Despite being a wonderful app overall, Duolingo has been widely criticized for its limitations in accessibility. So, my first step was to do some research to understand how exactly Duolingo falls short of accessibility standards, and how we can remediate that.
‍
Usually, I'd go about this by conducting a round of user interviews, but due to time constraints, I was unable to do so with the thoroughness and attention to detail that I would've liked. So, I decided that the next best thing was to scout out reddit forums, particularly r/duolingo, and look for common needs, frustrations, and concerns discussed by users. Here's what I found:

I noticed a pattern - many users favored the website version of Duolingo because they could use browser extensions to customize the experience in ways that make it more accessible to them. This mass migration and reliance on third-party extensions underscores the detrimental impact of Duolingo's lack of native accessibility features. Some users even took it upon themselves to create solutions. Smart, but never something that users should feel the need to resort to.

For some accessibility issues (particularly those affecting people with learning disabilities), a few users argued for the opposite approach, saying that the whole point of learning is challenging yourself. This emphasizes that abilities vary greatly among individuals, as do their attitudes. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, users need choices that allow them to tailor their experience to suit their needs.

In the end, I found that some of the biggest pain points were the following:

Following my research, I had a better idea of what user groups I'd be targeting in my redesigns. I looked more into these groups to understand the nature of their impairments, how they impact a user's learning experience, and what their accessibility needs are.

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that primarily hinders a person’s ability to read and write. Someone with dyslexia may experience difficulty reading fluently at an average pace, telling similar words apart, and spelling accurately. This means that they often go about these tasks slowly and are particularly prone to mistakes. 

Factors such as font, color, and spacing can play crucial roles in dyslexic individuals' reading experiences. For example, dyslexic individuals generally read faster when the text has a lower color contrast.

Visual impairments, such as poor vision or color detection, may present significant challenges for users interacting with digital interfaces. Poor contrast, small font sizes, and cluttered layouts can exacerbate these challenges, leading to feelings of frustration and helplessness.

Some users rely on screen readers to access digital content, while others require adjustable size/contrast settings or alternative color schemes to enhance visibility.

People with hearing impairments may have difficulty perceiving spoken instructions, dialogue, or auditory cues, hindering their ability to fully participate in the audio-based exercises that are so prevalent in Duolingo. Some ways that users may improve their auditory experience include using captions, adjusting playback speed, or employing visual cues (such as lipreading) to enhance audio content.

I assembled all my findings up to this point in the form of two user personas. Moving forward, I'm keeping Tom and Anya in mind for every design decision I make.

We discovered earlier that many users use the help of browser extensions to navigate Duolingo's accessibility gaps. As such, I decided to try some of the popular ones to gain firsthand insight into how common pain points can be remedied, even if only to a certain extent.

Some key accessibility-enhancing features are:

Now that I have a better understanding of the effectiveness and popularity of specific accessible features among my user base, I'm much better positioned to brainstorm ideas on how I can enhance Duolingo's native design to improve its accessibility.