Inclusive Design Basics: Making Digital Products Work for Everyone

Inclusive Design Basics

Digital products shape how people learn, work, shop, access services, and connect with others. When products are not designed with inclusion in mind, they can create barriers for many users, including people with disabilities. According to the World Health Organization, about 1.3 billion people experience significant disability (about 1 in 6 people worldwide).

Inclusive design is a practical way to build digital experiences that work for a wider range of people from the start. It helps teams reduce barriers earlier, improve usability, and strengthen product quality over time.

Key takeaways

• Inclusive design considers human diversity, including disability, age, language, culture, and context.
• Digital accessibility focuses on removing barriers for people with disabilities and is often measured using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2.
• Accessibility features often benefit everyone, including people in situational limitations (glare, noise, injury) as described in Accessibility, Usability, and Inclusion (W3C).
• Inclusive design works best when it is planned, built, tested, and maintained throughout the product lifecycle.

What inclusive design means

Inclusive design is a design approach that draws on the full range of human diversity and emphasizes learning from people with different perspectives and needs. Microsoft describes inclusive design as a methodology that enables and draws on human diversity in its Inclusive Design toolkit materials.

Inclusive design is not “designing for one group.” It is recognizing where exclusion happens, then making choices that reduce barriers, especially for people most likely to be left out by default assumptions.

Inclusive design and digital accessibility

Digital accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with digital content and functionality, including with assistive technology (AT) such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and speech input. If you need a quick primer, start with the Introduction to Web Accessibility (W3C) and the overview of tools and techniques people use to access digital technology (W3C).

Inclusive design is broader than accessibility, but accessibility is a core outcome of inclusive design when teams build with disability access in mind from the beginning.

Why inclusive design matters

Inclusive design benefits users and organizations.

For users

• Removes barriers for people with disabilities.
• Supports people using assistive technology.
• Helps people in situational or temporary limitations, such as bright sunlight, background noise, or an injury, as described in Diverse Abilities and Barriers (W3C).

For organizations

• Can extend market reach and improve customer experience, as outlined in The Business Case for Digital Accessibility (W3C).
• Can reduce risk when requirements apply, especially as laws and policies increasingly reference WCAG or similar technical standards. For example:
  • In the United States, the Department of Justice published a final rule for state and local governments under ADA Title II with specific requirements tied to WCAG 2.1 Level AA and compliance dates (ADA.gov).
  • U.S. federal agencies and many federal contractors must meet Section 508 requirements, which incorporate WCAG 2.0 Level AA (Section508.gov).
  • In the European Union, the European Accessibility Act (European Commission) sets accessibility requirements for certain products and services, with enforcement details implemented through national laws.

This article is for informational purposes and does not provide legal advice. Legal requirements vary by jurisdiction, sector, and product.

Three principles that guide inclusive design

Microsoft’s toolkit emphasizes three principles that translate well to digital product work.

1) Recognize exclusion

Exclusion occurs when teams design for “average” users and overlook common edge cases in real life. Inclusive design starts by identifying where users are likely to face barriers (visual, auditory, motor, cognitive, language, and more).

A practical way to recognize exclusion is to review critical user journeys with accessibility in mind (sign-in, checkout, account management, support flows), then validate with people who use assistive technology.

2) Learn from diversity

Inclusive design improves when teams learn directly from users with lived experience. That includes involving people with disabilities in research, design reviews, and usability testing, not only at the end.

W3C notes that when developing or redesigning a site, it helps to evaluate accessibility early and throughout development because it is easier to address problems earlier.

3) Solve for one, extend to many

Designing for specific accessibility needs often improves the experience for a much wider audience.

For example, captions are essential for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and also help in loud or quiet environments, as shown in Video Captions (W3C Perspectives).

Inclusive design basics you can apply to digital products

You do not need a complete rebuild to start. These fundamentals support inclusion across content, design, and engineering.

Use clear structure and semantic markup

• Use meaningful headings and page structure so content is easy to scan and navigate.
• Use native HTML where possible, and add ARIA landmarks thoughtfully. Landmarks help assistive technology users orient to a page and navigate by regions, as described in the ARIA landmark guidance (W3C).

Make content readable and predictable

• Use plain language and short paragraphs.
• Keep layouts and navigation consistent.
• Ensure sufficient text contrast. WCAG states that normal text requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 under the Contrast (Minimum) criterion.
• Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning, consistent with Use of Color guidance.

Make interactions keyboard-accessible

• Ensure all functionality is usable with a keyboard, aligned with Keyboard accessibility requirements (WCAG Success Criterion 2.1.1).
• Provide a visible focus indicator so people can see where they are on the page, aligned with Focus Visible (WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.7).
  
  

Design controls that are easier to activate

• Make targets large enough and spaced enough to reduce accidental activation, especially for people with dexterity limitations, consistent with Target Size (Minimum) in WCAG 2.2.

Provide clear labels, instructions, and errors

• Use descriptive labels for form fields and buttons.
• Provide error messages that explain what went wrong in text, consistent with Error Identification (WCAG Success Criterion 3.3.1).
• When possible, provide suggestions to fix errors, aligned with Error Suggestion (WCAG Success Criterion 3.3.3).

Support images and media with text alternatives

• Provide appropriate alt text for meaningful images. W3C provides practical guidance in Resources on alternative text for images.
• Provide captions for video. Beyond disability access, captions support people in noisy or quiet environments, as shown in Video Captions (W3C Perspectives).

Test with tools and with people

Automated checks can find many issues quickly, but they cannot determine full accessibility on their own. W3C notes that tools cannot check all accessibility aspects automatically and human judgment is required.

Aim for a balanced approach:

• Automated testing for rapid detection of common issues.
• Manual testing for keyboard flow, focus order, labels, and user experience.
• Usability testing with people with disabilities and assistive technology users.
  
  

Inclusive design across the product lifecycle

Inclusive design is most effective when it is integrated from the beginning and revisited over time. W3C provides a helpful framework in Planning and Managing Web Accessibility.

• Planning: Set accessibility goals, define what “done” means, and include accessibility in requirements.
• Design: Use inclusive patterns, check color contrast early, and review key flows for barriers.
• Development: Use semantic code, ensure keyboard support, and follow WCAG-aligned patterns.
• Testing: Combine automated and manual evaluation, then validate with users.
• Maintenance: Monitor new features and content updates for accessibility impact.
  
  

Inclusive design is an ongoing practice

Inclusion is not a one-time achievement. User needs evolve, technology changes, and products grow. Inclusive design works best as a continuous cycle of learning, feedback, and improvement.

When accessibility and inclusion guide design decisions, digital products become more usable, more resilient, and more supportive of real human diversity.