Making a Web for Everyone

Community Thoughts on Making a Web for Everyone...

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   All Technology Is Assistive by Sara Hendren via Backchannel “Assistive technology” implies a separate species of tools designed exclusively for those people with a rather narrow set of diagnostic “impairments” — impairments, in other words, that have been culturally designated as needing special attention, as being particularly, grossly abnormal. But are you sure your phone isn’t a crutch, as it were, for a whole lot of unexamined needs?

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   Inclusive design toolkit by Microsoft Design Team via Microsoft Designing for inclusivity not only opens up our products and experiences to more people with a wider range of abilities. It also reflects how people really are. All humans are growing, changing, and adapting to the world around them every day. We want our designs to reflect that diversity.

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   Microsoft's Radical Bet On A New Type Of Design Thinking by Cliff Kuang via Co.Design Let’s say you’d like to build a phone that’s easier to interact with while you’re driving. You could just try to study people driving with their phones. Or you could actually study how the blind use their phones. How do they know when their phones are paired with another device? What aural feedback do apps need to provide, when opened? You could build those features into a phone, so that by serving someone disabled, you serve everyone else better.

4. 4.	Why I Care About Accessibility by Brad Frost via BradFrost.com I think that companies and people that focus on making accessible experiences will be more successful in the market, not just in today’s landscape, but in whatever landscape happens to come around the corner a year or two from now.

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   Accessibility for Business and Pleasure by Sarah Horton and David Sloan via The Paciello Group An accessibility program fueled by addressing a complaint can only be sustained a limited time before it runs out of steam. A mature program grounded on a commitment to ensure people with disabilities can participate helps embed accessibility as a core value and lasting concern.