Inclusive Design: Why Accessibility Matters for Your Fans

The mobile app is the bridge between a fan and a live event. But if that bridge is inaccessible to people with disabilities, we aren't just creating friction, we are actively excluding them. As a Product Designer at FanThreeSixty, my job is to design the digital experience for anyone who wants to access their tickets, check stats, or engage with content seamlessly.

Designing for Everyone

In order to design for all users, it’s imperative to get serious about accessibility. It’s easy to think of it as a niche requirement, but roughly 20% of the population lives with some sort of disability, whether it’s a permanent physical condition or temporary circumstance.

This project pushed our team to ask necessary questions about the people on the other side of the screen, such as:

• How does a hearing-impaired person enjoy a podcast stream?

• How might a user with mobility issues gesture through a carousel of images if they can't swipe easily?

• How does a visually-impaired person navigate the app using a screen reader, and is the logic clear to them?

These questions helped us realize that barriers existed in places we hadn't always considered. To fix them, we knew we needed to look deeper than surface-level design.

Solving for Scale

Over the course of the last year, FanThreeSixty partnered with digital accessibility experts at Accessiblu to conduct a comprehensive accessibility audit for our mobile app product. We audited a master version of our app, containing every feature from onboarding to widgets, against WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards. This rigorous testing allowed us to apply accessibility fixes across our entire mobile framework simultaneously. Whether you are a local venue or a pro sports team we’re delivering "procurement-ready" mobile app accessibility to all our partners.

Empowering Our Partners

FanThreeSixty now provides an ADA-compliant framework for all clients. We have integrated specific tools within the Communications Builder and App Manager to empower clients to maintain these standards:

• Alternative Text: Fields for image descriptions to assist visually impaired users.
• Video Captioning: Support for captions to assist hearing-impaired users.
• Audio Descriptions: Capabilities to add descriptions for visual content that is not captured by standard audio.

Whether someone is navigating a stadium map, checking the schedule for upcoming events, or watching highlights from their couch, they deserve an experience that works for them. By embedding inclusion into our code and design processes, we are ensuring that the live experience is open to everyone.