Summary
Many organizations struggle with justifying and prioritizing accessibility. One of the primary reasons is because they’re thinking about accessibility all wrong. Instead of a checklist, a list of legal requirements, or a set of shackles holding designers and developers back, it’s time to start thinking of accessibility as what it is: an opportunity to innovate! In this presentation, Fable will draw from our expertise helping organizations like yours start the accessibility journey, to change the way you think about disability, assistive technology, and accessibility. We will demonstrate that accessible products are more flexible, customizable, and useful for all users. We’ll also show you how accessibility is directly tied to the creation of many of the most exciting and innovative technologies of the last 50 years, and how it’s changed the entire world for everyone. This presentation will inspire you with the information and ideas you need to accelerate your accessibility journey.
Key Insights
-
•
Accessibility features like dark mode, captions, and voice recognition started as assistive technologies and now benefit all users.
-
•
Disability is a fluid identity experienced situationally, temporarily, and permanently by many users at different life stages.
-
•
Accessible design is not about simplifying or removing features but about offering flexible, customizable options.
-
•
Complex products, including video games like The Last of Us Part II, can be made fully accessible with thoughtful design and community input.
-
•
Involving diverse voices with lived experience from the beginning of design through testing improves product accessibility and innovation.
-
•
Distributing accessibility responsibilities across roles (designers, developers, content creators) avoids bottlenecks and fosters organizational inclusion.
-
•
Fable’s platform connects organizations with assistive technology users for moderated and unmoderated research and offers tailored accessibility training.
-
•
Cognitive disabilities are underrepresented in accessibility research due to variability and privacy concerns, requiring ongoing solutions.
-
•
Checklist approaches to accessibility can limit creativity; instead, use them as guidelines to spark innovative inclusive design.
-
•
Designing for accessibility today means creating usable products that also serve our aging and future selves’ needs.
Notable Quotes
"Everyone is already using accessibility features, whether they realize it or not."
"Disability is the one identity that we will all take on throughout the course of our lives."
"Accessibility requires flexible designs, not limited designs."
"It’s not about shackling us; it’s about broadening and expanding the way that we do things."
"I have never found a product where I’ve just had to throw up my hands and say, nope, can’t make this one accessible."
"Diverse teams build diverse products."
"If you can distribute the accessibility work, it becomes light work and easy work for everyone."
"Checklist thinking can shackle us down in the way that we think about accessibility."
"Text to speech started out as being built in screen readers and now is everywhere from bank machines to GPS systems."
"When you think about users with disabilities, you’re really creating technology that works for all people, all of the time."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Policies must evolve to reflect the urgency of our situation."
Alex Hurworth Bonnie John Fahd Arshad Antoine MarinDesigning a Contact Tracing App for Universal Access
October 23, 2020
"These brand new practitioners can bring fresh perspectives and new ways of thinking to hopefully see current problems in a new light."
Laine Riley Prokay Lisa GordonCarving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners
September 9, 2022
"Once cash prizes were gone, people stopped feeling ownership of the design system."
Eniola OluwoleLessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
October 24, 2019
"Rather than aiming for the chief strategy officer directly, build relationships with junior strategists who are more accessible."
Nathan ShedroffDouble Your Mileage: Use Your Research Strategically
March 31, 2020
"Mobile devices not only have built-in screen readers but also pitch-to-zoom and magnification settings out of the box."
Sam ProulxMobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
November 17, 2022
"It’s important to socialize the research program internally so teams get excited and take initiative."
Feleesha SterlingBuilding a Rapid Research Program (Videoconference)
May 18, 2023
"You have the power, like Navy Seals of user research, to influence the biggest issues of our time, one interaction at a time."
Neil BarrieWidening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture
March 25, 2024
"The real question is what is it about delivering the value of design at scale."
John DevanneyThe Design Management Office
November 6, 2017
"Small experiments that fit into existing structures make it easier to involve collaborators and reduce resistance."
Katy MogalBut Do Your Insights Scale?
March 12, 2021