Special View

Accessibility as the Foundation

Imagine that a website is something you do not look at, but listen to: you perceive the voiced elements in sequence and control them with a keyboard.

This scenario guided the structure, navigation and interface components. For Special View, accessibility became the foundation of the project, not a separate version of the website or a formal low-vision mode.

We discussed key scenarios with blind users and testers in advance, then covered the topic in more detail in the journal article “How blind people see websites”.

How the Site Sounds

Try not looking at the interface for a minute and simply listen to it. We asked blind colleagues to record their work with a screen reader on two websites: the Special View portal, where digital accessibility was considered at every design stage, and a typical media website.

Portal Architecture

The portal content is organized into three main areas, each solving a specific user task: learn something new, find a relevant event or get access to useful opportunities and services.

Resources

This section brings together educational programs, grants, reference materials and links to services for people with visual impairments.

Media, events and useful resources do not exist as isolated sections. All materials are connected by a shared system of categories, tags, authors and geography.

As a result, a user can move from an article to an event, find other publications by the same author or browse materials on a topic they care about. This structure helps people navigate a large body of content not only through the main menu or search, but also through meaningful connections between pages.

Scale and Community

One of the client's goals was to show the scale of the project and the people who make it happen.

That is why the website now has an expanded team section. It includes not only Special View staff, but also authors, ambassadors, audio describers and other project participants.

Each author has a dedicated page with a biography, contact details and all related publications and events.

A map of Russia shows the project's geography and cities of presence. The same information is also available as a structured list, so it is not limited to a visual format.

Visual Concept

Accessibility should not turn the portal into an impersonal utility interface.

We wanted to create a visual system that:

• reflects the meaning of the project;
• develops the recognizable image of Special View;
• stays clean and clear without making content work more complicated.

On the main screen, the Special View name gradually appears from a blurred state. Geometric elements in the background react subtly to cursor movement.

We also developed a glass-like 3D interpretation of the Special View logo. It became one of the key elements of the new visual language.

Personalized Recommendations

The portal takes into account which content categories a user engages with most often and adjusts the order of recommendations accordingly.

Personalization helps users find relevant articles, news and events faster inside a large content archive. At the same time, it does not limit access to other materials or create a closed personal feed.

Editorial Tools

In addition to the user-facing part, we developed tools that simplify the editorial team's day-to-day work.

The system automatically processes materials added through the WYSIWYG editor:

• removing fixed image dimensions;
• moving images inserted from cloud services into the website's local storage;
• letting editors use ready-made snippets for publication layouts.

This post-processing reduces manual work and lowers the risk that a new material will break page responsiveness or accessibility.

Design and Development

During the design stage, we prepared an interactive prototype with 23 screens covering the portal's key user scenarios and functional modules.

Technologies

• Content management system: 1C-Bitrix.
• Frontend: Vue, Vite, TypeScript.
• Integrations: DaData, Sendsay.