Claromentis Design
Getting Started
Getting Started
A short overview of accessibility requirements in product and marketing channels. This section provides guidelines to be followed when carrying out development or creating material for Claromentis.
What is accessibility
Accessibility is essentially a way of allowing all your potential users access to your product. It should work universally whatever people's hardware, software, language, location, or ability.
The 5 main categories of accessibility to take into account are:
- Visual – people who are severely sight impaired (blind), partially sighted or colour blind.
- Auditory – people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Motor – people who may find it difficult to use a mouse, keyboard, or other common input methods.
- Cognitive – people who are dyslexic, autistic, or have learning and memory difficulties.
- Temporary / Situational – temporarily disabled users (e.g., a user holding a child navigating on a phone with one hand).
When a product is accessible, it creates zero barriers to access, meaning it is inclusive of all people. This directly aligns with the 'Care' core Claromentis value. Accessibility is a functional constraint that allows for more design and engineering creativity, not less.
"When websites and web tools are properly designed and coded, people with disabilities can use them. However, currently many sites and tools are developed with accessibility barriers that make them difficult or impossible for some people to use." Source: W3C WAI Fundamentals
Assistive technology (AT) is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices (like screen readers, switch controls, and voice control software) for people who face the challenges outlined above.
Why is accessibility important
- Inclusiveness: Creating an accessible product results in a more inclusive experience, which is beneficial for the greater digital good.
- Customer Retention & Acquisition: The ability to better serve existing customers while also reaching out to a new segment of the market that our competitors may have neglected.
- Legal Compliance: Following global accessibility requirements (such as ADA, Section 508, and EN 301 549) is legally mandated. Failure to do so exposes the company to significant legal consequences.
- Building Trust & Reputation: Being genuinely accessible reinforces and authenticates the Claromentis brand value.
- Machine & AI Readability: Modern LLMs, internal RAG-based search crawlers, and automated autonomous workflows interact with our platform by parsing the DOM structure. Building highly semantic, fully accessible interfaces for humans naturally creates an optimized, error-free navigation data layer for AI agents.
Testing Web Accessibility
Ideally, we want to test all features and UI elements using the following protocols:
- Screen Readers (e.g., VoiceOver on iPhone, iPad & Mac; NVDA/JAWS on Windows)
- Screen Magnifiers (e.g., screen Zoom features on desktop and mobile)
- Voice Recognition and Dictation Software
- Strict Keyboard-Only Input Navigation
Additional resources
The following third-party testing tools must be utilized during feature development: