Designing For Accessibility

Let’s talk about hidden disabilities—ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, and others that don’t meet the eye. Too often, these students are left to struggle because their needs aren’t immediately visible. But here’s the thing: when we ignore those needs, it’s no different from denying someone in a wheelchair access to a ramp. Think about it. Would you expect someone to climb stairs without the tools they need? Of course not. Yet we often expect students with hidden disabilities to navigate education without the accommodations that would level the playing field. It’s not fair, and it’s not right. Accommodations like extra time, clear instructions, or a quiet space aren’t “special treatment.” They’re the difference between drowning and swimming. They’re the tools these students need to show us their potential, not their struggles. I’ve seen the power of a single adjustment. They’re what happens when we meet students where they are. What if we reimagined education as a place where every student feels valued and equipped to succeed? What if we stopped seeing accommodations as “extras” and started recognizing them as essential? Here’s a question for you: Have you seen examples of simple accommodations making a big impact? Or do you think schools are doing enough to support students with hidden disabilities? Let’s share, reflect, and push for better together. Image Courtesy: No Nonsense Neurodivergent #Disability #Accessibility #SDGs #Equity #HumanRights #WeAreBillionStrong ID: Allowing a student with a hidden disability (ADHD, Anxiety, Dyslexia) to struggle academically or socially when all that is needed for success are appropriate accommodations and explicit instruction, is no different than failing to provide a ramp for a person in a wheelchair.

💎 Accessibility For Designers Checklist (PDF: https://lnkd.in/e9Z2G2kF), a practical set of cards on WCAG accessibility guidelines, from accessible color, typography, animations, media, layout and development — to kick-off accessibility conversations early on. Kindly put together by Geri Reid. WCAG for Designers Checklist, by Geri Reid Article: https://lnkd.in/ef8-Yy9E PDF: https://lnkd.in/e9Z2G2kF WCAG 2.2 Guidelines: https://lnkd.in/eYmzrNh7 Accessibility isn’t about compliance. It’s not about ticking off checkboxes. And it’s not about plugging in accessibility overlays or AI engines either. It’s about *designing* with a wide range of people in mind — from the very start, independent of their skills and preferences. In my experience, the most impactful way to embed accessibility in your work is to bring a handful of people with different needs early into design process and usability testing. It’s making these test sessions accessible to the entire team, and showing real impact of design and code on real people using a real product. Teams usually don’t get time to work on features which don’t have a clear business case. But no manager really wants to be seen publicly ignoring their prospect customers. Visualize accessibility to everyone on the team and try to make an argument about potential reach and potential income. Don’t ask for big commitments: embed accessibility in your work by default. Account for accessibility needs in your estimates. Create accessibility tickets and flag accessibility issues. Don’t mistake smiling and nodding for support — establish timelines, roles, specifics, objectives. And most importantly: measure the impact of your work by repeatedly conducting accessibility testing with real people. Build a strong before/after case to show the change that the team has enabled and contributed to, and celebrate small and big accessibility wins. It might not sound like much, but it can start changing the culture faster than you think. Useful resources: Giving A Damn About Accessibility, by Sheri Byrne-Haber (disabled) https://lnkd.in/eCeFutuJ Accessibility For Designers: Where Do I Start?, by Stéphanie Walter https://lnkd.in/ecG5qASY Web Accessibility In Plain Language (Free Book), by Charlie Triplett https://lnkd.in/e2AMAwyt Building Accessibility Research Practices, by Maya Alvarado https://lnkd.in/eq_3zSPJ How To Build A Strong Case For Accessibility, ↳ https://lnkd.in/ehGivAdY, by 🦞 Todd Libby ↳ https://lnkd.in/eC4jehMX, by Yichan Wang #ux #accessibility

Inaccessibility is all around us - but sometimes we’re doing it without even realising. I’ve made every one of these mistakes in the past. It wasn’t until someone took the time to point them out that I learned how inaccessible I was being - despite having good intentions. Here are 5 ways you might be being inaccessible, without even knowing: 1. Long LinkedIn headlines or overuse of emojis. Screen reader users hear your full headline every single time you post or comment. Every. Single. Time. Even when it’s truncated visually. That can mean hearing your full job title, emojis, and taglines multiple times before even reaching your post content. Try to keep your headline under 100 characters or two lines max - it makes a huge difference. 2. Long email signatures, HTTP links, and unlabelled images. Screen readers will read out every line - including things like “H-T-T-P-colon-slash-slash…” for full URLs. Images without alt text are completely invisible to screen reader users. Keep it short and simple, and use alt text wherever you can. Put only essential info in your email signature and put two dashes at the top to signal your signature is starting. And remember, it’s not your marketing tool. When was the last time you actually bought something from an email signature?! 3. Not running documents through the accessibility checker. You run a spell check, so why not an acceeeibility check? It’s a quick step, but it can flag things like heading structures, contrast issues, and missing image descriptions. It takes seconds and makes a big impact. 4. Using colour alone to convey meaning. For example, “I’ve marked the important cells in green” doesn’t help if someone can’t perceive colour easily. Neither does “I’ve shaded the cells for our RAG status”. Always add a label, icon, or another indicator. 5. Using all lowercase hashtags. #thisisnotaccessible - screen readers can’t parse where one word ends and another begins. Use camel case instead - #ThisIsAccessible - so screen readers pronounce the words correctly. Small changes, big impact. If you’ve made some of these mistakes before - welcome to the club. We learn, we improve, we do better. #DisabilityInclusion #Disability #DisabilityEmployment #Adjustments #DiversityAndInclusion #Content #A11y

7 Everyday Hacks You Wouldn’t Have Without Disabled People You know the little ramp at the end of a pavement? That’s called a curb cut; made for wheelchair users. But now used by parents with buggies, cyclists, travellers and more. That’s the curb cut effect: when access for disabled people ends up helping everyone. 1. Electric Toothbrush Originally designed for people with limited grip or coordination. Now everyone uses them! 2. Ramps Built for wheelchair access, but now essential for cyclists, people with prams, delivery workers & more. 3. Text-to-Speech & Voice Assistants Created for blind & mobility-impaired users. Now used daily to set timers, send texts, and manage smart homes. 4. Velcro Invented in the 1940s, Velcro became widely used in disability care settings before it went mainstream, even before NASA made it famous. 5. Audiobooks Developed to provide access for blind readers. Now a key tool for multitaskers, commuters and resting listeners. 6. Touchless & Automatic Doors Designed for accessibility. Now a standard feature in supermarkets, hospitals, airports and office buildings. 7. Subtitles & Captions Created for Deaf & hard of hearing people. Now used by millions to focus, learn, or watch content in quiet settings. Disability drives innovation. Accessibility helps everyone. Let’s give credit where it’s due and invest in access not just as a compliance measure, but as a catalyst for better design and outcomes for all. Which of these do you use regularly? Let me know what other everyday hacks we wouldn't have without Disabled People this Disability Pride Month! Video Description: Jenni, a white disabled woman with auburn hair and using a manual wheelchair, shows 7 everyday hacks we wouldn’t have without disabled people, including the electric toothbrush, curb ramps, voice assistants, Velcro, audiobooks, automatic doors & captions. These are all examples of the curb cut effect: access tools designed by or for disabled people that now benefit everyone. #DisabilityInclusion #AccessibilityMatters #CurbCutEffect #DisabilityPrideMonth #InclusiveDesign #DisabledInnovation #UniversalDesign #AccessForAll #EverydayAccessibility #DisabledAndProud

It will be official on Monday that the Title II deadline for digital accessibility is being extended by a year. Now 2027 for cities over 50,000 and 2028 for cities under 50,000. I am of two minds on this. The first reaction is blunt. Once again, the government signals that people with disabilities don't matter. Extensions rarely land as neutral. There are delays, and delays have a personal cost. I expect the same pattern we saw when Title III timelines slipped. Confusion, uneven adoption, and a spike in litigation when expectations and reality collide. Let me make it perfectly clear: The requirement to be accessible is NOW. The only thing that is delayed is the implementation of a standard by which that accessibility is being measured. The second reaction is more practical. Most organizations were not ready. Not close. This gives them time to get organized. After sitting with it, here is where I land. Deadlines do not create accessibility. Decisions do. An extra year can help, if it is used to improve the situation. Use it to put governance in place. Define who owns accessibility and how progress gets measured. Train designers, developers, QA, and product owners so they can make the right calls upstream. Fix procurement language so you stop buying inaccessible products and increasing your tech debt. Build an inventory of websites, applications, and documents so you know what actually exists. Most municipalities do not have a complete list. If that work happens, the extension has real value. If the year turns into waiting for legal guidance or hoping some magic solution like AI or an overlay will solve it, nothing changes except the date on the calendar. The organizations that invested early are not the ones asking for more time. They built programs. They funded the work. They integrated accessibility into design systems and development workflows. They will use this year to refine and scale. Everyone else now has a clear signal. You have time, and you have no cover. For cities with over 50,000 residents, that means showing measurable progress within a year. Not a plan. Not a statement. Evidence. Accessible templates in production. Staff who know how to build and test. Procurement language with enforcement behind it. A testing program that runs continuously. For cities under 50,000, the timeline is longer, and resources are tighter. That makes prioritization non-negotiable. Start with the services people rely on every day, especially if you rely on third parties. Payments. Permits. Public safety information. Then expand. The litigation risk does not go away with an extension. It compresses. When the new deadline hits, expectations will be sharper, not softer. Take the year and treat it like the last one you will get. Because eventually, it will be. https://lnkd.in/gvSvuT5r #Accessibility #TitleII #WCAG #Disability

In 1971, a group of wheelchair users at UC Berkeley who called themselves the Rolling Quads; went out in the middle of the night with cement and buckets and built their own ramps into the sidewalks. The city had ignored them. The police threatened to arrest them. They built anyway. Those ramps became curb cuts. Curb cuts became universal. And something unexpected happened: everybody started using them. Parents with strollers. Delivery workers. Cyclists. Elderly people with walkers. Travellers dragging luggage through airports. Design for the person with the most constraints, and you build better for everyone. The phenomenon even got a name: the Curb Cut Effect. It turns out this is a pattern, not an accident. Closed captions were designed for the deaf. Today, millions watch videos on mute in offices and on trains. Speech-to-text was built for people who couldn't type. Today, we dictate messages while driving. The food processor template used by every major kitchen brand today was redesigned by a disabled designer to be more accessible to people with impaired movement and vision. We've all used it. Almost none of us know that. When I visited Japan, I saw the Curb Cut Effect at policy scale. Elevators, tactile paving, audio guides, colour-coded signage, platform-level boarding on every metro and bus. Quiet spaces at airports not just for people with autism, but for anyone overwhelmed by travel. Infrastructure, not charity. And it serves millions of people who have never thought of themselves as disabled. The question we keep asking is: "How do we accommodate people with disabilities without inconveniencing everyone else?" That question contains a false premise. There is no "everyone else." When you build for the person who needs it most, you build better for all of us.

Traveling is never as simple as just showing up at the airport when you’re blind and working with a guide dog. From inconsistent policies to lack of staff training, every trip comes with its own set of challenges. What should be a routine process often turns into an exhausting negotiation—explaining rights, clarifying rules, and advocating for equal access in spaces that still aren’t built with disabled travelers in mind. These moments are a reminder of why accessibility and inclusion can’t be afterthoughts. They need to be embedded into systems and training from the start. I share these challenges not because I want sympathy, but because I want change. Accessibility benefits everyone—and until travel is designed with all of us in mind, we’ll keep having these conversations. #Accessibility #Inclusion #DisabilityAdvocacy #UniversalDesign #Travel

We design for the average. The average doesn’t exist. April is Autism Acceptance Month. Designing for autism is about building products that work for everyone. Cognitive overload affects everyone. Your brain has limits, and more noise can affect how you perceive things. For some autistic users, this is constant and amplified. Many rely on digital products to navigate daily life. Yet most interfaces ignore them. So what happens? We design experiences that overwhelm the people who need them most. And if your product overwhelms autistic users, it’s exhausting everyone else. Here are 5 principles to get you started: 1. Consistent Structure Keep navigation, layout, and UI patterns identical across your entire product. Why: Sudden changes cause anxiety and disorientation. Example: Shopping cart stays in the top-right corner across every page. 2. Literal Communication Use plain, direct language. Skip idioms and metaphors. Why: Vague language requires guessing and creates confusion Example: "Your payment was declined. Check your card number and try again." 3. Sensory Calm Use muted, natural colours. Avoid pure black/white and bright contrasts. Why: Extreme contrast and bright colours cause sensory overload Example: Dashboard with soft beige background, dark grey text, and 3-4 clearly separated sections 4. User Control Default to sound off. Allow people to pause, stop, or disable animations. Why: Sensory needs vary greatly, and customization prevents overload. Example: Toggles for reduced motion, dark mode, font size, and autoplay off by default. 5. Predictable Interactions Provide clear feedback and progress indicators so users always know where they are. Why: Unexpected interruptions trigger anxiety and break focus. Example: Multi-step form shows "Step 2 of 4" with a progress bar, confirms "Your information was saved" after each step. Better design starts with understanding. 👇🏽What would you add to this list? 🔖 Save this for reference ♻️ Share it with your team ---- ✉️ Subscribe for more accessibility and design insights: https://lnkd.in/gZpAzWSu ---- Accessibility note: This infographic, titled Designing for Autism has the same content as the post. It also includes alt text.

Just because I can’t eat, doesn’t mean I dont want to be included. The festive period is around the corner, and it can be one of the most difficult times living with a feeding tube, as even more so than it usual, talk and gatherings of food heighten. So how do we promote inclusion for everyone around the table? 1. Access to facilities and private spaces: always provide access to a private space for somebody to disconnect or connect their tubes, which is clean and private and bathrooms with sanitatary bins. 2. Respectful curiosity and judgement free: never judge, stare, ask intrusive questions to anybody who may not be eating, eating something different, or has different food habits. Any questions should be asked respectfully and with the intent of inclusion not embarrassment. 3. Ask before laying a place at the table: some people like to have a place laid for them even if they are not eating, others do not. Some people will bring their own implements and food so always ask in advance what makes that person feel most comfortable. 4. Shift focus away from food and drink: ensure that games, conversations and activities are not just focused around the food and drink to be inclusive of fun for everyone. Where food is a central part of something, think of providing alternatives such as a table activities. 5. Ask about food and drink in advance: ask someone’s preferences about what they need well in advance to avoid making anyone feel uncomfortable for declining or not being able to join in. Remember most people with feeding tubes can still eat but usually specific or small amounts. 6. Welcome those bringing their own food: feeding tube users often have safe foods which don’t upset their stomachs, or a strict diet they must adhere to, so always welcome people brining their own food with them. 7. Respect allergies and triggers: always ask someone’s dietary requirements in advance, and take strict care with cross-contamination. Also be conscious of certain foods which might be triggering. 8. Reserve space at the end of the table/exit: if set places try and place someone with a tube at the end of the table or near facilities so they feel more able to get and down from the table. 9. Don’t forget our invite to events: just because we might not participate in the same way, doesn’t mean we don’t want to be included! #Disability #Disabled #FeedingTube #Food #Christmas Image description: The image is a black square graphic, across the top in white and bold writing it reads ‘How to: feeding tubes, inclusion at the table’. In the top right hand corner is a picture of Celia and Jamie, Jamie has a cream cake in his hand in front of Celia, she is leaning down with wide eyes to smell it. Underneath are nine yellow, pink and blue coloured boxes with heading text and little descriptive symbols using the headings from the points of this written text above. In the bottom right hand corner is the Disabled By Society logo in pink and white.

🚫 Customers don’t like negativity. There is always a way to focus on a positive message. This is how Copenhagen did it. Tell customers “don’t do this” or “here’s the problem” and you risk the opposite effect. Most companies communicate problems. Companies and governments talks about restrictions. But nobody likes it. 🌍 Great brands (and cities) flip the script. They turn challenges into opportunities. Take Copenhagen. The city faced overtourism. Instead of saying “we need fewer tourists”, it asked: “how can we make visitors part of the solution?” 👉 The result: CopenPay. Tourists earn free meals, boat rides, bike rentals, or museum discounts when they make sustainable choices — like taking the train, helping in an urban garden, or exploring less-visited neighborhoods. The impact? ✅ Relieved pressure from crowded areas ✅ Boosted local small businesses ✅ Strengthened sustainability & community ✅ Created happier visitors ✨ This is CX at its best: no restrictions, no negativity — just new opportunities for everyone. 🚀 The lesson: if you want people on board, don’t focus on the problem. Invite them into a chance to make things better.