Drum Studios

Canaries are beautiful singing birds with bright vibrant yellow feathers. Stunning to look at but should this canary yellow be used in UI design? With a pale pink background a yellow canary perches on the middle step of three steps each in different shades of purple Some brands choose yellow to evoke optimism, creativity and warmth. However, for a lot of people yellow could also foster feelings of fear, warning, and anxiety. Why? Yellow is such a bright colour it’s used on caution and safety signs. The “traffic light” colour scheme is something that is used to indicate a level of safety; red means bad, yellow means warning, green means good. Yellow is used to alert us. Think about it, the yellow caution tape, hazardous or toxic chemicals signs, the keep out sign, the wet floor signs, they are all used to tell us to avoid a problem. So personally I think it’s a very bold choice for a brand to pick. But it’s also so bad for accessibility. Yellow has a high luminance so works really bloody badly with white. Yet some big brands use yellow on white or white on yellow which is completely illegible. Yellow can be a difficult colour to read on a screen, especially for extended periods of time. It is a vivid colour that might fatigue and pain the eyes due to the constant overload of our vision resulting in eye strain. If you really want to use yellow, it’s a good idea to choose an off-yellow rather than a bright yellow to aid on-screen reading. Some people with cognitive disabilities or dyslexia require hues that have low contrast. Honestly, if it’s not, it’s flipping painful! So next time one of your designers suggests using bright yellow sing like a canary about how difficult it can be, as loud as you possibly can. See more about accessible colour palettes here. https://lnkd.in/em_kGkVk Written by Kaye Moors #UI #DigitalAccessibility #AccessibleDesign #AccessibilityMatters #GraphicDesign #UIDesign

Humans are social animals Billions of people around the world use social media to share information, research products and services, and make connections. From a personal perspective, social media allows us to communicate with friends and family, learn something new, follow brands and be entertained. We love social media, some of us can't get enough of it. The average person in 2021 spent a whopping 2.5 hours on social media networks every day, and that's a trend that's only ever growing! As a brand, you post every day to build brand awareness and following, but with 20% of people having a disability, that's potentially one person in every five that will experience difficulty with your posts, and this damages your brand loyalty. Social media today is so vast from videos on Tik Tok and YouTube, professional networking on LinkedIn, to images posted on Instagram. Here's a few basics that need including in any static post to make it accessible: Use simple plain English. Don't include hashtags within sentences. These should be placed at the bottom of your post. Use emojis sparingly and place them at the end of sentences, not in the middle. Use CamelCase on all your hashtags. Make sure you have sufficient colour contrast on imagery. Make sure your images have ALT tags, but keep them short, under 300 characters. If your images need a longer description, add in an image ID to the post, or comments. Don't use fancy fonts, keep to simple bold sans serifs. These very small adjustments can help you reach a wider audience and grow your following. And remember, treat a disabled follower well and they often become one of your most loyal ambassadors, speaking positively about you to their network, their family and friends. We all have a right to be social after all.

First rule of marketing, know your target audience! I saw a LinkedIn post recently from a company that offers accessible products to the disabled community. They 100% know their audience! Yet they used sixteen different emojis in just one short post plus no image description or alt text. If you are selling to people with disabilities, at the very least make your content accessible to us. 🤬 #SocialMedia #DigitalMarketing #AccessibilityMatters #DigitalAccessibility #Marketing

Why marketing is like playing ‘Guess Who’ What do you really know about your customers an how could accessibility help?. https://lnkd.in/e9Y-sZ-t PhotoID: Guess who game with 3 characters, 1 with hearing aid and 2 with glasses. #DigitalAccessibility #DigitalMarketing #UX #AccessibilityMatters

Generally, the more fields in a form, the less likely it is that the user will complete it. If you are sending a brochure in the post like this example, making both the phone number and email address also mandatory is going to hit your conversion rate. A lot of people have anxiety about taking phone calls, some users have aphasia, some may be Deaf. And some users just don’t like to be cold called with the hard sell. Some people struggle with emails and may experience email anxiety, which is a fear of sending, receiving, or writing emails. It can also cause people to avoid checking their emails If you don’t need to know this information to post a brochure, don’t make them mandatory. #DigitalMarketing #DigitalAccessibility #AccessibilityMatters #ConversionRate #WebDesign

Thanks to all who turned up to our PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide HOPEWALK at Farnham park in the midday sunshine yesterday. It was a beautiful one mile loop with lots of conversation, dogs playing and finishing off with a fantastic coffee at Birdies Cafe. We will certainly be doing this again. Farnham Chamber of Commerce LinkedIn Local Farnham Surrey Chambers of Commerce #Farnham #Surrey #SuicidePrevention #SuicidePrevention #HopeWalk Lizzie Hamblin Kaye Moors Stewart Fowler Stephen Boulter

Not all disabilities are visible. All your barriers are. Hidden disabilities are invisible by the naked eye but not hidden in terms of online users. These people are being excluded by your long form paragraphs, your brand colours, your font choice, your timeouts, your carousels, your captioning and your form labelling. https://buff.ly/3GttEIk Photo ID: Sunflower with two leafs against an off white background all in pixel art style. #accessibility #digitalMarketing #webDesign #webDevelopment #accessibilityMatters

Today is the day for our first ever HOPEWALK for PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide starting outside of and finishing outside of Birdies Cafe at the top of Farnham park at 12pm. The weather is currently looking foggy, but overall creating an atmospheric look for our one-mile walk later! We look forward to seeing you there. Farnham Chamber of Commerce LinkedIn Local Farnham Surrey Chambers of Commerce #Farnham #Surrey #SuicidePrevention #HopeWalk Lizzie Hamblin Kaye Moors Stewart Fowler Stephen Boulter

A brain is like your DNA. A brain injury is like your fingerprint. Every single one is different. No two are the same. I know what it’s like to live with my brain, but I know every other brain injury survivor or person with a neurological condition such as MS, MND, Parkinson’s, Dementia, will have different deficits, different struggles. 977 hospital admissions per day across the UK were related to brain injury. Of those, 433 were head injuries and 376 were diagnosed with stroke. The wonderful charity Headway - the brain injury association established an action for brain injury week to raise awareness of the impact of an acquired brain injury. The theme for 2023 is 'Every 90 Seconds', relating to Headway’s statistics that one person is admitted to hospital with an ABI every 90 seconds within the UK. That is a huge number of people living with a neurological condition or brain injury. Someone I’ve known for years and who I know 100%, wholeheartedly wants to help, has recently introduced an accessibility overlay on their website by a well known player in the market. They work in neuro rehabilitation. But here's the truth. Overlays don’t actually help all neurological conditions, Does it make your content easier to digest? Does it label fields clearly? The same for vision. Does it make sure your graphical icons or imagery is displayed correctly in all colour modes? Does it allow users to boost text up to the size that works for them? Do the buttons, CTAs and links make sense to screen readers? The same for hand tremors and dexterity. Does it make your hit points and buttons larger? Does it allow you to navigate the website effectively with keyboard alone? So the answer in case you were still wondering, is no. Overlays don’t address the user cases above. But that’s just a small handful of countless scenarios that overlays don’t fix. So why do they do it? Why add an overlay? Because they genuinely WANT to make it easier for people and they believed what they were told, that an overlay could help. But here’s the truth. If your site wasn’t designed or developed with accessibility in mind in the first place, it’s like slapping on a plaster to stem my brain haemorrhage. Written by Kaye Moors #ABI #TBI #BrainInjury #StrokeSurvivor #Parkinsons #Dementia #MND #MultipleSclerosiis #AccessibilityForAll #AccessibilityMatters #DigitalAccessibility #NeurologicalDisorders #NeuroRehab #A11y #AccessibleDesign

If you have 5 minutes, please fill in this survey that will provide valuable insights into the specific needs and preferences of travelers with disabilities. This data will be used to advocate for policy changes and industry standards that promote accessibility in the short-term rental market. It will also identify gaps in the current market and inform the development of more accessible accommodations. Survey Deadline: November 4, 2024 Survey Link: https://lnkd.in/epm6da6a Your support is invaluable in creating a more accessible world for everyone. #AccessibilityMatters #Travel #Survey