules easy for EyeMed employees and their various partners/vendors.
But just as important as the brand development, implementation within Indesign and Acrobat needed to be standardized and taught. I created detailed, step-by-step instructions and guidlines for decision-making, and held 3 mini-workshops for Madison designers, EyeMed employees, and EyeMed design partners.
