Accessibility
Learn how to ensure people of diverse abilities can use and interact with our digital products and tools.
Accessibility is crucial for digital inclusion as it ensures people of all abilities can use digital products equally. For product teams, VPDS components can be viewed as building blocks that need to be assembled, connected, and arranged to ensure accessibility for all users. Designers and developers can bolster accessibility using semantic markup practices, organizing intuitive navigation structures, and implementing accessibility reviewed components. However, product teams are collectively responsible for ensuring that their experiences follow global standards and practices.
Requirements
Visa Global Accessibility Requirements (VGAR)
Centrally managed by Visa Accessibility, the Visa Global Accessibility Requirements are a set of functional expectations that distill Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) into easy-to-learn resources for product teams, customers, and partners. These requirements help ensure Visa’s digital products meet global accessibility standards and should be used to guide product planning, design, and development to avoid costly re-work later.
- Visit the Visa Accessibility SharePoint (internal only) to learn more about VGAR including product requirements, testing procedures, and more.
- For external users, access accessibility resources on the Visa Developer Center
WCAG 2.2 AA
At Visa, we aim to build all web and mobile components to conform to level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG 2.2), the internationally recognized benchmark for building accessible websites developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for enhancing web accessibility. W3C is an international body that develops open standards for the web, and WCAG 2.1 focuses on making web content accessible to all, regardless of abilities.
- Access WCAG 2.2 to learn more about current web content accessibility guidelines.
- Visit the Visa Accessibility SharePoint (internal only) to learn more about how the Visa Accessibility team can help teams achieve compliance.
WAI-ARIA
Complex web applications become inaccessible when assistive technologies can’t determine the semantics behind portions of a document or when the user is unable to effectively navigate to all parts of it. To remedy this, developers can use the Web Accessibility Initiative-Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA), a technical specification that provides development teams with a framework to improve the accessibility and interoperability of web content and applications.
- Access the W3C website for a full list of WAI-ARIA 1.2 attributes.
Inclusivity
For Visa to serve everyone, everywhere, we need to include everyone, everywhere. This means making our products accessible by recognizing the social cost of designing tools all users can’t use. Reference the following resources to learn more about how your team can help users access equitable opportunity.
Legal
Accessibility laws and regulations are based on WCAG 2.1 AA, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). By ensuring Visa products meet Visa Global Accessibility Requirements, we also meet all of these global accessibility requirements.
- For a full list of accessibility laws by country, visit the W3C website
Content
Writing with accessibility and inclusion in mind ensures we make sure our language doesn’t exclude or marginalize anyone. Check out our Inclusive language guidance to learn more about crafting inclusive content.
Motion
Incorporating accessibility in motion design is vital as it ensures that these meaningful cues and directed actions are perceivable and understandable by all users, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
Medical concerns
Exposure to flashing lights or certain visual patterns can trigger photosensitive epilepsy, also known as seizures, in certain individuals. Others may not develop seizures but are still sensitive to certain light conditions and experience dizziness, nausea, headaches, or other signs of discomfort. When building inclusive experiences, product teams need to ensure these users are able to view all material without having a seizure or being limited to text alternatives.
While teams don’t have control over flashing caused by the screen display or the rendering device, designers and developers can produce accessible content to guard against triggering epilepsy and related symptoms by following W3C and VGAR best practices.
Flashing and blinking
“Flashing” and “blinking” are often used interchangeably to describe disruptive content but don’t always refer to the same concept.
- Flashing can be described by content that appears more than three times in a second and is large and bright enough to cause a seizure. Content displaying flashing behavior is never allowed for any duration of time even if it can be turned off, as the onset of seizures can begin before most users can react.
- Blinking content usually doesn’t appear more than three times in a second and is allowed as long as it can be turned off. If it occurs at speeds faster than three times per second, it’s considered flashing and must be removed, replaced, or edited to meet the three flash threshold.
Testing methods
To determine if your video content is accessibility compliant, researchers have developed two testing tools available for public use. Consider exploring the various tools available to ensure your content is accessible.
Automatically updating content
Some forms of content that automatically update, such as stock tickers and page visitor counts, can present accessibility challenges for users who are sensitive to light or motion. To ensure all users can enjoy the full experience of your content, provide them with the option to either stop or hide the automatic updates, or give them a UI mechanism to control how quickly the updates show up. Learn more on the WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria 2.2.2 page.
Animations
Animations are commonly used in micro-interactions, images, and other UI elements that can visually enhance an experience by using motion design to create a sense of playfulness, encourage interactivity, or draw the user’s attention to a certain area. Examples include subtle magnification or sliding motions to highlight an active element or short, snappy movements of notification bells and progress ellipses whipping around to indicate content is loading.
Animations are also found in images and media content like videos, GIFs, and other motion graphics. While it’s possible this type of content doesn’t all flash simultaneously and take up a large enough contiguous area to trigger symptoms in users, be mindful of these risks and avoid overusing this content.
Motion control
When device sensors capture motion from the user or device as input, there must be an equivalent method of interaction that doesn’t require user or device motion. Providing UI controls that perform the same action as this motion is required.
Build products to support the widest range of user needs possible. Allowing users to rely on their customized assistive technology setup and adjust settings to their preferences provides them with the level of accessibility support they need.
For all functionality that can be activated by moving the device or providing user motion input, confirm that:
- The same functionality can be operated or activated through UI component controls.
- The motion actuation can be turned off by the user to avoid unintentional activation.