Accessibility
Making an accessible site isn’t something you
do ‘only for people with disabilities’.
Considering what users need will be appreciated by
all. This is sometimes referred to as the curb-cut
effect – something implemented under the guise of
accessibility that is also used by many more people.
The term concerns those little drops on curbs at
crossings. There was a time when curbs simply ended
at the roadside, at worst placing a literal barrier in
front of people using wheelchairs to get around and,
at best, an occasional tripping hazard.
It took campaigning by activists like Ed Roberts
and John Hessler (originally focused at UC Berkeley)
to get curb-cuts implemented in their local area
(https://netm.ag/2WFRdVJ). Today, curb-cuts are one of
the lasting outcomes of that era – they’re used as de
facto crossing points by people of all abilities.
Out there, in the real world, there are many
other examples of innovations done in the name of
accessibility and inclusivity that have wide-reaching
benefits for all.
Having grown up in a predominantly deaf
household, I remember the days when subtitles on
television programmes were a rarity, only ever used
by those in the deaf community. Today, the benefits
of displaying what is being said on a screen are now
felt by many more. Whether merely watching clips
in a loud public place or utilising them to get to grips
with a foreign language, captions mean video content
can be understood in a wide range of circumstances.
When it comes to building for the web, there are a
number of things that each have their own ‘curb-cut
effect’. These include:O Semantic markup, clearly separating content and
presentation
O Implementing useful labels and messaging
O Considering scalability across different devices
O Appropriately communicating state changes
O Thinking about typography
O Ensuring navigation with all input methodsThese are all things that have clear accessibility
benefits but also a range of supplementary
advantages felt by many people. Those other users
might not necessarily be the target audience of your
accessibility work – they might not even notice it –
but they’d definitely notice if you got it wrong.
The ‘curb-cut’ idea shouldn’t be seen as the only
reason for thinking about accessibility. You should be
doing that anyway but the fact that some things also
benefit a wider group is a nice bonus. The outcome of
doing the right thing in the first place is often that
good things will continue to come out of it.THE CURB-CUT EFFECT
Matt Northam rq#krz#nhhslqj#dffhvvlelolw|#iurqw#ri#plqg#ehqhĽwv#doo#
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ROFI
LEACCESSIBILITY
Matt Northam is a front-end developer at Redweb, the award-
winning digital agency.
w: redweb.com