A User-Friendly Substitute for Canva Design Tool
In a bid to create a more inclusive digital landscape, a leading design platform has announced its commitment to enhancing accessibility features. Over the past two years, the platform has been refining its tools to cater to people with disabilities, starting with requests from its user base.
The platform's future directions include enhancing complex diagramming capabilities, refining the automatic generation of alt text for images and charts, and developing user-friendly color contrast checkers. These features aim to make the design process easier and more accessible for everyone.
The color contrast checker, a unique feature on the platform, provides immediate contrast ratios for selected colors, ensuring designs are easily readable for users with visual impairments. The platform also uses AI alt text generators to help users add context to images, making them accessible to all.
The platform offers a range of accessible templates to guide users towards accessibility throughout the design process. These templates provide learning moments about important accessibility concepts, empowering users to create inclusive content.
Integrating accessibility features seamlessly into the design workflow was a significant challenge. The platform's team undertook extensive planning, development, and testing to ensure accessibility was woven into every fiber of the platform, educating themselves about WCAG guidelines, alt-text, color contrast, and other technical nuances of accessibility.
The platform's on-site accessibility checker automatically scans designs and detects areas that don't meet accessibility standards, offering recommendations for improvements. This feature simplifies the design process without compromising on quality.
Design platforms like ours empower users to create compelling content with ease, including engaging onboarding documents, professional presentations, and dynamic business pitches. The platform prioritizes accessibility, treating it as a crucial aspect, unlike many other design platforms.
The platform is well-suited for a wide range of groups, including businesses, educators, and designers who are new to creating accessible designs. It aims to foster a community of informed users who understand the importance of accessibility, regardless of their prior design skill or accessibility awareness.
The hope is to combine advanced features like diagramming with practical tools like AI-generated alt text and educational resources to create a future where everyone can create and consume visually rich content, regardless of their abilities. The platform prioritized accessibility over advanced AI features, allocating significant resources to its development.
Developing the color contrast checker was uncharted territory, as no existing design platform has this feature built-in natively. The platform's team is proud to lead the way in accessible design, making it easier for everyone to create visually appealing and inclusive content.
