The Full Stack Leader

Manuel Matuzović writes in My Accessibility Journey: What I’ve Learned So Far on A List Apart:

An attendee asked why I was interested in accessibility: Did I or someone in my life have a disability? I’m used to answering this question—to which the answer is no. A lot of people seem to assume that a personal connection is the only reason someone would care about accessibility.

This is a problem. For the web to be truly accessible, everyone who makes websites needs to care about accessibility. We tend to use our own abilities as a baseline when we’re designing and building websites. Instead, we need to keep in mind our diverse users and their diverse abilities to make sure we’re creating inclusive products that aren’t just designed for a specific range of people.

This echoes what I’m reading in Tragic Design: The Impact of Bad Product Design and How to Fix It by Jonathan Shariat and Cynthia Savard Saucier: “We shouldn’t wait until we or someone close to us needs it to start caring about accessibility.”

Manuel’s post contains a lot more on getting started with accessibility. Check it out!

It serves me as a reminder that inclusive design is about creating a diversity of ways for people to participate—good design is for everyone.