Accessibility fundamentals

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This is an introduction to accessibility: the removal of barriers for people with disabilities. It answers questions like "Why is accessibility important? and "How can I remove barriers?"

This introduction is relevant for a wide range of roles like management, design, development and writing. It is also a very valuable foundation for roles in communication and marketing, conversion, SEO and other forms of digital content creation.

It gives a theoretical basis, practical follow-up information and provides foundational information to be shared widely.

Table of Contents

What is accessibility?

Accessibility is about building products and services that everybody can use, including people with disabilities. Accessibility removes barriers and provides access.

Inclusive DesignDesign that has been adapted to include and consider everybody, including people with disabilities. and Universal DesignDesign that includes and considers everybody, including people with disabilities, from the start. go further than the removal of barriers.

For example: technically, an HTML range input (also known as a slider) has no barriers and can be used to enter a telephone number. However, the thought of using a range input for this is a ridiculous idea for many people. It is a very impractical way to enter a telephone number.
So even though a range input might be accessible in theory, it is also very impractical in reality. It is not inclusive and provides horrible usability for many.

Bad example: accessible telephone number input

Do not copy this example. Technically, this works. However, it is very unpleasant to use.

Accessibility, and especially compliance, comes across as very binary: it either is or isn't and it either fails or complies. In practice accessibility is much more fluid. An experience can be improved without being fully compliant. The end goal is the removal of barriers, but removal of friction is also very valuable.

What is the impact of accessibility?

Accessibility impacts people with and without disabilities. The removal of barriers provides access to people with disabilities, but also has an impact beyond removing barriers.

People with disabilities

All statistics about people with disabilities share the same message: there are many people with disabilities. The exact numbers vary as factors like definitions and methods of registration vary.

1 in 4 adults have a disability.

European Council, Disability in the EU: facts and figures

An estimated 1.3 billion people – or 1 in 6 people worldwide – experience significant disability.

World Health Organization, Disability - Health inequity

More than 1 in 4 adults (28.7 percent) in the United States have some type of disability.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Disability Impacts All of Us

Those numbers are especially concerning as we all become more disabled as we grow older, and more people become older in general.

51.3 % of persons with disabilities are employed

European Commission, European comparative data on Europe 2020 and persons with disabilities

1 in 5 leave school early

European Council, Disability in the EU: facts and figures

Adults with disabilities are more likely to have obesity, smoke, have heart disease, and have diabetes.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Disability Impacts All of Us

The older you get, the more likely to have a disability

European Council, Disability in the EU: facts and figures

Disability is often split into three categories: permanent disability, temporary disability, and situational disability. These categories come from the inclusive toolkit by Microsoft. They help us understand that accessibility impacts people with a range of disabilities that we may not consider on our own.

Permanent disability

When we think about disabilities, we often think of this category. The quoted statistics are about this group of people. Accessibility removes barriers for people with permanent disabilities.

Permanent disabilities are lifelong. When you think of vision, this might be somebody who is blind. Somebody who is deaf or non-verbal could be in this category as well. These are the types of impairments that cannot be fixed, operated on, cured or reverted for whatever reason. They can be from birth but also acquired later in life from an illness, accident or other source.

Lexie, one of the users from the W3C stories, sits on a couch with a phone in hand.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has a series of stories about people with disabilities and how they use the web. They give an impression of what barriers people with disabilities can run into.

Temporary disability

A temporary disability is a different experience than a permanent disability. However, when we include people with permanent disabilities, we also improve access for those with temporary disabilities.

Temporary disabilities do not last forever. They can be from an illness, an injury due to an accident, or any other impairment that can be reverted. Thanks to medical technology, this category has grown. A broken arm used to be more of a permanent disability, and is mostly temporary now.

Situational disability

The third and last category is that of impairments caused by specific situations.

Imagine somebody at a concert. Concerts tend to be noisy, and it can be hard to hear. When they get a phone call, they cannot accept it. They cannot hear the other side of the call. This would be a situational disability: a disability caused by the situation.

A grid of illustrated people with different disabilities. It shows each category with an example of a disability related to touch, see, hear and speak. Permanent lists one arm, blind, deaf and non-verbal. Temporary lists arm injury, cataract, ear infection and laryngitis. Situational lists new parent, distracted driver, bartender and heavy accent.

Impact beyond disabilities

The impact of accessibility goes beyond people with disabilities.

  • People sharing the positive experience of inclusion.
  • A product or service can be bought or recommended by other people
  • Structured content is needed for assistive technologyAn umbrella term for technologies that support people (with disabilities). The term is broad and hard to scope. Examples include glasses, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, prosthetic limbs, screen readers, braille displays, magnification software, custom keyboards and many more. but benefits all kinds of software and tools. This includes Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), translation software and AI agents.
  • The improved experience of inclusivity benefits all users: the curb cut effect.

The curb cut effect

The curb cut effect is a phenomenon where accessibility-focussed technology benefits more people than just those with disabilities. It is named after the curb cut as it is such an iconic example of this.

An illustration of a street scene with a curb cut and the many people benefiting from it. It features the texts "the curb-cut effect" and " when we design for disabilities we make things better for everyone

A curb cut (or dropped kerb) is a small ramp from a sidewalk or pavement down to a street. It is designed to physically remove a barrier, and improve accessibility.
The removal of this barrier is a necessity for people with wheelchairs and other mobility issues. However, it also benefits many other people like those with prams and strollers, people on bikes, carts and delivery vehicles, people with skates and many more.
This image by sketchplanations illustrates the concept.

Other examples of this phenomenon include:

  • closed captions
  • text enlargement on phones
  • game accessibility features in video games.

Solve for one, extend to many

Microsoft, Inclusive Design

If you design for the edges, you get the centre for free.

Rama Gheerawo, President of EIDD – Design for All Europe, quoted by Christopher Patnoe Head of Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at Google

Why is accessibility important?

At inklusivo, we believe people can have three main motivators when it comes to accessibility.

  • Accessibility is required to give everybody equal opportunities. Removing barriers for some people can improve the experience for others at the same time.
  • PractitionersSomeone who practices or is regularly engaged in skilful activity. In the context of accessibility: the people that do the production work like developers, designers, content writers, etc. can also be motivated because building an accessible experience is a skill.
  • The is also a group of extrinsic motivations that often overlap and intertwine.

1. Extrinsic motivations

There are multiple ways people can be extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation can focus on positive and rewarding outcomes. It can also focus on negative and undesired consequences much like punishment. They are closely connected and often intertwined.

Market reach
An organisation that builds accessible products and services can reach a larger market than an organisation that excludes people. The Click-Away Pound Survey found that in the UK, 83% of users with access needs limit their shopping to sites they know are barrier-free.
Market share
Accessible experiences benefit from the curb-cut effect. They beat competition with a better user experience, better SEO and better compatibility with AI tools.
Legal and risk
Many organisations need to conform to laws like the European Accessibility Act (EAA) or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Different areas of the world have different rules and regulations. They tend to align or overlap with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard for digital accessibility. It is an established standard that is referenced in many laws, and is often implied when talking about accessibility.. Non-conformance can lead to fines and penalties, but also severe brand damage. For example, the US company Fashion Nova has settled an accessibility lawsuit for $5.15 million.
Marketing and branding
An organisation that excludes people with disabilities can suffer severe damage to their image. This can tie in with legal and risk. The brand damage of a lawsuit can even be higher than any related fines or penalties. On the other hand, an organisation that includes people with disabilities can position itself positively.
HR and staffing
Having a diverse staff that includes people with disabilities will increase the diversity of ideas and solutions. An organisation that is known as inclusive will have a more diverse staff. This is influenced by marketing and communication but also the accessibility of hiring, onboarding, internal tools and information. In other words, an inclusive experience for co-workers will lead to a diverse staff which will lead to diverse ideas and solutions.

2. Mastery

Mastery of one's craft can also be a motivator for accessibility. Any digital experience can be built accessible. Not everybody has the skills to do so. Having the skills to build accessible experiences can be a sign of somebody that has mastered their craft.

3. Ethics

A lot of people are intrinsically motivated for ethical reasons. An inaccessible experience excludes people. Exclusion of people with disabilities is a form of discrimination called ableism.Ableism is discrimination based on ability. It comes with stereotypes and negative assumptions about people with disabilities. For example, it is ableism when you do not consider a job application from a person with a disability because you assume they are less capable. The section What is the impact of accessibility? and its statistics are reason enough to build inclusive experiences.

Principles to apply

These foundational principles help turn good intentions into actions. Apply them to all experiences, products and services. Also apply them to anything related like manuals, documentation, support and sales channels.

1. Follow specifications

An illustration of a bridge, seen from the side. The left is solid, built from stones, and is labelled "your experience - built following standards". The right is sketched without colour. It's not solid. It's labelled "the visitor - using their tooling".

A big part of accessibility is nothing unusual. You don't have to build things in a specific way to work with "obscure assistive technology X". Follow specifications and standards, and the tooling that users have will do the rest.
As a builder, you meet people with disabilities halfway. The work you need to do for that consists of good practice and proven conventions. This makes things flexible and adjustable for users.

2. We are all different

"One size fits all" is cheap. It is efficient. It is easy.

However, people are not one size. We differ, in many ways. One size does not fit all. Assume people will want to customise, adjust, individualise, change, adapt... Assume that what you design does not fit. Assume your users do not want one thing.

Turn "one size fits all" around: "We are all different":

a. Follow specifications as already mentioned. This gives user the foundation to build and/or adapt their experience.
b. Provide multiple ways. For example, when you design a visual experience, offer the same but through another sense. Or as the EAA states: it must be made available via more than one sensory channel. But also, if you offer a nice digital experience with a website and an app: give people the option to call as well. If you offer a phone service, consider not everybody might be able to call, so also offer a website or mail. Always offer multiple ways to achieve something. Make sure all ways offer the same functionality and content. Give a podcast a transcript. Offer subtitles for your video. Do not try and list all options in your phone menu but assume people want something that is not in the menu. Systems are often designed to cater to the masses. Think of ways to support people outside of the masses. Go beyond the system.

3. Include people with disabilities

Hiring diverse people leads to diversity in your organisation. Diversity in your organisation leads to diverse thoughts and ideas. Diverse thoughts and ideas lead to inclusive products. Inclusive products enable hiring diverse people.

Nothing about us without us.

It is easier to hear the voices of people with disabilities when you include them in every step and on every level.

Diverse perspectives are also a great way to challenge any assumptions you might have. Including people with disabilities completes this set of principles.

Conclusion

Whether you are ethically motivated, want to improve your skills or your reasons are more extrinsic: follow specifications, assume differences and include people with disabilities.

Get this introduction as a powerpoint presentation deck (.pptx)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and common misconceptions

What does it mean when people ask "is this accessible?"
The WCAGThe Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard for digital accessibility. It is an established standard that is referenced in many laws, and is often implied when talking about accessibility. are a very common standard. They are relevant for many legal situations. They are so relevant that "accessible" often equates to compliance with WCAG. For example: people often mean "does this comply with WCAG AA?" when they ask about accessibility. AA is the level of conformance often referred to in law.
What are examples of accessible experiences? Which organisations do it right?
A website that does well one day, might be horrible the next day. Websites change constantly. An organisation might have teams that build terrific things while other teams build terrible things. This can result in some pages being terrific and others being terrible. It can even result in differences in quality one the same page. That said, a website like w3.org should be a leading example.
What does it mean when people mention "limited screen reader support"?
It usually means corners were cut, specifications weren't followed, and mostly people with screen readers are excluded by it. Screen reader support is about following specifications. And when you follow them, screen readers benefit. There is nothing in WCAG that says "support screen readers". It is about code quality and a lot of it can be caught by linters and other code-checkers. Screen readers don't need specific coding.

Where can I learn more?

This is a list of resources we refer to often. It is in no particular order.

Do you have feedback, improvements, additions or anything else you would like us to know? Reach out on the Access Club Discord server or contact us.

Personal note from the author

My name is Erik. Accessibility has drawn my attention for about a decade already. I have been interested in things like Web Design and usability for much longer. I have done work as a front-end developer, an accessibility consultant, a product owner of design systems, an organizer of meetups, and many things more. I do pretty much anything to improve to accessibility of what we build.
It feels weird and nearly impossible to summarise 10 years of experience. Still, it feels better than not sharing it. I did my best and will keep updating it with feedback and new insights. Please share any and all feedback through the Access Club Discord server or contact us.
This is a living document and my foundation for any work in the field of accessibility. When people ask me what accessibility is, I will share this page with them. When I produce a course, I will refer to this as the first chapter. I hope you do the same. 💚

Thanks

These fundamentals lean on the input of many. Some of that has been implicit. Thanks to all the organisations, projects, colleagues and friends. Your input has been valued greatly.
Explicit was the feedback of some people who were asked. In no particular order: Anneke Sinnema, Annelies Verhelst, Dean Birkett, Diede Gulpers, Eva Westerhoff, Tineke Timmerman, Rian Rietveld, Rowdy Rabouw, Wouter Lenssen, the people on the Access Club Discord server and many more.