Read our Designing for Accessibility - eBook!
PART 3: Interactive Design
When designing solutions for interactive kiosks, you have a bit more flexibility to customize and personalize the user experience, making the solution more accessible for everyone. With kiosk solutions built using Omnivex software, you can easily add options to move menu buttons to more accessible areas, integrate a high-contrast color option, or allow users to increase font size.
MAKE YOUR KIOSK ACCESSIBLE - PLACEMENT MATTERS!
Before you start designing your interactive digital signage solution, it’s a good idea to find out how it will be used. What kind of display? Will it have a portrait or landscape orientation? What kind of enclosure will it be encased in?
For wheelchair accessibility, kiosks that are sloped, usually between 15 degrees and 20 degrees, are generally recommended. Sloped kiosks at this angle are generally easier to use. When a person is seated in a wheelchair, the maximum height for a safe forward reach is 48 inches. If using a standing vertical kiosk without any slope, ensure your design doesn’t require the user to reach higher than 48 inches, or lower than 15 inches. Know where it’s going to be, what the kiosk is going to be standing on, and determine where on your touch-screen your accessible area is.
If mounting a touch-screen on a wall, make sure it does not protrude more than four inches from the wall. The minimum height should be 27 inches and the maximum height should be 80 inches.
ALSO NOTE that these guides change slightly depending on whether there is an obstruction in front of a kiosk so, like any design project, get as much information up front as you can!
MAKE YOUR SCREEN OPTIONS ACCESSIBLE
This is where finding out all the information on placement, kiosk model, the environment it will be placed in - can be put to use to designing an interface that everyone can use. Let’s start with the accessible part of the screen.
We know the maximum safe forward reach of someone sitting in a wheelchair is 48””, so it’s important that any options on the screen a user will need to tap are within the accessible 48”” area.
