Today, in a workshop, I experienced what I would call temporary digital impairment. The cause? A reflection on the TV screen.
It might sound like a minor issue, but not being able to clearly see the screen made it much harder to engage with the content. I had to work far harder than usual to understand what was being shown.
I tried my best to concentrate, but at times I found myself zoning out. The cognitive effort needed just to process the information was simply too great.
This experience reminded me that accessibility is not just about big, visible adjustments. Sometimes, small environmental factors can have a huge impact on someone’s ability to participate and engage.
It made me think about accessibility and how hard some websites make it for some of their users to access their content. I read an article recently where someone had sued a US website for not being accessible. They won. The judge told them that they must upgrade their website so that it meets WCAG AA standard.
But it’s not just people who use screen-reading software we need to think about. It’s everyone. As I heard some time ago from GDS – everyone has an impairment at some point.