Category:Accessibility

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The Basics

Accessibility in the sense considered here refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments so as to be usable by people who experience disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e. unassisted) and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).

From Accessibility on Wikipedia

Types of Disabilities

Business Value

Good accessibility is good business.

  • It provides access to a market of customers that otherwise cannot spend money on your product.
  • It provides a competitive advantage over companies that are not accessible - Dell Corporate has lost bids to more accessible competitors in the government sector, and we'd rather be the company others lose bids to.
  • It frequently provides higher quality than inaccessible products -- products that are thought through from an accessibility lens are often easier to use for non-disabled users, or provide features that otherwise may not be thought about. (For example, while Closed Captioning was developed specifically for Deaf audiences, it's a service that almost everyone has used at some point, whether at a crowded bar or in a room with a sleeping baby.)
  • It ensures continued use of the product to customers that transition from non-disabled to disabled. (Keeping a customer is just as important as gaining a customer.)
  • It lowers legal risk of civil rights and access lawsuits.

Further reading:

Legal Issues

One of the most, um, motivating aspects of accessibility law is the ability for someone with a disability to sue or register a complaint against the US Office for Civil Rights (OCR) (and similar offices in other countries) when a physical or virtual location is inaccessible. Read about Accessibility Legal Issues.

Standards and Guidelines

The official standard is the WCAG 2.0 standard by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For resources related to the standard, see Category: WCAG Guidelines.

Getting it done

Accessibility 101: The things you need to get started

Fostering the Culture

  • Extreme Design by Derek Featherstone is a one-hour video of how accessible design benefits everyone.
  • Creating a Culture of Accessibility by Cordelia McGee Tubs at the Dropbox Tech Blog. This article discusses generating excitement around accessibility, running an accessibility device lab, rewarding the organization's champions, spreading knowledge, and developing a culture of learning around accessibility.
  • Reframing Accessibility for the Web by me at A List Apart. This article discusses how stereotypes work, how they're interfering with our accessible design process, and one approach to testing for accessibility that takes the stereotypes out of the direct line of fire.
  • Accessibility for Teams by the US Government outlines how each role at an organization or in a team can improve the accessibility of a product.

Agile and Accessibility

Specific topics

Testing tools

Why test with people who have disabilities?

How to test

Accessibility & Mobile Design

Accessibility & Game Design

anne’s Accessibility talks

Related topics

Accessible PDF files

Web Accessibility 101: Screen Magnification & Reflow in Acrobat Reader https://youtu.be/fCrZhnFrxjk

Additional Resources