Skip to content

Personas: A Human-Centered Approach to Accessibility

Just like buyer personas help us understand our target audience, accessibility personas help us understand the specific challenges and needs of users with disabilities. Accessibility personas educate us about our users in ways other data cannot, and they inform an inclusive design and development process.

Creating Accessibility Personas

Creating accessibility personas involves developing fictional characters who represent the diverse experiences of people with disabilities. This approach focuses on the specific needs, preferences, and challenges faced by individuals with various disabilities. By incorporating user research, accessibility guidelines, and user-centered design thinking, organizations can create more inclusive products, services, and digital environments. There are three activities necessary that will provide the foundation of your accessibility persona:

  • Research: Personas should be informed by data from user interviews, surveys, and usability testing with people with disabilities. 
  • Data Analysis: Analyze user research data to identify common patterns and challenges.
  • Ongoing Evaluation: Continuously evaluate and refine personas based on user feedback and evolving technologies.

Elements of a Well-Designed Accessibility Persona

Once you have gathered, analyzed, and prioritized your research, it's time to create a detailed persona that represents your target audience's diverse needs and experiences. 

Well-defined elements create a well-defined persona, fostering a deeper understanding of our users' motivations, needs, and behaviors.

Those elements are:

  • Realistic and Specific: Avoid generic stereotypes. Each persona should have a distinct name, background, and a specific disability (e.g., "Maria, a 32-year-old graphic designer with moderately low vision who uses screen reader software.").
  • Focus on Abilities, Not Limitations: Emphasize the user's strengths, workarounds, and preferred assistive technologies. For example, focus on the user’s proficiency in using keyboard shortcuts instead of their inability to see.
  • Human-centered: Avoid dehumanizing language or focusing solely on disabilities. Each persona should be a relatable individual with unique goals, motivations, and preferences.
  • Demographics: Age, gender, occupation, location, etc.
  • Disability Type:
    • Sensory: Visual, auditory, vestibular
    • Motor: Physical, neurological
    • Cognitive: Learning disabilities, memory issues, attention disorders
    • Neurodivergent: Autism, ADHD, dyslexia
  • Technology Use: Assistive technologies (screen readers, braille displays, voice assistants), preferred browsing methods, and device preferences.
  • Frustrations: Common roadblocks encountered (inaccessible websites, confusing navigation, lack of alt text).
  • Content Consumption Habits: How they typically consume content (e.g., audio, video, text), preferred reading speed, and attention span.
  • Attitudes and Behaviors: Frustrations, workarounds, preferences for design and interaction.
  • Goals and Needs: What are they trying to achieve when interacting with your content?

Example

"John the Screen Reader User"

  • Age: 42
  • Disability: Blindness
  • Technology Use: Relies heavily on a screen reader (NVDA or JAWS) and keyboard navigation. Uses a refreshable braille display.
  • Content Consumption Habits: Primarily consumes content through audio output. Prefers concise and well-structured text.
  • Frustrations: Difficulty with complex navigation, lack of sufficient alt text, CAPTCHAs, and auto-playing videos.
  • Needs: Clear and concise language, logical page structure, keyboard accessibility, robust alt text for images and videos, and the ability to easily adjust font size and contrast.

For more examples, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has a terrific collection of written personas. This is a fantastic place to start if you are getting familiar with constructing and implementing personas in your project lifecycle. See "Stories of Web Users" on the W3C website.

Leveraging Personas for Other Purposes

Beyond informing design and development, accessibility personas can be valuable tools for:

  • Content Audits: Use personas to audit existing content and identify areas for improvement.
  • Prioritization: Personas help us prioritize accessibility efforts by focusing on the needs of the most common user groups.
  • Testing and Evaluation: Personas provide a framework for testing and evaluating our content from the perspective of users with disabilities.
  • Communication and Collaboration: Personas facilitate better communication and collaboration between designers, developers, and content creators.

Personas are in no way a substitute for automated, manual, and user testing or good old-fashioned customer interaction. However, they are an excellent tool for better decision-making, focusing on user needs and goals.

Resources

A human author creates the DubBlog posts. The AI tool Gemini is sometimes used to brainstorm subject ideas, generate blog post outlines, and rephrase certain portions of the content. Our marketing team carefully reviews all final drafts for accuracy and authenticity. The opinions and perspectives expressed remain the sole responsibility of the human author.

Maggie Vaughan, CPACC
Content Marketing Practitioner
DubBot