Introducing accessibility personas for an inclusive Zoho Desk experience

Dear Zoho Desk users,

As part of our ongoing effort to make our platform accessible and user friendly to people from all walks of life, we have taken another step in alignment with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to provide a positive experience to all users, regardless of their abilities.

We are excited to introduce accessibility personas designed to enhance inclusivity and ensure our platform is accessible to everyone. While our existing accessibility features already provide a robust foundation, accessibility personas take this commitment to the next level. By categorizing features according to user profiles, we can tailor the user experience to meet diverse needs more effectively.

Navigating digital platforms can be challenging for users with disabilities. Many websites and applications do not fully cater to the needs of individuals with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, or learning disabilities. This lack of accessibility creates barriers that prevent users from effectively using digital tools and services.

WCAG provides a set of features that allow users to make adjustments to the interface and customize it according to their preference facilitating ease of operation. Nevertheless, it can be difficult for users to identify the features that they need to modify in order to experience smooth usage. This is where Accessibility Personas are convenient.

What are accessibility personas?

Accessibility personas are tailored to address the diverse needs of users by offering a range of predefined settings suited for each persona, such as astigmatism, color blindness, and low vision. Each persona is designed with specific user preferences in mind, promoting awareness and ready-to-use solutions. The accessibility tools are grouped under the following personas:

The table below lists the personas and the accessibility features they comprise:

Persona	Description	Features
Color Blindness	Enhances usability for people with color blindness by increasing contrast, switching to night mode, and providing easily distinguishable color schemes.	Increased contrast, night mode, and red theme
Blindness	Supports users with blindness by enabling screen readers and keyboard shortcuts.	Screen reader and keyboard shortcuts
ADHD Friendly	Helps users with ADHD by providing focus rings, underlining links, and using a reading mask to reduce distractions.	Focus ring, underline links, and medium reading mask
Epilepsy Safe	Ensures a safe experience for users with epilepsy by reducing motion, enabling night mode, and increasing contrast.	Increased contrast, night mode, and reduced motion
Astigmatism	Optimized for users with astigmatism, this persona includes increased zoom, larger font sizes, and underlined links for better clarity and readability.	Zoom level, display font size, and highlight critical information
Dyslexia Friendly	Catering to users with dyslexia, this persona includes a large reading mask and full-width display layout for a clearer and more readable interface.	Reading mask, display layout, and focus ring
For Older Users	Designed for older users, this persona includes larger reading masks, increased zoom, and larger font sizes for better readability.	Reading mask, increased zoom level, and display font size
Low Vision	For users with low vision, this persona highlights critical information, underlines links, and offers a dark, large custom cursor for easy navigation.	Highlight critical information, underline links, increased contrast, custom cursor, zoom level, and display font size
Motor Disabilities	Tailored for users with motor disabilities, this persona emphasizes focus areas and provides keyboard shortcuts and a tab-focused ring for all places.	Emphasize focus area, keyboard shortcuts, and focus ring
Seizure Safe	To ensure safety for users prone to seizures, this persona reduces motion, provides manual toast notifications, and enables a light mode for the left panel.	Animation controls, toast notifications, and light mode

While some essential features are predefined for each persona, users can also enable features individually to meet their specific needs. This personalization helps ensure a highly accessible and comfortable user experience.

Refer to the help document: Understanding Accessibility Personas in Zoho Desk for more details.

This feature is now available for all users across data centers. We look forward to hearing your feedback and continuously improving our services to better serve all our users.

Thank you and have a great day!

Regards,

Varsha P | Zoho Desk - User education

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