The Miro Accessibility team is collecting tips for designing and running inclusive collaborative sessions in Miro in this article. We will be regularly updating it as we learn more about best practices that work for our customers.
Miro UI updates in phased rollout
Miro is enhancing the board user interface to be more inclusive and intuitive, and introducing an evolution of Projects called Spaces. Miro is now rolling out these updates over several weeks.
This article describes updated entry-points. To see an overview of all updates, see Miro's new simplified user interface.
Our general recommendation is to check if someone who is participating in asynchronous or real-time collaboration has access needs when preparing your Miro board.
If this is the case, we recommend working out clear instructions for all meeting or collaboration participants to make the experience inclusive for everyone, and ensure everyone is familiar with them before they start working in Miro.
Using Miro Accessibility Checker
The Miro Accessibility Checker is an innovative tool aimed at empowering all users to create accessible boards. It performs a variety of checks on your Miro boards to identify areas that may not meet accessibility standards, providing you with actionable insights on how to improve your content for all users.
Open Accessibility Checker via three dots (...) menu > Board > Accessibility Checker. The checker will perform four checks:
- Text contrast
- Non-text contrast
- Image descriptions
- Container titles (frames, tables, kanban boards etc.)
Following the Accessibility Checker recommendations will improve accessibility for screen reader users, as well as colorblind and visually impaired users.
Making Miro boards more accessible for screen reader users
If you are collaborating with screen reader users, it is possible for them to create, read, edit and delete objects on a Miro board, however there are steps you can take to make your board easier to use.
Generally, the more structured the boards are, the easier it is for screen reader users to access content.If you want to make sure screen reader users can easily navigate the board and access board content, follow these recommendations:
- Use frames to structure board content and make sure no board objects are placed outside frames.
- Create frames in a sequence from left to right – this way users will be able to easily follow the flow of the collaborative session.
- Ideally, each frame should fit into the viewport at 100% browser and Miro canvas Zoom – this will guarantee the smoothest user experience possible. Frames also shouldn’t overlap each other.
- Provide image descriptions for images. Just select any image and activate the ALT button, then add your description of what the user should perceive.
Adding alt-text to images
Adding alt-text to images
Provide text alternatives/descriptions for any complex visuals like diagrams — use text or shape to insert the annotation.
Using sticky note colors and tags consciously
Using various sticky note colors is a great way to cluster ideas or differentiate between contributors. If you are looking to make your workshop more inclusive, there is an alternative to sticky note colors – using tags for identifying sticky note authors or categorizing sticky notes on the board.
Using tags
Increasing the browser zoom level
Go to the browser menu, open zoom settings, and increase UI size up to 200%. It will increase the size of Miro toolbars and controls.
Changing browser zoom level in Chrome
Making Miro more accessible for people with motion sensitivities
Turning cursors off to reduce distractions on the board
Miro is all about collaboration, and seeing the cursors of everyone who is present on the board is crucial for emulating the engaging in-person experience.
However, you have the option to turn cursors off when needed to reduce distractions on the board if this is the preference of the group you are collaborating with. It will also improve overall board performance if you are collaborating with dozens or hundreds of people.
Hiding collaborators' cursors on the board
Turn on Reduce motion
Animations can be distracting, cause dizziness, motion sickness and trigger migraines. Turn on Reduce motion (Main menu > Preferences > Reduce motion) to:
- Prevent GIFs from autoplaying.
- Instantly switch between frames using frames panel.
- Remove UI transitions when opening/closing dialogs and menus.
Turning Reduce motion on
Making Miro more accessible for people with light sensitivities
Using the dark background
Reduce the brightness of your board by going to to three dots (...) menu > Board > Background color and choosing Gray, Dark Gray or Black background.
Using custom board color
Choosing dark colors for objects on the board
You can create sticky notes and shapes with the darkest colors as well as white/light grey text colors where appropriate.
The color of the background and text of a shape
Using guidelines for accessible facilitation
Facilitation before, during and after collaborative sessions can have a big impact on accessibility of collaboration. Read our guide to learn about 10 Principles For Inclusive Collaboration
Enabling visitors for easier access to boards
For easier access to the board, a facilitator can make the board available for visitors. This will mean that those who receive the link to the board will be able to open it without having to sign in or sign up to Miro. To enable this, go to Share and choose Anyone with the link can edit (available on Starter, Business, Education, and Enterprise plans). Learn more.
Sharing a board with visitors who can edit
If a user doesn’t need to edit a board, consider giving them “Can view” or “Can comment” access. This way users won’t have to worry about making unintentional changes.
Using attention management features and links for better board navigation
For smoother navigation on the board, a facilitator may use bring everyone to me functionality. This will mean that everyone who has the board open is able to follow the facilitator on the board wherever on the board they are. Learn more.
Bringing all collaborators to your view
Alternatively, a facilitator may also Copy link to any object on the board and share it with collaborators. To do that, click on any object, click the three dots (...) menu, and then Copy link.
The option to copy link to an object