What Is Accessibility?

My Own Shot at a Definition, focused on product development

I think of accessibility as understanding and appreciating who your users are, how they might interact with your product based on their current abilities, then using that understanding to guide the user experience design and user interface development.

I've been told we don't have any blind users. Don't do that :)

Break It Down

Vision - Perhaps some of your users have low or no vision, or are temporarily in a situation where they cannot see the screen.
Hearing - Or perhaps they don't hear well, or at all, or are in some environment where sound would be inappropriate.
Mobility - Or maybe they have temporary or permanent mobility issues and are not able to press small, close together buttons on a touch screen.
Cognition - Or are dealing with cognitive challenges and are overwhelmed by a very busy and crowded screen.
Developer - you don't want to have to take your hands off the keyboard to use a mouse.

Many people are dealing, to some degree, with a combination of the situations listed above.

back, Welcome next, Some Tools for Accessibility