Accessibility in Brief
This page provides clear explanations of accessibility for businesses, policymakers, and the public.
Accessibility means that people with disabilities can meaningfully use, understand, participate in, or benefit from a product, service, environment, program, or activity. For deafblind people, accessibility may involve Braille, tactile communication, haptics, assistive technology, accessible digital interfaces, environmental information, interpreters, Support Service Providers (SSPs), alternative formats, changes in policies or procedures, modifications to the physical environment, or combinations of these approaches. There is no single deafblind experience. Effective accessibility begins by recognizing different communication methods, levels of vision and hearing, skills, preferences, needs, and circumstances.
Accessibility Is a Process
A product can be accessible today and become less accessible after a redesign. A building can provide physical access while introducing an inaccessible digital control. A service can comply with a technical standard while remaining inefficient or difficult to use.
For that reason, accessibility should not be treated as a one-time checklist. Organizations should consider accessibility throughout the life of a product or service, including planning, design, testing, procurement, deployment, updates, customer support, and major changes in technology. Accessibility should also be evaluated by more than whether a person can technically complete an activity. The means of access should be effective, practical, safe, and reasonably efficient. A solution that requires substantially more time or effort may technically provide access without providing the best experience.
What Accessibility Means
The Business Case for Accessibility
Accessibility can support better business outcomes. When employees can independently use workplace systems, organizations can make better use of talent. When customers can independently purchase products and services, businesses can reach a broader market. When interfaces are understandable and flexible, they can be easier for many people to use.
Planning for accessibility early can also be more efficient than retrofitting an established system. A barrier discovered after deployment may require redesign, engineering work, replacement of equipment, retraining, legal review, or changes to established workflows.
Effective accessibility can also improve operational efficiency. An accessible interface may allow a customer to complete a transaction without employee intervention. In other circumstances, appropriate human assistance may provide faster and more effective access than requiring a customer and employees to navigate an unnecessarily complicated technological solution.
Society, technology, and legislation continue to change. Nations and states may differ in their requirements, creating risks when products and services are not inclusively designed. Organizations that build accessibility into their processes are better positioned to respond to future technology, customer expectations, and legal requirements.
Choosing the Right Accessibility Solution
Technology has transformed opportunities for deafblind people. Braille displays, smartphones, accessible computers, navigation tools, communications technology, and emerging AI-powered solutions can provide remarkable independence. But accessibility should not become a search for a technological substitute for every human interaction. Nor should human assistance be viewed simply as a last resort when technology fails.
The best solution depends on the activity and circumstances. Technology may provide the greatest independence in one situation. Better design or a modification to a policy, practice, service, or environment may be most effective in another. An interpreter, SSP, guide, or other form of human assistance may sometimes be the most effective, efficient, practical, or safe option. Often, the best result comes from combining approaches.
Efficiency matters. A deafblind person should not necessarily have to spend substantially more time obtaining information through an accessible technological process when the same information can be conveyed accurately and efficiently through appropriate human assistance. Likewise, organizations benefit when access solutions allow employees to focus their time and resources effectively.
The objective should be meaningful access, not a preference for one category of solution over another. Effectiveness, independence, safety, efficiency, cost, practicality, individual circumstances, and the nature of the activity can all help determine the appropriate approach.
Accessibility and Effective Use of Resources
Meaningful accessibility requires resources. Accessible technology, specialized equipment, training, interpreters, SSPs, accessible transportation, modifications, and other services may all require public or private investment. Programs that fund accessibility can provide opportunities for independence, communication, employment, education, and participation that might otherwise be unavailable.
At the same time, inaccessible environments can create unnecessary costs and dependence. A person who could independently perform an activity through an accessible interface may require assistance when that interface is inaccessible. Preventing or removing such barriers can increase independence while allowing public and private resources to be directed where they provide greater benefit.
Efficiency should not simply mean spending less. It should mean choosing solutions that provide meaningful access while making thoughtful use of available resources. Sometimes an accessible technological solution can eliminate a recurring barrier. Sometimes modifying a policy, service, or environment is the better investment. In other circumstances, an interpreter, SSP, or other form of human assistance may provide the most effective, practical, and efficient access.
Public investment also plays a critical role in making specialized accessibility solutions available. Many forms of assistive technology and related services would be difficult or impossible for individuals to obtain without public programs and other sources of support. For example, to access a smartphone costing $800, a deafblind person would need to spend thousands more to obtain a Braille display. Such investments can expand independence and participation while helping ensure that access does not depend solely on an individual's ability to pay. A thoughtful accessibility strategy therefore asks not simply how resources can be reduced, but how they can be used most effectively to produce equal opportunity, independence, meaningful participation, and a better quality of life
Accessibility by Design
The strongest accessibility solution is often the barrier that never gets created. Inclusive design means considering people with different abilities and methods of interaction before fundamental design decisions become difficult or costly to change.
For a website, that can mean semantic structure, predictable navigation, keyboard operation, accessible controls, and testing with assistive technology. For housing, it can mean ensuring that essential controls do not depend exclusively on sight, hearing, or a touchscreen. For artificial intelligence, it can mean ensuring that development, interfaces, outputs, and safety mechanisms consider people who interact differently.
Accessibility by design does not mean that every need can or should be solved through design alone. Some activities will continue to require individualized accommodations or human assistance. Inclusive design should prevent unnecessary barriers while leaving room for other effective forms of access where circumstances require them.
Accessibility by design also is not about preventing innovation. It is about making innovation work for more people. That means including users' perspectives in the earliest stages of product or service design, because we cannot create effective solutions for people without understanding their needs.