TIMELINESummer 2021
USERSUX at UserTesting
Myself, UX writing intern + sole author
Natalie, Accessibility Guild lead
Amy, design system lead
Lija, CX consultant
Engineers of the Accessibility Guild
UX writing team
TEAMHow can language be more accessible across UserTesting?
The original accessibility guide was only one page, unfinished. I worked with my team to:
Develop best practices, guidelines, and provide resources on accessibility and inclusivity
Make sure the revised guide meets current accessibility standards (as of 2021)
Align project with the (then) current stages of the accessibility audit and UserTesting’s product vision
GOALSI studied the WCAG standards and accessibility guidelines of Apple, Mailchimp, Microsoft, and Shopify.
I focused on writing for people who are blind or visually impaired — users who often rely on screen readers.
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM
TESTING WITH SCREEN READERSI tested with VoiceOver, a built-in screen reader by Apple.
TEST #1VoiceOver read the page quickly without distinguishing between buttons and headers. If the same two words were on a page, a user wouldn’t be able to tell which was the header, body text, or a button. Each component needs an aria-label.
TEST #2Looks fine, right? But there’s directional language. Non-visually impaired users wouldn’t think anything of it. But this excludes visually impaired users, since referring to layout or placement doesn’t mean anything to a screen reader.
The original page only had 5 sections, 2 of them without content: alt tag, formatting, hashtag, language, and reading level.
EXPANSION+ examples of do’s and don’ts
changed alt tag → alt text
+ aria-labels, with justification from test
expanded on formatting + screen reader findings: they read semantic tags (<strong> + <em>), but not style tags (<b> + <i>)
expanded on language + info on avoiding directional and sense-specific language
WHAT I ADDED+ punctuation — screen readers are inconsistent when reading certain symbols
+ ellipses
expanded on reading level + note on being mindful of ESL speakers and using research terms for customers + acronyms
+ text links and avoiding vague phrases like “learn more” or “click here,” which can be confusing for screen readers if it’s used repeatedly on a page
RESULTSI presented the full guide to my team and broader UX org at the end of my internship.
Owning a style guide for the first time was really cool, especially just starting out. In just three months, this little project made a huge system-wide impact in real-time. But if I could re-do it, I’d test these with non-writers, audit the other UXW style guides, and update them in accordance with these guidelines.
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