In this series of blog posts, we’re going to analyse some common misconceptions about building accessible software. I’m addressing this because when accessibility is seen as a “nice to have”, it almost always ends up forgotten — and making inclusive software is becoming increasingly relevant as more products and services start running online.

So, with no further ado, the first myth:

#1 Only highly disabled people benefit from accessibility.

To address this point, we must first understand what a disability is, so we have a better notion of who it affects.

Disability: An illness, injury, or condition that makes it difficult for someone to do the things that other people do.

Types of disabilities

Permanent

These are the disabilities that always come to mind when we talk about accessibility. It involves blindness and low vision, muscular dystrophy, deafness, color blindness, paralysis, dyslexia, etc. We might be born with it, or gain it at some point in our life — maybe through an accident, or simply as our bodies get older. Bottom line: this category is for conditions we live with and don’t recover from.

Temporary

As mentioned above, we can gain a disability; but often we can recover from it. If we suffer an injury (let’s say you break your arm, or have a concussion, and so on), we have a temporary disability.

Situational

These “disabilities” have an origin outside our bodies. They’re usually created by the environment in which we’re using a certain technology, and we have all experienced this. For example: using your smartphone outside in a bright day, or trying to listen to audio in a very loud coffee shop, or even trying to text with your non-dominant hand only while carrying groceries on the other arm.