Why Accessibility Is the Future of Tech
Designing solutions for people with disabilities offers a peephole into the future
all too often, the importance of accessibility — the catch-all term for designing technology that people with disabilities can use — is framed in terms of charity alone
accessibility is probably the most important and exciting frontier in design right now. Far from being something that designers pursue grudgingly, it should be viewed as what it is: a crystal ball through which we can view the all-encompassing future of tech.
On a long enough timeline, accessibility becomes important to everyone.
Add all of these facts up and accessibility design ceases to become a niche problem. Instead, it becomes an existential design problem worth untold trillions of dollars: “How do you design around the constantly-shifting abilities of billions of people across their lifetimes?”
That skill is empathy. Because what is design if it is not the practice of giving empathy a form? Design is putting ourselves in other people’s shoes and solving their problems. And from that perspective, accessibility is the greatest expression of design because it is the most empathetic. It calls upon designers to apply their skills toward improving the lives of the largest and most dynamic demographic on the planet.