I was recently humbled and amazed at an email I received through my brand identity questionnaire and I just had to share the story, not only because it opened my eyes to something amazing, but something I would never have thought of and I’m sure not many others would have either.
To cut to the chase, the lady who was inquiring about my brand identity / design services was blind.
Although accessibility should be built into in all websites, I still find this fact extremely fascinating. I simply can’t fathom the process of trying to find the right designer without being able to see their work. Thankfully these days, there are text-to-speech programs for the visually impaired, that literally read aloud the words on the screen. There are also Braille displays.
Have you ever thought about how a blind person may go about hiring you? It just goes to show there is much more to the business of design than your portfolio.
Interestingly enough, the reason for her choosing to contact me as stated in my questionnaire, was that she could “hear the integrity of my work”, when her computer read aloud my articles. This to me is extremely humbling, especially considering the words are spoken with a robotic, computerized voice.
The lesson learned here is that blind people still need designers too! To put this into context, in the US alone there are over 17 million people with a visual impairment! Quite a niche I must say.
Have you had a similar experience with accessibility?
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