Communication Patterns

Chapter 3. Accessibility

When most people hear the word accessibility in the world of software, they immediately think of screen readers (for those who are blind or have reduced vision), but they don’t think much further than this. Accessibility in the technology arena encompasses much more.

When you create a diagram, you should consider whether your audience can fully access it. If a stakeholder doesn’t fully understand your message, you both lose out.

Accessibility isn’t just for those with temporary or permanent disabilities or special needs. Your diagrams and visuals need to be accessible to people with different levels of knowledge, business functions, and familiarity with your product or domain. Your audience’s environment also affects the level to which they can access your diagram, including the screen size they are using and amount of time they have to consume your information.

This chapter will help you consider accessibility beyond screen readers and produce diagrams that can be accessed by a much wider audience.

Note

Anyone can be disabled. It is their environment that disables them. Your aim is to put everyone on an equal footing.

Relying on Color to Communicate

You are relying on color to communicate when you use color alone to represent meaning, such as different colored boxes to represent new or changed items in a diagram. The most obvious and common form of the relying on color to communicate antipattern is to use color to represent positive and negative without ...