“As designers, we are responsible for creating worlds of experiences, environments, services, and systems that impact millions of people – with lasting impacts.” As the UK’s leading user recruitment agency, at People for Research we believe that this responsibility should not be limited to designers. As experts in the user recruitment field, we often are the first line of communication between the UXers or the researchers and many participants with accessibility needs.

The inspiring sentence that you can read at the top of this blog has been borrowed from the World IA Day 2019 website, which celebrates the topic ‘Designing for difference’ this year. Inspired by this particular date and the massive shift we have witnessed over the last few years in the UX and usability industry towards digital inclusion, we are gearing to launch a new service: our Accessibility Collective.

This new service consists of a panel composed of people with different types of disabilities and users of assistive technology that are able to take part in your user research, ethnographic studies, face-to-face usability testing or remote sessions in a quick and straightforward way. Our goal is to streamline the process of finding the right people to boost the accessibility of your products and services, especially if you have a limited budget or a short lead time. Money or time should not be the reasons why your product ends up being inaccessible to 400 million disabled users around the world.

The long path towards digital inclusion

If you have been keeping an eye on our blog or social media channels over the last three years, you may have noticed our efforts to promote accessibility and to encourage more of our clients to research and test with disabled participants and users of assistive technology. This has been one of our main objectives since 2016 and one that we intend to keep working on in the long-term.

According to Norin Khanna, a visually impaired member of the People for Research community, only “30 to 40 percent of websites are truly accessible”, which turns simple tasks like online shopping or browsing the web into frustrating experiences.

Our Accessibility Collective service intends to help more agencies, companies, charities and government agencies to access the unique feedback provided by disabled users at a lower price and within shorter timeframes.

Cathryn Innocent, Senior Project Manager & Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador

If you would like to find out more about our in-house participant recruitment service for user testing or market research get in touch on 0117 921 0008 or info@peopleforresearch.co.uk.

At People for Research, we recruit participants for UX and usability testing and market research. We work with award winning UX agencies across the UK and partner up with a number of end clients who are leading the way with in-house user experience and insight.