Accessibility is for everyone

15 per cent of the world’s population are permanently disabled. And many more have temporary disabilities. Like carpal tunnel syndrome, which is a type of repetitive strain injury, or voice loss from a sore throat.

The Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit illustrates this fairly well. They include a graphic showing multiple examples of permanent, temporary and situational disability related to touch, sight, hearing and speech. They may be updating it to include neurodiversity.

Image description

Line-drawn representational figures labelled:

• Permanent; touch – one arm, see – blind, hear – deaf, speak – non-verbal.
• Temporary; touch – arm injury, see – cataract, hear – ear infection, speak – laryngitis.
• Situational; touch – new parent (carrying baby), see – distracted driver, hear – bartender (in noisy environment), speak – heavy accent.