Accessibility

Accessibility (a11y) is the practice of designing products usable by people with disabilities, governed by WCAG 2.x and legally required under the ADA and EAA. The 11 in a11y stands for the 11 letters between the "a" and the "y". The disability scope spans visual impairments (low vision, blindness, color blindness), auditory impairments (deaf, hard of hearing), motor impairments (limited mobility, tremors), and cognitive impairments (dyslexia, ADHD, autism). The European Accessibility Act became enforceable June 2025. It is one of the most-under-invested-in product disciplines despite affecting a meaningful share of every product's user base.

The WCAG 2.x standard (current version 2.2, published October 2023) organizes accessibility around four principles, summarized as POUR: Perceivable (information presented in ways all users can perceive, e.g., text alternatives for images, captions for video), Operable (interface usable with keyboard alone, no time-based traps), Understandable (predictable, with clear error messages), and Robust (works across assistive technologies like screen readers). WCAG defines three conformance levels: A (minimum, often legally required floor), AA (industry standard for most products, what ADA and most procurement standards reference), and AAA (highest, rarely required as a whole but applied to specific contexts like government). The most-overlooked accessibility considerations: color contrast (WCAG AA requires 4.5:1 for normal text), keyboard navigation (every interactive element must be reachable and operable by keyboard alone), focus indicators (visible focus rings, not removed for design reasons), screen-reader semantic HTML (proper headings, ARIA labels, form labels), and caption / transcript (for audio and video). Roughly 1 in 4 adults in the US lives with some form of disability (CDC), and the population is aging in ways that increase accessibility-relevant impairments; the business case is consistently larger than founders estimate. Famous legal precedents: Domino's Pizza v. Robles (2019, Supreme Court declined to hear, leaving lower court ruling that ADA applies to websites in force), Target settlement (2008, $6M+ for inaccessible website).

Ryan's Take

Accessibility is the part of product work that founders treat as a compliance checkbox until they get sued, lose an enterprise deal, or have a team member start using a screen reader. Then it becomes a priority overnight. The smart play is to build it in from the start. Retrofitting accessibility onto a finished product is dramatically more expensive than designing accessibly from day one, and the design decisions that make a product accessible (clear hierarchy, keyboard navigation, semantic structure) also make it better for every user. Accessibility is not charity. It's how products get built for the actual range of humans who use them.

What founders get wrong: Treating accessibility as a feature to add later. Accessibility decisions are baked into every component, layout, and interaction; retrofitting them onto a finished product typically costs 5 to 10x what designing accessibly from the start would have. Build it in or accept the future tax.

FAQ

What is accessibility?
The practice of designing products usable by people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. Often abbreviated a11y. Governed by standards like WCAG 2.x and legally required for many products under the ADA, the European Accessibility Act (EAA, enforceable June 2025), and similar frameworks.

What is WCAG?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the international standard for web accessibility. Current version 2.2 (October 2023). Organized around POUR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) and three conformance levels: A (minimum), AA (industry standard, referenced by most legal requirements), and AAA (highest, rarely required).

Is accessibility legally required?
In many jurisdictions, yes. The ADA in the US has been applied to websites (Domino's v. Robles, 2019; Target settlement, 2008). The European Accessibility Act becomes enforceable June 2025. Most government and many enterprise procurement standards require WCAG 2.x AA conformance. The legal exposure is real and growing.

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