The key to great universal design

8 MIN READ

The Quick Pickle Design team has made a lot of digital content over the years. Anyone who does what we do, knows we have to design for Accessibility. It’s actually the law here in the US. It’s sometimes referred to as “508 Compliance,” based on its origination of US law, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which goes back to early 1970’s, long before digital content. And of course, there’s also the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

Stick with us here. This topic isn’t as boring as it might sound at first. Great lessons of design have come from being forced to design for Accessibility. I say “forced” to design for Accessibility because it’s not easy. It can be tedious. The rules are many and it takes a lot of extra time to design and build anything within the Accessibility design guidelines. And dare I say, business pressures don’t favor or encourage us to take all the extra time. After all, time is money and it’s easy to feel like we’re spending too much time, maybe even doubling or tripling the time and cost for what amounts to serving a relatively small number of users on the receiving end of what we create.

I’d like to think things have changed. These days, many designers see Accessibility for what it really is. It’s the playbook for really great design for everyone – great “universal design.”

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with fashion designer extraordinaire, Sebastian Tianbini, to get his take on Accessibility and what it means for the world of great universal design. 

Here’s tour conversation: 

QPD Staff Writer: Sebastian Tianbini, thanks for being here with us today.

Tianbini: Thanks. It’s good to be here.

QPD Staff Writer: Let’s start at the beginning for those who are not familiar with Accessibility. What is Accessibility?

Tianbini: Well, as you know, the things we design should be inclusive and accessible to everyone, regardless of their disabilities or limitations. This helps us include design decisions for people with disabilities, be they physical or mental. Of course, these days, I don’t really quite frame Accessibility in this way anymore. 

QPD Staff Writer: How so?

Tianbini: For starters, we’ve evolved our phrasing of the definition of Accessibility to be more accurate and to change the emphasis for what we’re really getting at here. Words matter. The words we use influence our understanding and actions. So the first thing a good designer must do is to stop thinking in terms of designing for people with limitations or disabilities. I like to say it this way – Accessibility is about designing for the widest possible range of human abilities. Notice the difference? 

QPD Staff Writer: It’s subtle, but I see the difference. Your phrasing changes the mention of the disabilities of the few to the widest range of abilities of the many. It’s certainly more kind and inclusive for those with disabilities.

Tianbini: Yeah, but do you get it? You used the word disability. Yes, the phrasing is more kind and inclusive, but it’s not about designing for people with physical or mental disabilities anymore. It’s about designing for everyone – the widest possible range of abilities. When you’re designing digital content, it’s not like you have to stop and think about every possible disability someone might have and make sure it’s addressed with your design. That would take forever. And can we really expect every designer in the world to be good at it?

QPD Staff Writer: You’re right. We don’t do that. We follow a design and build system that has taken care of all that thinking for us.

Tianbini: Exactly. You’re being kind and inclusive to others by way of following the rules of your design system. That’s the beginning for how Accessibility design for the few has evolved to be great universal design for the many.

QPD Staff Writer: Can you elaborate on that? Universal design?

Tianbini: Sure. Let’s go back to the 1970s, back when people had big hair and wore bell-bottoms. By that time, Rock and Roll had already evolved into Rock and was fast-evolving passed Psychedelic Rock into Progressive Rock. Jazz and Blues were evolving into Funk. Bluegrass and Folk into Country and Country Rock, Be-Bop into Hip-Hop, you get the idea. Crazy times, man, crazy. And along with all of the changes in music, our collective culture was changing, as well. The Civil Rights Movement for woman and minorities was more than a dream. It was starting to become a reality. The notion of inclusiveness was real and it changed the way we designed a lot of things. Not just hair and pants, you dig?

QPD Staff Writer: Oh yeah, I dig. But what does this have to do with universal design?

Tianbini: I’m getting there. Have you ever heard of a curb-cut?

QPD Staff Writer: A curb-cut? Was that a type of hair cut?

Tianbini: No. Not even close. Let’s start with a curb. A curb is the raised part of a sidewalk adjacent to a street. And back in the 70s, curb-cuts didn’t exist. They were just called curbs. Imagine crossing the street at an intersection. You had to step down from one sidewalk curb into the street, and then step up again over the curb on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Not a big deal, right?

QPD Staff Writer: Yeah, not a big deal.

Tianbini: Not a big deal unless you were in a wheelchair. That curb would stop you in your tracks. So it was around this time the government was passing laws to rehabilitate our public infrastructure. Long story short, the government mandated that streets and sidewalks – among many other places – had to be accessible to people using wheelchairs. The design solution was simple. Cut the sidewalk curb at the intersection and make the curb gradually slope down into the street. And thus, the curb-cut was born.

QPD Staff Writer: Easy enough.

Tianbini: Well, as the story goes, adding little dips in the curb was a big deal. City planners and developers were up in arms over this. And I can see it from their perspective. Can you imagine how many intersections there are in every single city and town in the whole country? The cost to cut and slope every single curb was enormous. It took many years and a lot of money just to make all those curb-cuts we take for granted today.

QPD Staff Writer:  Interesting. This sounds similar to how we all felt as digital content designers when trying to make all of our online content accessible. It has taken a lot of time and money to change the way we design and build things.

Tianbini: (Ha) I don’t think luggage on wheels with extendable handles was even a thing back then. But I have no doubt curb-cuts helped make them a viable design. That’s a great example of a knock-on effect. Sidewalk curb-cuts helped us evolve to better designs for luggage. Go figure.

QPD Staff Writer: Yet another design idea we now take for granted. 

Tianbini: Indeed.

QPD Staff Writer: I want to switch gears a bit and ask you, how does Accessibility or universal design factor into your design decisions regarding clothes?

Tianbini: That’s a good question. As you know, we’re a small organization with limited resources, so we can’t possibly address all things. In fact, I admit, I don’t even know all of the things we might offer in the world of clothes that would reflect great universal design. I’m still learning. But I think about it and ensure we can do what we can based on our current abilities. 

QPD Staff Writer: Do you have an example?

Tianbini: Sure. For example, I know there are neuro-divergent people who are extra sensitive to touch and something as simple as an all-cotton t-shirt might feel more scratchy and annoying to them. So I try to offer clothing options comprised of a blend of fabrics to reduce the scratchiness that some people might experience with all-cotton, alone. We also look for inks that are less offensive to those who might be more sensitive to certain kinds of chemicals. But just as we were discussing with the design guidelines you use for content, you don’t have to think about all of this. Good design is often baked into the rules created by others.

QPD Staff Writer: I have to say, I’m not a fan of those tags in the neck.

Tianbini: Yes, of course, tags on the neck of a t-shirt can be itchy and annoying for some people. We try to offer printed neck labels instead of tags, or we might have some shirts that have tear-away neck tags or tags sewn into the bottom of the shirt instead of the neck. I say “try” in all of these examples, because we’re not always able to offer what we know might be the best design. But we want to remain sensitive to all needs and we do what we can. In all of these cases I mentioned, it raises our cost, so there are many factors to weigh in order to reach the best balance of form and function within our limitations. I’d like to think we’re always improving.

QPD Staff Writer: That’s great T. Thanks for sharing your time and thoughts with us today.

Tianbini: Thank you!