Cover of Access Ability 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design

ACCESS ABILITY 2

Client:

Ontario Provincial Government

Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RGD)

Role:

  • Co-Author
  • Researcher
  • Tester

Brief:

Design exists to communicate, whether by graphics or some other means. Access Ability 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design, offers graphic designers alternative, accessible ways of thinking about how to convey information and represent ideas. Informed by an inclusive research process under lead author Adam Rallo, our team of graphic, web, and environmental designers came together to produce this handbook. It has been distributed to thousands of design students, educators, and professionals in Canada, free online, or for a small free in print.

Download the handbook for free here
interior of the handbook showing environmental design. interior of the handbook showing environmental design. interior of the handbook showing environmental design. interior of the handbook showing environmental design.

Contents:

The guide offers stakeholder-verified practices on how to:

  • Inform design with genuine stakeholder involvement from the earliest stages
  • Create screen reader friendly PDFs
  • Design physically accessible spaces and installations
  • Optimize typographic layouts for low-vision readers
  • Design screen readable websites
interior of the handbook showing colour blidnness spectrums

Lead Author:

Adam Rallo, RGD

Co-authors:

Edmund Li, RGD

Eric Forest, RGD

James Kuo, RGD

Randal Boutilier, RGD

a room full of individual pages of the document taped to the wall. two designers (Eric and Randall) scrutinize the pages.

Process and Methods

Interview

Stakeholder Testing

Literature Review