Accessibility discourse is immensely important, however most people don’t consider it unless it directly affects them or someone they know. Indeed, the first time I truly started considering accessibility was when I started watching videos by Molly Burke, who happens to be blind, on YouTube. However, most people benefit from a feature designed with disability in mind every day. I personally use larger text sizes when reading something on my phone or my e-book reader. I took a astronomy class at Smith last semester and we weren’t allowed to use any blue light when we were on the roof of McConnell using the telescopes and observing the stars, however those of us with iPhones were able to go into our accessibility settings and turn on Color Filters to make our screens emit only red light. These are just a few of the ways that a function designed with accessibility in mind can be helpful to populations outside of the one it was originally built for. Because of this, developing tools and features with accessibility in mind is not only important to make technology accessible to everyone, but to improve ease of use and the experience of interacting with technology for many people.
