Use these tips to build Accessible studies with UserZoom. You can also learn more in the Accessibility Testing course in UserZoom Academy and in our Accessibility testing: tips and best practices from industry leaders article.
✅ Plan Availability: All Plans
👥 User roles: Owner, Admins, and Researchers
For more information, see our article on how to find your plan and user role.
On this page:
- About building Accessible studies with UserZoom
- Tips for building studies for users with disabilities
- Are you looking to recruit participants with disabilities?
About building Accessible studies with UserZoom
- At UserZoom, we’re committed to making our platform accessible to people with disabilities.
- Our software development approach promotes:
- Ease of use
- An interface that:
- Is perceivable
- Uses a large font size
- Is keyboard accessible
- Uses a distinguishable color contrast
- Has clear navigation
- Is easy to comprehend
- Has a flow that is predictable
- Assists users with input (For example, highlighting fields a user has missed)
- If you work in the digital world, you’ve likely heard of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or Section 508.
- WCAG and 508 are standards for making digital experiences easy to use by people with disabilities.
- This includes people with vision, hearing, speech, mobility, cognitive, and other impairments.
- The UserZoom Moderated in-session experience is WCAG accessible.
- For more information, refer to Accessibility testing: Tips and best practices from industry leaders.
Tips for designing studies for users with disabilities
- As a researcher, it’s important to think about accessibility as you build your study so that you don’t introduce any barriers to use.
- Follow these tips when you’re creating a UserZoom study for participants who have disabilities.
Use one of these UserZoom study types
- Survey (Essentials, Professional, International, and Premium)
- Live Intercept (Essentials, Professional, International, and Premium)
- Moderated Usability study (All plans)
For device compatibility, refer to Device compatibility by study type.
Keep questions and instructions short, simple and clear
- Some participants listen to questions using screen readers.
- Keep in mind that not all visually impaired people have the same proficiency with screen readers.
- Ask some initial questions to gauge their proficiency and how they use their screen reader.
- Keeping questions short helps participants focus on what exactly they need to do.
- For example, “Which message do you prefer most? This question is mandatory.”
- Other things to keep in mind:
- Use a large font size so that the study is easy to read.
- Make sure your study is keyboard accessible for those who don’t use a mouse.
Make sure images have text equivalents
Participants with impaired vision won’t see your design but they will hear what the words, buttons, and links say.
Check that videos have synchronized captions
This is crucial for a proper experience for the hearing impaired.
Avoid using complicated question formats
- Screen readers go from top to bottom, left to right using formatting and tags as clues to convert text into audio.
- Hearing a table with multiple questions/answers read aloud can be confusing.
- Instead, add each question separately.
- Avoid using these formats:
- Matrix questions
- Ranking questions with drag and drop
- Tree tests with drag and drop
- Screenshot Click tests or Timeout tests
Don’t rely on colors to express information
- Keep in mind that people who are color blind won’t see the difference.
- Make foreground and background colors need to meet WCAG 2.0 AA color contrast ratios.
Don’t limit the time allowed to complete a task or question (Participants and Moderators)
- It can take participants a few minutes to find their bearings and turn on assistive tools.
- In turn, Moderators should give some extra time between sessions to account for more complex setup needs.
Preview the study as if you had a disability
- Before you launch your study, read all questions and answers aloud.
- The more understandable they sound, the more understandable they will be for people using assistive technology.
- For a true experience, download and install a screen reader.
Offer accessible incentives
- Offering incentives to participants is great, but only when they are able to be used or claimed.
- Make sure the voucher code or other incentive that you send is able to be read by a screen reader.
Are you looking to recruit participants with disabilities?
- Learn more about recruiting or sourcing your own participants.
- Still not sure how or where to start? We've got you covered! UserZoom has panel partners who are experts in recruiting and conducting research with people who have disabilities.
- Ask your Account Team for more information as this is not available for all plans.