Accessibility
Definition
Ensuring websites and digital content are usable by all people, including those with disabilities. This includes screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, and contrast considerations.
Example Use Case
A real estate website ensures its property listings are accessible by adding alt text to images and enabling keyboard navigation.
Accessibility is both an ethical obligation and a commercial one. A site that cannot be operated by keyboard, or whose text disappears against its background, excludes potential customers. In many jurisdictions it is also a legal requirement, which makes it a risk-management concern as much as a design preference.
The most common failures are mundane: images without meaningful alt text, form inputs without labels, heading levels skipped for visual effect, colour used as the only way to convey state, and controls that respond only to a mouse. Each has a well-understood remedy, and most are cheap to handle during design rather than after launch.
Accessibility work tends to improve the site for everyone. Clearer contrast, real labels, and logical heading structure help users in bright sunlight, on slow connections, and on older devices just as much as they help assistive-technology users.
