R/GA, Marketing Agency
Auditorial
Storytelling
that
adapts
to
suit
the
reader.
More than 97% of the top million websites have accessibility issues, making it difficult for 300 million blind and low vision readers to enjoy online content.
Google, The Guardian and The Royal National Institute of Blind People joined forces to set a new experience benchmark for the blind and low vision community.
The result is Auditorial — a customisable storytelling website that adapts to suit the sensory needs of the reader.
Brand Strategy
Design System
Product Design
“It unlocks a whole different area of the internet that we were shut off from, for so long”
"This was easier to access than anything on a traditional news website or app."
"I hope developers use this project as a benchmark"
The project has already reached over 100,000 readers and makers, and inclusive design lectures from Google and the RNIB are still touring the creative community.
This project placing blind and low vision users at the core of a design team. The result is a system of adaptive features that can make a piece of online storytelling accessible and enjoyable
With Auditorial, readers can experience the storytelling in whichever sensory mode suits them — reading, listening or watching, and customising visuals and audio along the way.
All in all there are 22 adaptive features that enable users to experience the same story over 100 different ways.
96% OF TESTERS SAID AUDITORIAL VASTLY IMPROVED THEIR EXPERIENCE
Product Strategy
Product Design
Product Tone & Voice
Design System
Product Development
Product Management
The lack of equitable access to vital online news and storytelling that helps people to make sense of the world, seems one of the most pointed inequalities of the web today — we chose that as our starting point.
But the same design biases affect the web at a global scale.
Auditorial offers a system of adaptive features that any website creator around the world can borrow and learn from, in order to help make the web a more inclusive place for people with disabilities.
Details of all the techniques we developed can all be found in the ‘[Accessibility Notebook](https://auditorial.withgoogle.com/accessibility-notebook)’ which captures all the learnings from our research and development process, and our collaborations with the sight loss community - https://auditorial.withgoogle.com/accessibility-notebook
Through the customisable story and the supporting notebook for craftspeople, we hope to encourage website creators everywhere to work with a more multi-modal approach going forward.