The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2021–2022
Auditorial: RNIB, Google and The Guardian fit one story to every reader's senses
RNIB, Google and The Guardian turned one story into a site with 22 adaptive features, so blind and low-vision readers tune the telling to their senses.
Google · The Guardian · Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)
What it had to solve
R/GA's starting point was a blunt statistic: more than 97% of the top million websites have accessibility issues, and around 300 million blind and low-vision people struggle to read ordinary news online with assistive tools. RNIB, The Guardian and Google wanted to prove that inclusive design can make storytelling richer, not merely compliant.
How it works
Most news websites are effectively closed to blind and low-vision readers: R/GA puts the share of the top million sites with accessibility issues at more than 97%, affecting around 300 million people. On Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May 2021, three partners — the RNIB, The Guardian and Google — launched Auditorial to show that inclusive design can make online storytelling better, not merely passable.
Auditorial is a storytelling website built around one Guardian story. Readers can read it as text, listen to narration, follow with captions, or watch, while 22 adaptive features let them control type, contrast, colour, motion, voice and pace, combining into more than 100 ways to experience the same article.
The project put blind and low-vision users at the centre of the design team, and its techniques were written up in the Accessibility Notebook so other publishers could copy them. According to R/GA, Auditorial reached more than 100,000 readers and makers, and 96% of testers said it vastly improved their experience.
Why it lands
- 97% of top websites failing accessibility checks gave the partners a concrete injustice to design against.
- Building one real Guardian story, not a demo, forced the format to work under the constraints of actual journalism.
- 22 adaptive features meant inclusion was expressed as reader choice, not a single accessible skin.
- Publishing the Accessibility Notebook turned a one-off site into a playbook other publishers could adopt.
What it did
R/GA reports the project reached more than 100,000 readers and makers, that 96% of testers said it vastly improved their experience, and that inclusive-design lectures from Google and RNIB kept touring the creative community; D&AD carried the work in its 2022 awards.
What you can take
Accessibility is a creative brief, not a compliance list: constraints like blindness force a design to offer choices — audio, captions, contrast — that enrich the story for every reader.
Since then
Auditorial launched on Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May 2021 with a Guardian story; R/GA reports it reached more than 100,000 readers and makers, and 96% of testers said it vastly improved their experience. Google and RNIB toured inclusive-design lectures through the creative community, and the team's Accessibility Notebook stayed available as an open guide for publishers. The work was carried in the D&AD 2022 awards.
Sources
- Google - Auditorial | D&AD awards archive
- RNIB partners Google and The Guardian to launch accessible storytelling website
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