I once watched a user navigate a website using assistive technology in a way that required incredible effort.
No frustration. No complaints. Just quiet determination to get through an experience that should have been simple.
And then came the moment I’ll never forget.
The screen reader hit an unlabelled image and announced the raw file name — a long string of characters — right in the middle of the company’s story.
The user paused.
Not angry. Not surprised. Just… resigned.
This was the moment I felt second‑hand shame — not for the user, but for us, the people who build digital experiences and ship them into the world.
What That Moment Taught Me
Accessibility is not about checklists.
It’s not about passing automated scans or scoring well in dashboards.
It’s about people — real people — trying to live their lives while our systems get in their way.
Most users will never complain. Many won’t even know what’s “wrong.” They just quietly push through friction we never intended.
Ideal Users vs Real Users
- Ideal user: perfect vision, steady hands, fast processing, modern device.
- Real user: tremors, low vision, ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, old phones, unstable internet — often several at once.
Real users don’t live in our wireframes. They live in the real world.
A Simple Place to Start: The Accessibility Smoke Test
You don’t need to be an expert. Even a 10‑minute check reveals issues immediately:
- Tab through the page — can you see focus?
- Turn on a screen reader — do labels and images make sense?
- Zoom to 200% — does layout break?
- Resize to mobile — does anything overlap?
- Disable images — is content still understandable?
- Check contrast — is text readable?
- Try a form — do errors announce?
- Check heading order — is page structured?
- Check link text — no “click here” repetition.
- Check buttons — are they keyboard-operable?
Accessibility starts with awareness. Compliance can come later.
Why This Matters
If your product is hard to use for someone with a disability, it is also hard to use for:
- tired users,
- stressed users,
- mobile users,
- people in noisy or dark environments,
- people with temporary injuries,
- people juggling multiple things at once.
When one user struggles, many users struggle — they just don’t tell you.