HACKER Q&A
📣 elorm

How can we make the web more accessible for people with disabilities?


I came across a thread on twitter[0] that was eye-watering and eye-opening at the same time.

Here's an excerpt:

  Today, my dad cried over the phone, he wanted one week where he could use his computer without my help.

  He's blind.
  Each inaccessible webpage tells him, "you aren't welcome in this world."
I'm guilty and i feel ashamed. I'm not a frontend person but I don't recall any of my teams ever receiving a request from a client to check accessibility on an application before, and it's quite easy to take these things for granted.

What are some of the best practices to cover in order to build a more inclusive web and a better user experience, especially for people living with disabilities?

[0]https://twitter.com/LareneLg/status/1270578058714443776

  👤 Siira Accepted Answer ✓
I just want to contribute this simple fact that not only applies to disabled people like myself, but everyone: If you can, allow people customization. They know their needs best. They can spend resources scripting/coding customized functionality if the system allows it, while it will never make business sense for their needs to be engineered by the first party. Most especially, don’t block customizability intentionally. Apple does this, and it HURTS. I can’t change the simple hotkey of taking a screenshot on iOS. Because Apple engineers thought they know best, and they did not account for the simple case of someone with deformed hands like me, who will find their solution quite awkward.
👤 memexy
Mozilla has a guide for web accessibility: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility.