This article focuses on affordance, a term I haven’t heard of before. The author defines it: “Affordance allows us to look at something and intuitively understand how to interact with it.” For example, when you see a 3D button on a webpage, you understand it is meant to be clicked. But, as the author says, it only gets you halfway there. Not everything has “universal design,” or is inherently accessible, which can also cause some problems. You want to reach the “neediest user,” but then you might lose the interest of other users, which is why many people don’t like universal design, since it can limit creativity.
Before this class, I would’ve hardly given website accessibility a second thought. Since I don’t have a disability and I don’t know anyone that does, it doesn’t affect me personally. Now I understand why it’s important. The article mentions a class action lawsuit against Target by the NFB. Target paid a lot of money and agreed to provide accessibility training for its web developers. this proves that web developers need to make their websites accessible, even if they don’t think their target audience includes those with disabilities.
The Inclusion Principle helps forget the dichotomy of “us” and “them.” It applies to web developing. “Above all, focusing on inclusion helps us understand that we do not only consider accessibility for others, but for our own good.” It allows you to think of everyone’s potential disabilities as something that affects you personally, so then accessibility isn’t simply considered, it’s applied. This principle can encourage all web developers to think similarly about accessibility, creating consistency within web design.
This article is a call for action, one that I agree is necessary. There may only be one disabled person viewing your website, but they still matter. The author provides examples for coding accessible HTML & CSS, which I will definitely keep in mind when creating my wild cat website.