Implementing and maintaining accessibility takes time and resources. Even if you are committed to making your content more accessible, you might wonder if you need to meet accessibility guidelines for a disability community that you assume cannot use your product.
The short answer to this question is yes. You must meet all accessibility guidelines, regardless of your assumptions about who will use your product. The Americans with Disabilities Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) do not have any exceptions regarding whom you think might not use your products.
In addition to legal requirements, assumptions about people with disabilities not accessing certain content are wrong. You do not have the right to decide for people with disabilities what content they need or want to use.
You cannot make assumptions about who cannot use your products
Your assumption that a person cannot use your product because of their disability might be wrong. Many assumptions about what people with disabilities can do are wrong. Deaf people can play musical instruments. People who use wheelchairs can drive. People with a wide variety of physical disabilities play sports.
You might be basing your assumptions on how you imagine yourself trying to do an activity with a specific disability. You might be right about being unable to do that activity at first. But people with that disability have knowledge and skills you do not. They know about equipment and technology you might not know about. And they have learned ways to do things that you might not know about.
The skills and needs of people with disabilities are not universal, not even for people with the same disability. The symptoms of autism spectrum disorder vary from person to person. People with low vision have a wide variety of needs and abilities. Even the same person’s abilities can vary by context. For example, a person with Parkinson’s Disease might be able to walk some days but not others. A person with macular degeneration might only be able to drive during daylight.
Accessibility features meet many needs
Many accessibility features address the needs of people with very different disabilities. Assuring a website has low or no background audio ensures people using screen readers can hear their screen reader. It also eliminates distractions, which benefits many people with cognitive or learning disabilities. People who use screen readers and people with disabilities that affect dexterity might need to be able to operate content using only their keyboard. Avoiding unnecessary timing or allowing users to adjust timing benefits anyone that navigates content slowly because of their disability or assistive device. Assuring color is not the only way you convey information benefits people who are colorblind. It also benefits people using screen readers, many people with low vision, and people using color filters.
Meeting accessibility requirements also benefits people without disabilities due to the electronic curb-cut effect. A person watching a video in a public space might turn off the volume and use captions to avoid bothering others. Everyone benefits from consistent navigation and plain language writing. And being able to navigate with a keyboard only can speed up data entry.
Anyone might access your content
What if a particular disability prevents a person from using your product? This section looks at an example: a blind person using a car company's website. States have laws requiring people to meet vision requirements to obtain a driver's license. A car company might assume its content does not need to meet requirements that ensure screen readers will work on their website. But in reality, it must still make its content accessible to people who use screen readers.
A person who legally cannot drive could have many reasons to look at a car company's website. The person might need to research cars for their job. They might not be shopping for themselves. They might be buying a gift for a family member. They might hire drivers to get around but need to supply the car themselves. They might simply be interested in cars.
These are just a few examples. There are many more. Even if a specific person decides they cannot do an activity, they still might access your content for the reasons described in this section.
Conclusion
Digital content must be accessible to everyone. There are no exceptions. Your assumptions about who can use a product are often wrong because people with disabilities have diverse needs and abilities. Beyond that, there are many reasons people with disabilities might use your digital content. Most importantly, people with disabilities do not have to justify why they are accessing your content. It is their right.
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