Accessibility is the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone, regardless of how they encounter it. Accessibility laws exist to aid people with disabilities, but designers should try to accommodate all potential users in many contexts of use. To do so has firm benefits—notably better designs for all.
A11Y—Accessibility’s Other Name
A11Y is the abbreviation—a numeronym, to be exact—for accessibility, where “11” represents the number of letters between the letters A and Y. Often, people in the design field use the shorthand on social media or in blogs when they refer to accessibility-related topics and have a limited word or character count.
We can pronounce A11Y as “A-one-one-Y,” “A-eleven-Y” or even as “ally,” but it’s best just to say “accessibility.” As with most abbreviations, A11Y is a form of jargon, so be sure to clarify its meaning upfront with any audience that might not understand it, whether in writing or verbally.
Remember, when designers create products and services with accessibility in mind, they often design better products for everyone. No matter the name, A11Y is key to inclusive design.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Accessibility vs Usability
Since they have similarities, accessibility is sometimes confused with usability. Both overlap and are vital parts of user experience (UX) design, but there are also key distinctions between them. Usability is concerned with whether designs are effective, efficient and satisfying to use.
Theoretically, this means that usability includes accessibility, since a product that is inaccessible is also unusable to someone with a disability; practically, however, usability tends not to specifically focus on the user experience of people with disabilities. Accessibility, on the other hand, is concerned with whether all users are able to access an equivalent user experience, however they encounter a product or service (e.g., using assistive devices). Unlike usability, accessibility focuses on people with disabilities.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Accessible Designs Help Everyone
Accessibility is not only the right thing to do, but it also often benefits all users. That’s because accessibility features that help people with disabilities often benefit others, too. For instance, video captions that help people with hearing difficulties also help a person who is watching the video on mute (e.g., in a social media feed). Legible, high-contrast text that helps people with vision difficulties also benefits people with perfect eyesight who use the app outdoors in bright sunlight. Many users, regardless of their abilities, will face challenges in demanding contexts. When you design for all ability levels, you can create products and services anyone can use and enjoy—or at least find helpful or calming.
Although accessibility is a critical factor that impacts design, many brands overlook it. Based on a 2026 World Health Organization report concerning disability, however, you’ll exclude about 16% of Earth’s population if you don’t make your design accessible. Furthermore, many jurisdictions, including the E.U., have penalties for failure to create accessible designs. However, designing for accessibility makes sense on more than a legal level; it brings benefits, including these:
Improved SEO from semantic HTML
Opportunities to reach more users on more devices, in more settings/environments
Enhanced public image for your brand
Types of Accessibility Issues
You should consider the number and types of potential accessibility issues users will have. These are common barriers:
Visual (e.g., color blindness)
Motor/mobility (e.g., wheelchair-user concerns)
Auditory (hearing difficulties)
Seizures (especially photosensitive epilepsy)
Learning/cognitive (e.g., dyslexia)
Ability barriers can also arise for any user:
Incidental (e.g., sleep-deprivation)
Environmental (e.g., using a mobile device underground)
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The possibilities are virtually limitless regarding who might be trying to access your product/service.
“When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… SUX?”
— Billy Gregory, Senior Accessibility Engineer
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Practical Guidelines for Accessibility
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) stipulates standards for accessible design in its latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). You can follow these essential points to accommodate users with diverse abilities:
Use a content management system (CMS) supporting accessibility standards (e.g., WordPress). Whenever you amend a pre-used template, ensure the themes are designed for accessibility.
Include secondary personas to make accessibility needs explicit.
Use header tags in the text (ideally, use CSS for consistent styling). Move consecutively from one heading level to the next (without skipping).
Use alt text on content-enhancing images.
Examples of alt tag for a glass for red wine. One says "Wine", which is not helpful. The other says "Shop for red wine" which tells users the purpose of the image.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ensure that links make sense in isolation – e.g., “Read more about the Interaction Design Foundation,” rather than “Read more about the Interaction Design Foundation, at their website.” Offer visual cues (e.g., PDF icons), underline links and highlight menu links on mouseover.
Improve visibility with careful color selection and high contrast.
Color should never be used alone to convey meaning. Here, text labelling appears in the chart bars as well as the color coding.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Reference shapes to help guide users (e.g., “Click the square button”).
Consider how screen readers handle forms. Label fields and provide descriptions for screen readers using tags. Make the tab order visually ordered. Assign an ARIA required or not required role to each field (know how to use ARIA). Avoid the asterisk convention; label fields explicitly as mandatory or optional.
Use proper HTML elements in lists. Don’t put them on the same line as text.
Present dynamic content carefully, including slideshows. Consult ARIA standards for overlays, etc.
Validate markup using the W3 standards site to ensure all browsers can read your code.
Offer transcriptions for audio resources, captions/subtitles for video.
Make content easily understandable – simpler language reaches more users, as do effective information hierarchy, progressive disclosure and prompting.
Try using your design without a mouse. It can be hard to scroll.
Use tools such as WAVE and Color Oracle to test your design’s accessibility.
Frank Spillers explains how accessibility affects usability and search engine optimization (SEO).
Naturally, you should test for accessibility on users themselves. Note that while it’s impossible to cover all use cases, your efforts to reach all users can yield many rewards—sometimes in unexpected areas.
