Project Background
“If you were to redesign the internet tomorrow for blind people, it would be something else entirely.”
The internet, predominantly designed by sighted designers, is inherently biased toward sighted users.
Over 300 million people have a vision impairment.
Yet, 97 percent of website home pages do not meet accessibility requirements.
Even when accessibility guidelines are followed stringently, there’s a difference between retrofitting websites to work for assistive technologies, and genuinely enjoyable storytelling for blind and low vision readers.
United by the belief that online storytelling can be as rich and creative for the blind and low vision community, as it is for sighted people, a cross-disciplinary team from three disparate industries came together; combining the accessibility expertise of the RNIB, the storytelling expertise of the Guardian and the technical expertise of Google.
The result was Auditorial; an experiment in storytelling that can adapt to suit the needs and preferences of blind and low vision users.
The completely customisable interface makes it possible for people to choose the way they want to experience a story - they can read it, listen to it, watch it, and adjust every single visual setting, to consume the story in a way that suits them.
This project is intended to spark a broader discussion, about how the web in its entirety could become a more inclusive place for those with disabilities, simply by offering different modes of interaction.
For those in the creative industries, we have captured all project learnings from our collaborations with the blind and low vision community in our