Technology is everywhere, making our lives more manageable most of the time when we need it. In the workplace, companies have a legal responsibility to make digital products accessible to people with disabilities, not just for legal reasons, but also because it enhances the overall user experience for everyone.
Accessibility helps a broad range of users, but sometimes the language used in product development is inaccessible itself. For example, would you know what WCAG, ARIA, or A11Y stand for unless you had to?
One afternoon in a brightly lit conference room, a senior engineer attempted to explain accessibility to a product manager who, half-listening, was mainly preoccupied with thinking about lunch. The engineer, accustomed to working with technical terms, pulled out a slide deck featuring acronyms: WCAG, ARIA, and A11Y.
Why does accessibility feel like homework?
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are shared technical standards that ensure web content is accessible and usable by people with disabilities. The WCAG is for individuals, organizations, and governments. ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a technique used by web developers to make dynamic content accessible to assistive technologies, such as screen readers. The A11Y project stands for accessibility, a word that has 11 characters. The project “strives to be a living example of how to create beautiful, accessible, and inclusive digital experiences.”
Back in the conference room, the manager nodded politely, trying to interpret the abstract concepts into something intelligible, but ended up going back to thinking about sandwiches. Then the engineer, desperate to find a connection, said: “It’s like curb cuts. You know, those little ramps on sidewalks? They help people in wheelchairs but are also used by parents with strollers, kids on bikes, and delivery guys with dollies.”
The manager blinked as comprehension took hold, realizing that accessibility was more than a compliance box to check. It was a story about sidewalks, the practical way to help everyone up and down the curb, connecting the sidewalks and the road. Not a bad metaphor!
The truth is that web accessibility often falls into the same category as administration and dental appointments. Everyone agrees it’s essential, but it’s also easy to postpone. Within a company, accessibility is often framed as a “nice-to-have” — something abstract, floating up in the upper-right quadrant of corporate strategy maps: essential but not urgent. Meanwhile, the urgent things always seem to be eating all the time.
Therefore, the accessibility champion must become both an engineer and a marketer. They must pitch compassion in the language of quarterly stats. They must explain that designing for people with disabilities isn’t charity, it’s about user growth, retention, and product resilience. And they must do it in rooms where the Wi-Fi is always a little too slow, and half the people are multitasking online.
Meet the spherical chicken
The old joke goes like this: A farmer has hens that won’t lay eggs. He calls a physicist for help. The physicist returns with a plan that only works with “spherical chickens in a vacuum.”
Let’s explain this joke. The physicist solving a problem with “spherical chickens in a vacuum” is a metaphor for how technical and detached from real-world needs these guidelines can seem. To the average software engineer, accessibility guidelines feel like those spherical chickens — removed from reality, but technically perfect.
WCAG success criteria don’t appear particularly practical. So accessibility champions learn translation. They replace “Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard” with “Let’s make sure someone can buy insurance using just a keyboard.” Suddenly, it’s not about chickens. It’s about customers.
Ten ways to make accessibility accessible
1. Accessibility isn’t just for disabled people
The engineer explained accessibility using the example of sidewalk ramps (curb cuts). These ramps help people in wheelchairs, as well as parents with strollers, children on bikes, and delivery workers with carts. Using a metaphor helps make accessibility seem less abstract and more practical.
2. Why accessibility gets pushed aside
Accessibility often gets treated like a “nice-to-have” feature. People know it’s essential, but it usually takes a backseat to other, more pressing business tasks, such as meeting deadlines or improving conversion rates. Advocates for accessibility must pitch it in terms that make sense to the business side of things: it’s not just about charity, but about reaching more users and making products more reliable.
3. Avoid the spherical chicken joke
The concept of accessibility guidelines (such as WCAG, ARIA) can seem overly technical and detached from real-world needs — much like the joke about a physicist solving a problem with “spherical chickens in a vacuum.” Accessibility advocates have to reframe these technical guidelines into something practical and easy to understand. For example, instead of saying “Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard,” they might say, “Let’s make sure someone can buy insurance using just a keyboard.”
4. Disability is common, not rare
Disabilities aren’t a small, niche market. In the U.S., around 1 in 4 adults has a disability, and as people age, this number grows. Disabilities can be permanent, temporary (like a broken wrist), or situational (like holding a baby while using your phone). The point is, everyone is at risk of becoming disabled, whether temporarily or permanently. Companies must recognize that accessibility is essential for their entire user base, not just a select subset.
5. Building a culture of accessibility
To make accessibility work in a company, it needs a dedicated focus. This involves creating informal communities, such as Slack channels or a dedicated space for a team to share messages, tools, and files, as well as hosting weekly workshops where employees can discuss accessibility and implement improvements without requiring executive approval for every change.
6. Small changes, not big overhauls
Accessibility improvements are usually gradual. Instead of launching a massive, company-wide overhaul, you make small, incremental changes. For example:
- Adjust the contrast of one button to make it easier to see.
- Add alt text to one image.
- Teach one developer how to test with a screen reader.
- Every small win is celebrated and used to motivate further progress.
7. Sell accessibility as ethics, not compliance
Instead of focusing on meeting technical guidelines (like WCAG), we suggest framing accessibility in moral terms:
- Do not harm: Don’t design features that exclude people.
- Do not block: Don’t lock users out of essential processes.
- Support: Make features that enhance the overall experience for everyone.
This makes it easier to convince managers, as no one wants to design products that actively harm or exclude users.
8. The return on investment of accessibility
After a couple of years of incremental accessibility improvements, the company saw a significant reduction in errors, without needing a big budget for consultants. The key to success was persistence, team buy-in, and consistent, minor improvements. By embedding accessibility into the design and development process early on, companies can avoid the high costs of retrofitting later on.
9. Why accessibility matters beyond your company
Accessibility isn’t just about making your website or app better; it’s about making society more inclusive. The web is how people access essential services, like healthcare, taxes, and banking. If these services are inaccessible, it creates a divide and excludes people from full participation in society.
10. The ironic truth
The irony is that making things accessible to people with disabilities actually makes them better for everyone. Whether it’s improving voice navigation for people with vision impairments or creating keyboard shortcuts for people with mobility issues, everyone benefits from these improvements, often without even realizing it.
Ultimately, accessibility isn’t a side project; it’s the foundation of good design. Done right, it becomes invisible because it works so well. In short, it enhances the user experience for everyone — not just those with disabilities — and it should be a core component of product design. It’s a gradual, continuous process that doesn’t require a big budget, just a little attention and effort.
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