Accessibility (A11y)
Designing digital products usable by people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments.
Definition
Digital accessibility (often abbreviated A11y—"a" + 11 letters + "y") means designing products usable by people with disabilities. This includes visual impairments (screen reader compatibility, color contrast), auditory impairments (captions, transcripts), motor impairments (keyboard navigation), and cognitive considerations (clear language, consistent navigation).
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide standards for accessible web content. Legal requirements like the ADA increasingly apply to digital properties, making accessibility both ethical imperative and legal necessity.
Why It Matters
Beyond legal compliance, accessibility expands your potential audience and improves experience for everyone. Accessibility features benefit users in various situations—captions help in noisy environments, keyboard navigation helps power users, clear design helps everyone.
Retrofitting accessibility is expensive; building it in from the start is more effective.
Examples in Practice
An accessibility audit reveals screen reader issues that simple HTML fixes resolve, making the site usable for blind users.
Adding video captions expands audience to deaf users while improving engagement from viewers in sound-off environments.
A lawsuit over website accessibility prompts a comprehensive remediation project that also improves overall user experience.