Audio Accessibility + HQ Free Fonts
Clubhouse vs Twiter Spaces, Queer Design Club, and design resources
IN THE MARGINS
How do you rest?
As the U.S. eases into the privilege of less COVID-19 restrictions and the weather gets warmer, I’ve been thinking about springtime renewal and specifically, rest. Social media seems to push that the only ‘right’ way to get rest is being alone on the couch with snacks for a whole day or doing facemasks in a bubble bath. But for me, it’s more about restoration.
What resets or restores your energy? For some, that might be physical activity like a hike, and for others, it might be spending time with loved ones. I think rest looks different for people and can even be case-by-case basis for you depending on the type of tired you are (such as being sleepy vs emotional exhaustion). So for my Northern hemisphere peeps, here’s a reminder to embrace renewal and rest in ways that work for you :)
ACCESSIBILITY
Social Media Audio Accessibility
Can you ‘patch’ inaccessibility after launch? It’s possible, but it would be a better practice to integrate inclusive practices into your overall approach BEFORE a product or service goes live.
Everyone from the founders to the engineers should have accessibility on their radar as opposed to it as a pitstop on the product roadmap.
And let’s be real, businesses care about the bottom line (revenue and costs) so when a biz pushes back against accessibility I remind them that...
Being accessible means access to a wider audience and thus potential increased revenue
It’ll likely cost more time, money, and resources to fix post-launch than it would be to pre-emptively handle it before launch
An increased positive brand reputation could mean… bingo, you got it, potential increased revenue
When buzz about Clubhouse was at its peak, my immediate reaction was “Hm.. an audio-first app without live transcription? Hard pass…”. But I knew that I had to give it a longer look before making a decision. Well, that longer look didn’t reveal any better news. I learned that not only was the platform inaccessible to d/Deaf and HoH (and people learning a new language), but also to those who are blind or have low vision due to the poor contrast of the User Interface (UI), lack of support for both text-resizing, and wonky integration with Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader.
When Twitter announced they were launching Spaces, their version of Clubhouse, I was skeptical. I was pleasantly surprised by Twitter’s statement about the accessibility of Spaces. In addition to captions, Spaces has labels so people using assistive technology will know what every button does and what actions are available. Twitter took it a step further by being transparent about the accessibility shortcomings and how they were trying to improve even more:
Improving accuracy and synchronization of captions with audio
Explore options for increased language support
Match accessibility system settings (larger fonts, display, etc.)
Two other platforms with audio-focused features that I’m optimistic about:
Slack Audio Meetings - It’s still in beta but word on the street is Slack confirmed its audio feature will have captioning, livestream transcription, and screen reader support. Slack’s current accessibility settings already include keyboard navigation, adjustable zoom levels, and toggles for emoji movement.
Discord Stage Channels - While they don’t have built-in captioning, Discord’s voice channels do support third-party captioning and transcription. They recently updated to include an accessibility section with options for reduced motion, autoplay, and text-to-speech.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
'Queer Design Club' Survey
Queer Design Club (we’ll discuss the word ‘queer’ another day) is an online community for LGBTQ+ designers from all over the world.
QDC’s mission is to promote and celebrate all the amazing work that happens at the intersection of queer identity and design world wide—from LGBTQ+ designers’ contributions to the industry to design’s role in queer activism throughout history. Through a designer directory and closed Slack group, they aim to build a space where LGBTQ+ design professionals can share their work, offer resources, view job listings, and connect with each other.
They recently opened the Queer Design Count 2021 survey. This ‘census’ is open to designers, copywriters, researchers, managers, or just people who identify as LGBTQ+ and work in the field of design. The 2019 results identified some of the unique problems LGBTQ+ folk face in the workplace. For example, 2x as many Trans designers make less than $35,000 USD compared to cis designers and 40% of LGBTQ+ designers reported having to point out design decisions that excluded queer people to their colleagues.
I plan on participating in the survey because not only am I in the LGBTQ+ community but as a research-minded person, I’m interested in how answers will be affected by things like the phrasing of the questions (there’s a psychology to that kind of stuff, right?), the pandemic, and what gender-identity options are available.
Surveys like this reinforce how certain members of the LGBTQ+ community — bi, pan, and trans people of color in particular — continue to need support to overcome challenges and barriers.
Take The 'Queer Design Club' Survey
ART & DESIGN
High Quality Free Fonts With Open Use
Indian Type Foundry launched FontShare, a growing collection of professional grade fonts that are 100% free for personal and commercial use. This raises the standard of free fonts and provides access to beautiful typography to those working with tighter budgets. Even better, it could help combat that many free fonts are in fact rip offs of proprietary fonts so hopefully in the future they can expand who contributes.
Free Type Videos
ATypI, the Association Typographique Internationale, published a lot of their presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and more on YouTube for public viewing. I’ll be checking out stuff from their 202 conference like “Depictions of Blackness in American Graphic Design by Kelly Walters” and “Legibility.info: Developing Inclusive Communication Design by Florian Adler”.
Signing off from the Starship SBLTN,
Laneen (Pronouns: she/they)
🎧 Listening - "Time Lapse" by Ryan Farish
👀 Watching - Never Too Small YouTube channel (micro homes)
📖 Reading - "Why inclusive design is essential to building a better product" (article)
✔️ Random Fact - Approx. 1 billion people worldwide have disabilities (15% of global population) UN/WHO