Rosenverse
Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You

Gold
Friday, October 1, 2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Share the love for this talk
Prototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
Speakers: Sam Proulx
Link:

Summary

In this interactive session, Sam Proulx, accessibility evangelist at Fable, will draw from experience as a person with a disability, and from Fable’s thousands of hours of research experience, to answer all of your questions about conducting prototype reviews with people with disabilities. What design systems work best? What disabilities can participate in prototype reviews out of the box, and what types of disabilities might need special adaptations? What information should a prototype contain, to get the best feedback and engagement from people with disabilities? How can you and your organization learn to better shift left, and involve people with disabilities as early as possible in the design process, and why should you? We’ll also have plenty of time for your own questions! If you’ve been wanting to conduct prototype reviews that involve people with disabilities, but weren’t quite sure where to begin, don’t miss this session!

Key Insights

  • Starting prototype reviews with screen magnification users offers high impact with minimal adaptation.

  • Screen magnification users benefit from graphical prototypes because they can magnify visuals and assess color contrast and text size directly.

  • Users with physical challenges may need researchers to operate prototypes on their behalf due to assistive tech limitations, especially with hover and click targets.

  • Screen reader users require prototypes with semantic markup like proper heading levels, labeled controls, and landmarks, which traditional wireframes usually lack.

  • Prototyping tools like Figma and Adobe currently have limited accessibility support for screen reader users but are actively researching improvements.

  • Building prototypes for screen reader users often involves using document-based tools like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to show semantic structure and text equivalents.

  • Hover interactions pose significant challenges for users relying on alternative navigation methods such as switch systems or head mice.

  • Control labeling consistency in prototypes is crucial to avoid confusion, particularly for those using voice dictation or alternative input.

  • Low vision users who do not fully rely on screen readers are the largest group benefiting from improved prototype accessibility.

  • Mobile accessibility considerations largely mirror desktop concerns, with screen size and gesture differences being the main changes.

Notable Quotes

"Including people with disabilities in prototype reviews can be different based on the assistive technology they use and their needs."

"Screen magnification is really about making the screen larger, changing color contrast, reducing motion, and panning around the magnified area."

"Screen magnification users are a great place to start because your prototypes and tools will mostly just work with minimal adaptation."

"Users with physical challenges often can see and interpret prototypes but may need help clicking through them because assistive tech may not support the prototype system."

"Screen reader users need semantic structure that graphical prototypes typically don’t have, like labeled headings, controls, tables, and landmarks."

"For screen reader users, you often need to build entirely new prototypes using systems like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to convey semantic information."

"Hover is very difficult for users who use switch systems or head mice because they can only click or not click and have trouble holding steady to hover."

"Consistency between control labels and prototype instructions matters a lot, because mismatches can cause big problems for alternative navigation."

"Most of the work on accessible prototyping for screen readers is still in early or mid research stages but is improving rapidly."

"Involving people with disabilities throughout the product development cycle is crucial, from prototype reviews through to acceptance testing."

Ask the Rosenbot
Dharani Perera
The mandala of service design: unlocking alignment and action through service design
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Luca Rager
Empowering Gaming at Scale: How Xbox Builds Powerful, Automated, and Distributed Design Systems with Sketch
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Designing AI-first products on top of a rapidly evolving technology
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Gillian Salerno-Rebic
From Insight to Impact: How JourneySpark Used WEVO Pulse + Pro to Drive a 50% Lift in Ad Engagement
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Tricia Wang
From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Mariah Hay
BUILD: Discussion
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Ariba Jahan
Team Resiliency Through a Pandemic
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Sarah Auslander
Incremental Steps to Drive Radical Innovation in Policy Design
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Patrick Boehler
Fishing for Real Needs: Reimagining Journalism Needs with AI
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Marjorie Stainback
What Research Ops Professionals Have Learned from COVID-19
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Brad Orego
Bringing Customer Research to More Internal Teams
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Alan Williams
Designing essential financial services for those in need
2022 • Civic Design Community
Shipra Kayan
How we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Elizabeth Sklar
Co-creating research enablement with your tech org: a case study
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Carol Smith
Operationalizing Responsible, Human-Centered AI
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Kate Koch
Flex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold

More Videos

Ross Smith

"Sometimes assumptions break down, like credit cards without expiration dates in India; you have to listen carefully to customers."

Ross Smith

Breaking Barriers with Empathy

June 9, 2017

Kevin M. Hoffman

"When product leaders ask for research just to validate ideas, the best response is to say, ‘fuck this group,’ then do real user interviews."

Kevin M. Hoffman

Theme 2: Enterprise Team Journey

June 3, 2019

Ian Swinson

"Innovation is about being fearless, breaking rules, and refusing to stop at the way things have always been done."

Ian Swinson

Designing and Driving UX Careers

June 8, 2016

Sam Proulx

"Apple has thought hard about letting people unbox and set up their phone entirely without help, including turning on VoiceOver."

Sam Proulx

Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users

October 2, 2023

Briana Thomas

"Ops folks are the linchpin connecting leadership and designers, orchestrating all the instruments."

Briana Thomas Christina Rodriguez

When Design Ops Comes in H.O.T. : A Tale of a Transformed Design Org

September 30, 2021

Prerna Makanawala

"Changing the mindset takes time; like a big ship it takes hours to turn direction."

Prerna Makanawala

Achieving Balanced Design Consistency

June 9, 2021

George Abraham

"Our tool is not partial to Sketch — we support Adobe XD and will soon support Figma, enabling flexible integration in design workflows."

George Abraham Stefan Ivanov

Design Systems To-Go: Reimagining Developer Handoff, and Introducing App Builder (Part 2)

October 1, 2021

Dana Bishop

"Successful organizations continually test, use larger sample sizes, and measure UX performance to manage what they can’t measure."

Dana Bishop

2022: The Year UX Demonstrates its Business Impact

March 11, 2022

Jeff Gothelf

"Everyone has a customer — whether external users, third-party vendors, or internal colleagues; those humans consuming your product are your customers."

Jeff Gothelf

Who does what by how much?

November 20, 2025