One in five people in the US is disabled. Even among specific disabilities there is a wide breadth of experiences and support needs. Many people have multiple types of disabilities as well, so flexibility is necessary in order to provide access to everyone. It’s also important to treat all users with the same level of independence and dignity.
In order to treat disabled users with respect, be sure to use their preferred language. Here is a guide to respectful language around disability.
Visual Impairments
Visual impairments can include blindness, low vision, and colorblindness. This often requires visual information being communicated through sound and/or braille. On the internet this often means using a screen reader or refreshable Braille display.
Cognitive Impairments
These can include Dyslexia, Autism, Audio Processing Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, and other disorders that can make it difficult to learn, remember, focus, read, or otherwise understand information. Cognitive impairments often hold a lot of stigma, but neurodivergent users are just as important, and their experiences are equally valid.
Motor Impairments
Users with motor impairments may be operate interfaces with different speed, stamina, strength, and fine motor control than able bodied people. Motor impairments can include Arthritis, Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and loss or damage of limbs.
D/deaf and Hard of Hearing
To accommodate D/deaf and hard of hearing individuals, make sure to include other modes of understanding any audio information. These might include captioning, transcription, and/or sign language interpretation.
There are many different sign languages, and they do not directly correspond to spoken languages (e.g. American Sign Language, British Sign Language, and English are all different languages). One person might need English captions, while another might need ASL interpretation.
Disability and Barriers
Technology can help people with disabilities access otherwise exclusionary interfaces, like the visual-based web. However there are barriers to access that technology.
Even if there are screen readers available, a person still has to be able to afford it. Even if they can afford it they might not have the training to use it. Even if they can use it, the website might not be screen reader accessible.
Cost and training remain large barriers for disabled people to access accommodations.