Accessibility, and Why You Should Care

OK, first off, let’s acknowledge that “Accessibility” is a bit of an overloaded term, but we’ll get to that in a bit. First off, let’s look at a tangible example — 
How usable is your product for somebody who has one arm?

So fine, fine, you look at the demographics, and convince yourself that the total number of one-armed people who use your system is … small. Great, so — 
What about people who have lost the use of one arm?

Oh, right, thats quite a few more people. And it can happen due to age, accidents, disease, etc. And, yet again, you convince yourself that this doesn’t really apply to you. So, next one — 
What about people who have temporarily lost the use of one arm?

Who might I be talking about? Oh, so many examples
• You’re carrying a cup of coffee
• You’re using the mobile UI with one hand, and are holding on to a bus-strap with another
• You’re carrying a baby
• You broke your arm
etc.

You get the point, right? It turns out that this pesky Accessibility thing has all sorts of real-world benefits! In short, Accessibility can promote Usability! (•). Following the law is a good thing anyhow, but in this case it is can also be ridiculously beneficial

There are all sorts of things you can do to get (more) accessible, including stuff like
• Using contrast to help information stand out
• Emphasizing keyboard focus
• Having color be one of multiple means of conveying importance
• Not insisting on mice
etc.
It’s really not all that complicated, and your UX folks probably already know most of this.

(•) From the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative

Accessibility addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments … [it] means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools, and that they can contribute equally without barriers.

Usability is about designing products to be effective, efficient, and satisfying. It is the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction.