The practice of designing products usable by as many people as possible, including those with permanent, temporary, or situational disabilities. Often abbreviated as a11y.
Definition: The practice of designing products usable by as many people as possible, including those with permanent, temporary, or situational disabilities. Often abbreviated as a11y.
Accessibility (often abbreviated as a11y) is the practice of making products usable by as many people as possible.
While accessibility includes people with disabilities, its benefits extend to everyone:
| Designed For | Also Helps |
|---|---|
| Blind users (screen reader support) | Users with slow connections |
| Low vision (high contrast) | Users in bright sunlight |
| Deaf users (captions) | Users in noisy environments |
| Motor impairments (keyboard navigation) | Users with temporary injuries |
Accessibility addresses:
The best way to understand if your product is accessible is to test it with people who have diverse needs and abilities. The recruitment and testing principles are the same as standard UX testing, but require extra care, respect, and flexibility.
Key considerations:
Accessibility compliance spans laws (like the ADA in the U.S.) and technical standards (like WCAG 2.2). Laws establish obligations; standards provide the testable criteria for demonstrating conformance.
Per ISO 9241-11: the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines—the international technical standard defining how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. Provides testable success criteria organized by level (A, AA, AAA).
Per ISO 9241-210: a person's perceptions and responses resulting from the use and/or anticipated use of a product, system, or service—including emotions, beliefs, preferences, and behaviors before, during, and after use.
This term is referenced in the following articles: