HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE EFFECTIVELY AND WITHOUT BIAS
(A guide for designers and content creators)
I was diagnosed with myopia and astigmatism at 14 years. Before then, my mother wondered why her incessant warnings to keep my eyes safe by sitting far from the TV were falling on deaf ears. She eventually took me for an eye test when I was 14 and then I was given this professor-looking frames with very thick lenses in them. They were like the base of a glass coke bottle! 👓
All the years afterwards, it has been difficult to read from a distance without them. So I’ve wondered how people who’s disabilities are not visible by just physical assessments. They are all around us! Some of them have given up on communicating with the world around them except immediate family. I mean…people with physical abilities aren’t getting the much engagement and inclusion they deserve yet so you can imagine those with disabilities and impairments that you cannot see.
Often times, we have disregarded the need to communicate with people while acknowledging the possibility of their sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, skin color, race, age, language, the list is endless!
This is still lacking in the digital content and design space. You don’t want to design content to particularly reduce your audience by a particular percentage no matter how small.
An example is using the male gender to cover for other genders and sexual orientations such as “Landlord”
Designers who are in such strategic positions would need to observe their audience and be more intentional about taking such biases off their designs otherwise it would already be void of inclusion before it arrives.
Another worrisome instance is in the field of Visual Designs for Communication in Public Places.
If a person is color blind, how do we design visual representations and effects in public spaces to ensure that they can find their way to work and on the way home? Not all of these people would have access to guide dogs.
Chart for Improving colour accessibility
Any design that has color blindness accessibility factored in is already a successful design because it would already have proper color contrast (don’t use just black and white), texture and patterns to show contrast, leverage symbols and icons, etc.
Additionally, you’ll have to avoid color combinations such as
Green & Red
Green & Brown
Blue & Purple
Green & Blue
Light Green & Yellow
Blue & Grey
Green & Grey
Green & Black
This is especially for those of us who use templates from Canva and similar platforms.
When such templates are used, there is the need to ensure you change color and icon preferences to suit your audience.
Virtue Oboro
