Web Accessibility: Numbers aren’t everything
“It’s about basic values we often forget, like caring for each other. Supporting one another.”
Did you know that the number of people with disabilities in the EU is roughly 135,000,000?
And did you know that the spending power of people with disabilities worldwide is approximately 6,000,000,000,000 USD? (No, my keyboard isn’t broken! That figure is accurate!)
Wouldn’t that be an interesting way to start a post about web accessibility? No? Too on-the-nose for an intro, you think? Well, it’s not an exciting topic for most people, so I thought that if I went ahead and mentioned some numbers right from the get-go, I might pique your interest. And, to be honest, I could keep going with numbers to support my argument on why you should always make your products more accessible.
But you know what? I won’t. Because
Numbers aren’t everything
Yes, of course, numbers are important, but what I mean is that they shouldn’t always be what drives people to be better, improve and evolve.
When we talk about accessibility, we shouldn’t focus on numbers. We shouldn’t think of accessibility as something that could attract more clients, increase revenue or improve corporate image. Although, it will do all that!
Then, what’s it about? I’ll share this little secret with you in a bit.
For now, I’ll just give you a hint. Don’t think that accessibility is only about caring for people with permanent disabilities. Nope! It’s not just that! Accessibility means caring about others. In general. And “others” doesn’t necessarily mean people other than yourself. “Others” includes you and your future self as well!
You don’t get it, right? You’re wondering what I’m talking about? What I mean is that…
Everyone is living with disabilities.
Yes, everyone! “Ok, utter nonsense,” you may think! But bear with me, and let’s take a closer look at who, in particular, is dependent on accessibility:
- People who are cognitively impaired
- People with a temporary or permanent motor impairment
- People who are visually impaired or blind
- People who are hearing impaired or deaf
- People with learning difficulties
- People with multiple disabilities
- People using a mouse and/or keyboard
- Elderly people
- Children
- You, when you walk your dog!
Yes, you! You depend on accessibility, too! “But I’m not disabled,” you probably think. It may surprise you, but you’re wrong.
First of all, and this is extremely important, you’re using the wrong term. Disabled person is completely different from a person with a disability (which is actually the correct term). Simply because disabilities don’t label a person. They are just something that a person has. And from my perspective, the term disabled person means a person who can’t do anything. On the other hand, a person with a disability says I am a person first and foremost like you are a person. It’s just that there are things that I’m not able to do (more accurately, things I do differently, but let’s stick to the basics for this article). Here’s the thing: Everyone has things that they can’t do! Therefore, everyone has a disability.
You see, disabilities aren’t always visible, aren’t always permanent. They could be situational or temporary. They have already affected you at some point; it’s just that you probably didn’t notice.
Think about that. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were walking your dog, you were holding the leash in one hand and trying to text someone with the other but couldn’t reach the letters on the opposite side on your smartphone? Sound familiar, doesn’t it? Well, that’s a disability that affects you, right there!
Or if you are a parent, then you were probably in a position where you had to go down some stairs with a stroller because there was no elevator. Again, this is a disability.
And my last point. Have you ever noticed that you’re getting older? It’s not just you, everyone does. Our bodies are constantly changing. Sooner or later, you’re going to reach an age where clicking a link won’t be as easy as it is now! You are probably going to be very annoyed! And grumpy! “Those darn kids nowadays. They make those links so small!”
And when the time comes, how do you think you’re going to feel when you’re excluded from basic needs, like having access to information, navigating the Internet, reading an article?
Trust me, speaking from experience, being excluded sucks! It sucks a lot!
You didn’t think about all that before, did you? Is it maybe because you were thinking about accessibility incorrectly and you never thought that it actually concerns you? That could be the case, right? Ok, let’s see then.
What else you were wrong about this whole time:
“In the projects I’ve worked on, we didn’t have users with disabilities”
This statement is NEVER true. Users with disabilities are potentially one-fifth of your audience. Either you have users with disabilities and you just don’t know it (probably because you aren’t asking the right questions) or your product is so inaccessible that people who need assistive technology couldn’t use it even if they wanted to.
“My users don’t complain about accessibility, so we must be doing ok”
Well, yes, sure, maybe… It could also be possible that users with disabilities just ignore your product, the same way you ignore them. FYI, only 10 percent of those who encounter accessibility issues complain, the other 90 percent click away.
“Making a website accessible is costly and time consuming”
Retrofitting your product for accessibility is what is costly and time consuming. If you start properly from the beginning, you won’t lose money and time fixing it later.
“But accessible design means boring design”
On the contrary! It’s possible to create a beautiful, media-rich, interactive, engaging AND accessible website.
There are many more misconceptions and myths about accessibility. In any case, I’m not trying to point fingers at those who misunderstood it, don’t get me wrong. But identifying the problem would be an important step in having people think differently and realize that finally,
Accessibility concerns everyone
Remember when I told you before that the right term is extremely important? It’s because disabled person clearly shows how our society thinks and behaves. People with disabilities are not a group of people; it includes everyone. Some of us have a disability every day, and others encounter disabilities in certain cases. For some, they are visible, and for others, they aren’t.
My point is that, in the end, everyone is going to encounter a disability at some point in their lives. This is where I back my statement that accessibility concerns. every. single. person!
Conclusion and revealing the secret
We constantly complain about how unfair the world is, how meaningless our relationships have become, how we’re isolating ourselves more and more from the rest of the world. And we’ve become so good at complaining that sometimes, I have the feeling that we are completely forgetting that we can actually react to it.
And this is what accessibility is all about. It’s a different way of thinking, a way of reacting. It’s about how we interact with the people around us, the impact we make on our society, what we do as individuals to bring a little change to the world. It’s about basic values we tend to forget, like caring for one another. Supporting one another.
Accessibility is just, simply and naturally put, us being humans!
Credits
To my colleagues @diconium and A11y Champions: Andreas Schumacher, Silke Stolle, Florencia Rodriguez for allowing me to borrow some information from their incredible presentation: “Accessibility — creating an inclusive customer experience”
Resources
World Wide Web Consortium
The Business Case for Digital Accessibility
Accessibility myths
https://a11ymyths.com/
https://youtu.be/_1yGFn7OIDY
