Creating Inclusive Designs with Canva: Tips and Techniques

In today’s digital age, inclusivity isn't just a trend—it's a necessity. For LGBTQ centers, non-profits, organizations, and businesses striving to create a positive impact, ensuring that your visual content is accessible to everyone is crucial. Canva provides a robust platform for crafting designs that are not only visually appealing but also inclusive and accessible. This blog will guide you through practical tips and techniques on how to use Canva to create designs that welcome and engage all individuals, regardless of their abilities. Whether you're designing flyers for a community event, creating social media graphics, or developing promotional materials, these strategies will help you make sure your content is effective and inclusive.

1. Leverage Canva’s Accessibility Features

Canva provides several built-in tools to ensure your designs are accessible:

• Design Accessibility Tool: This feature helps identify and apply accessibility improvements such as color contrast, typography, and alternative text (alt-text). You can use it to make sure your designs meet accessibility standards.
• Alt-Text for Images: Adding descriptive alt-text to images ensures that individuals using screen readers can understand the visual content. Canva even offers AI suggestions for alt-text, making this step easier.
• Accessible PDFs: When you download your designs as PDFs from Canva, they are automatically formatted to be readable by screen readers, enhancing document accessibility.
• Captions for Audio and Video: Canva allows you to add captions to your videos and audio content, making it more accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Canva’s keyboard shortcuts facilitate easier navigation for users who rely on keyboard-only interactions.

Explore these features directly on Canva’s Accessibility Tools page to make your designs more inclusive.

2. Use the Inclusion Canvas for Comprehensive Design

To further ensure your designs are inclusive, consider using the Inclusion Canvas by Futurice. This free tool helps teams analyze and integrate diverse user needs into their product and service designs.

Collaborative Tool: The Inclusion Canvas facilitates team discussions about inclusivity and helps identify overlooked user groups.

• Collaborative Tool: The Inclusion Canvas facilitates team discussions about inclusivity and helps identify overlooked user groups.
• Simple Integration: It’s designed to be user-friendly, requiring only sticky notes and markers for physical use, or it can be integrated into digital collaboration tools.
• Free Download: Access the canvas at no cost by filling out the form on Futurice’s website. It’s a valuable resource for creating inclusive designs across various media.

3. Best Practices for Inclusive Design

Incorporate these best practices into your design process to ensure inclusivity:

• Color Contrast: Use high contrast between text and background colors to aid readability. Canva’s color tools can help you select accessible color combinations.
• Clear Typography: Choose fonts that are easy to read, and ensure text is large enough to be legible. Canva offers various font options to suit different needs.
• Avoid Overly Complex Designs: Simplicity often enhances accessibility. Avoid cluttered designs and ensure that key information is easy to find and understand.
• Test Your Designs: Preview your designs using Canva’s accessibility tools and gather feedback from diverse users to identify and address any potential issues.

Creating inclusive designs is not just about compliance; it’s about making your content accessible and engaging for everyone. By leveraging Canva’s accessibility features and incorporating tools like the Inclusion Canvas, you can ensure your designs cater to a broader audience and enhance the overall user experience.