As part of global accessibility day, I wanted to write about a subject that is often overlooked as part of designing and developing products and services yet has an impact on everyone at some point in their digital and physical lives.
The definition of accessibility on the Usability.gov site is as follows...
...but how many of us realise that at some point, and often at several times a day, we are classed as disabled?
Disability is often assumed as permanent, and many unique products and services out there address these permanent disabilities, but how many products and services ensure that temporary and situational disabilities are factored into their user journeys?
A temporary disability is a disability that will go away once the individual recovers. A permanent disability, as its name implies, is a disability that the person has to manage for the rest of their life.
How many times have I been temporarily or situationally disabled? How often have I had no phone signal but needed to contact someone? Have I broken a bone, so I have been unable to use an arm? Have I been unable to speak after a sore throat?
These might seem like small things to some; however, losing your voice and only having one way to book a doctor's appointment, which is via the phone, suddenly becomes a potential life-threatening issue. Having concert tickets within your email app but having no internet connection in the venue to access the tickets means that you will be getting into the concert once you get the relationship back; VERY frustrating!
When product and service teams are not putting themselves truly into their users (both staff and customers) shoes and designing, developing, and iterating products and services with temporary, situational and permanent disabilities in mind, then you run the risk of your users not being able to reach their goals, which in some cases such as healthcare or needing to phone an ambulance could be life or death. Some other cases could result in poor customer satisfaction or loss of revenue.
So ask yourself, when I am designing, developing, or iterating products and services, am I designing accessible journeys and products/services via the permanent disability solutions thinking about colour blindness, for example, or am I going the extra mile to ensure that temporary and situational disabilities have been considered at all touch-points within my products and services?
Are you interested in knowing more about building true accessibility into your products and services? Please feel free to reach out to me, and let's have a chat! :)
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