Your website or app might look great, but can everyone use it?

Probably not. Let me explain.

Disability is part of being human, with about 16% of the global population—living with significant disabilities and navigating digital products just like everyone else.

Last year, I made it a goal to take more courses to help me design better, more inclusive products. One of my biggest areas of interest is accessibility, which led me to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s Introduction to Web Accessibility course.

I’ve learned so much about how people with disabilities navigate the web using assistive technologies and adaptive strategies. The course also broke down the business case for accessibility and how standards like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) help ensure inclusivity.

I learned so much more but here are the most basic things I everyone should know:

1. Accessibility benefits everyone
   It’s not just for people with disabilities. Whether young or old, able-bodied or not, making accessibility a priority improves the experience for everyone.

2. Include disabled people in your user research
   Don’t guess—ask. Conduct interviews and include them in your personas. This ensures you address their needs, not accidentally exclude them.

3. Accessibility is everyone’s responsibility
   It’s not just on designers or developers. Stakeholders, managers, and even marketing teams all play a role in creating accessible products.

4. Inaccessible products cost you money
   If your product or service isn’t accessible, you’re leaving out millions of potential customers—and their wallets.

Another thing that stood out to me from the course was the idea of situational disabilities—temporary challenges like a broken arm or even holding a baby while using a phone. Accessibility isn’t just about permanent disabilities; it’s about creating products that work for everyone, everywhere.

There’s so much more to learn about accessibility, but one thing’s for sure: we all win when we build inclusively.

If you’ve never considered this before, start small: try navigating your favourite mobile app with just a screen reader. You’ll be surprised at what you notice!

When building products, do you ever use any accessibility tools? I find that I use accessibility plugins in Figma all the time, particularly WCAG Contrast Checkers.