Our team collaborated with Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, to enhance the digital accessibility for their permanent digital exhibit. “Incalculable Loss,” a memorial piece that tributes the 100,000 COVID-19 deaths was originally published by The New York Times. The museum’s challenge: create a more inclusive user experience without altering the integrity of the original artwork (as it was licensed to the museum’s archives).
The Original Framework
“Incalculable Loss” is a poignant, scroll-driven experience highlighting individual stories through names and short narratives. The “endless doomscrolling”, as mentioned by one of the Cooper Hewitt partner, was an element within the visual framework that really emulated the scope of how many deaths have occurred during this time. However, the original design lacked screen reader compatibility, presenting major accessibility barriers for visually impaired users and those reliant on keyboard navigation. Our job at hand was to create a solution that would preserve the visual experience of the original artwork while bolstering the accessibility of the screen reader experience.
Research At Hand
We began by engaging closely with stakeholders at Cooper Hewitt, by conducting a detailed interview with the stakeholders to understand the museum’s goals, constraints, and the diverse needs of their audience. Some of out main takeaways from these discussions highlighted specific requirements, such as preserving the integrity of the original artwork, ensuring compatibility with mobile and desktop devices, and focusing on users aged 18–25, predominantly design students.
Through this interview, we developed detailed demographic analysis and persona development, focusing on Gen-Z, digitally savvy design students—represented through our persona, Olivia, a design graduate student who frequently engages with digital museum archives. Olivia desires intuitive keyboard navigation, enjoys content with multiple entry points (to prevent scrolling fatigue), and clear audio narration and descriptive alt-text significantly enhance engagement.
Proposed Solution
To address these accessibility challenges, we developed a framing experience that respected the original piece’s integrity while providing crucial enhancements. Our solution included an accessibility toggle, allowing users to seamlessly switch between accessible and original versions. We ensured compatibility with screen readers using WCAG 2.2 standards and the four pillars to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Hence, we provided two narration methods to share each individual story—linear, where the first two stories are read automatically, and dynamic, where stories are randomly selected—to ensure equitable representation of all individuals commemorated.
The accessible user experience starts with clear introductory instructions, followed by intuitive navigation options, including a persistent side panel for text scripts and clear announcements of date and death count upon scrolling. Users have the flexibility to listen to all names, explore individual stories, or skip sections entirely, significantly reducing cognitive and scrolling fatigue.
Our implementation recommendations included detailed annotations and technical specifications, highlighting semantic HTML usage, ARIA labels, and logical tab sequences to ensure smooth and predictable interactions for assistive technologies. The existing code structure provided a foundation that could easily be parsed and utilized to dynamically generate these linear or randomized storytelling methods, streamlining implementation while preserving the original content. Notably, a recent WebAIM survey showed that 98% of screen reader users consider their internet proficiency at an intermediate or advanced level, and 85% prefer inherently accessible websites over improved assistive tools. By parsing the classes and IDs (like “g-day,” “g-count,” and “g-orbit”), our script automates story selection and narration sequencing, aligning with users’ expectations for smooth, responsive interactions.
Takeaway
Reflecting on the project, I realized the profound impact of empathetic design. Engagement with museum staffs greatly informed our design choices, providing essential context regarding institutional priorities, establishing the project parameters, and user expectations. Balancing artistic integrity with enhanced accessibility revealed valuable lessons about the intersection between aesthetics and functionality, particularly in art—an area inherently open to diverse interpretation. This experience reinforced that inclusive design is not only achievable and beneficial but also essential for meaningful user engagement in digital spaces. Ultimately, by improving digital accessibility, we have contributed to making significant historical narratives inclusive for all users, ensuring no one is excluded from experiencing the collective memory captured in COVID-19’s “Incalculable Loss.”