Figma Announces FigJam Screen Reader Support

Using a digital whiteboard to brainstorm ideas can be a great way to collaborate, especially with nondesigners. That’s why collaborative design powerhouse Figma launched FigJam, a whiteboard-style tool that anyone can use.

The team behind FigJam wanted to make sure its tools were accessible, so they began by working on the most basic of features: keyboard navigation and text descriptions for all visual elements.

The latter will enable someone navigating with assistive technology to better understand the structure of your work, including the placement and meaning of decorative numbers, stickers or other shapes that are used to illustrate the order.

They also added text-based numbered lists to give designers more precise control over the hierarchy of their work. These improvements, along with an improved search box that supports Ctrl-F, help people navigate FigJam files with ease.

Lastly, the FigJam team also made it easier to communicate with your teammates through the use of lines and stamps. Rather than using iconography or stickers, which rely on visual inference, they have replaced them with straightforward numbered lists that can be read by screen readers. This is a nice touch, and it makes for an easier way to provide feedback and ensures that your work will be understood by everyone in the room.

This update comes just a few weeks after Figma released a new feature that allows you to create high-fidelity wireframes in Notion, its note-taking and project management software.

In the next few months, they will add a plugin that allows users to import FigJam files into Notion, allowing you to quickly turn your low-fidelity prototypes into high-fidelity, interactive wireframes that can be reviewed and commented on.

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