By Jonathan Avila — Engineers should know how assistive technologies operate and how users with disabilities interact with them. People with disabilities may use various techniques, accessibility features, and assistive technologies throughout the day and may switch to different ways of using technology in different contexts. Familiarize yourself with the various assistive technologies, including screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech recognition software, reading assistants, and alternative input devices like switch control systems. Understand how accessibility features such as browser zoom, document outlines, reduction in animation, contrast modes, and typography settings are used.
Without proper understanding, one may believe assistive technology or accessibility features are working as expected when they are not, or they may believe they are not working correctly with their product when they are working correctly. In addition, learning and practicing how people with disabilities use the technology will allow for correct usage and feedback. For example, screen readers are designed to be used with a keyboard, as the demographic of users who are blind are keyboard‑only users, and thus commands may only work as intended when used this way. While some non‑screen reader users may assume screen reader users access a webpage by listening to the whole page in one go, instead native screen reader users generally navigate through structures such as headings and links, reading blocks of content, searching for specific items, and tabbing through form fields.
Familiarity with assistive technology is also important because, without experience, you may think the technology is too difficult or complicated and get the impression that a person with a disability cannot perform a task because you do not know how to do it using the technology. Using assistive technology can also provide an understanding of the obstacles faced by people with disabilities when technology is not designed to be inclusive, when you directly experience these barriers with the technology.
Also, not all people with disabilities use assistive technology; some use accessibility features, and others may use standard features in a way that you did not consider, such as use of browser zoom, which triggers responsive web variations on the desktop that engineers only assumed would be present on small screen devices like mobile. In cases like the above, it may have been assumed that responsive menus don’t have to be keyboard accessible because they will only appear on mobile. This assumption is not accurate—not just because of how responsive variations may be accessed on the desktop but also based on how users with physical disabilities may use mobile devices.
From Horton, S., & Sloan, D. (2024). What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Know About Accessibility 