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UX/UI Design vocabulary · Accessibility

Accessibility

Meaning in UX/UI design, with examples

/əkˌsesəˈbɪləti/nounCore term

In UX/UI design, accessibility means: The practice of designing products that people with disabilities, such as low vision, blindness, deafness or limited movement, can perceive, understand and use.

In Turkish: erişilebilirlik

How it is used

Often written a11y (a, eleven letters, y). Teams check accessibility against WCAG and talk about accessibility audits, issues and requirements. In many countries it is also a legal requirement for public and commercial websites.

Example sentences

  1. Accessibility isn't a final check; we think about it from the first wireframe.

  2. The accessibility audit found forty images without alt text.

Common collocations

  • accessibility audit
  • accessibility guidelines
  • improve accessibility
  • accessibility requirements
  • WCAGShort for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: the international standard, published by the W3C, that explains how to make websites and apps accessible.
  • screen readerSoftware that reads the content of a screen aloud or sends it to a braille display, used mainly by blind and low-vision people to use computers and phones.
  • color contrastThe difference in brightness between text or an icon and its background, which decides how easy it is to see, especially for people with low vision.
  • inclusive designAn approach that designs for the full range of human diversity, including ability, age, language, culture and situation, so that more people can use a product.
  • alt textA short written description of an image, added in the code, that screen readers read aloud and browsers show if the image fails to load.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Accessibility

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