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Re: Usability vs. Accessibility

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Mar 23, 2016 4:42AM

I've reached the personal point where I think there really is only one difference between accessibility and usability. The difference being that, in accessibility, we focus on users that may have some type or degree of disability that impacts how they interact with user interfaces (be it web pages, apps, or devices.) Usability in general can also include people with disabilities. However, most people who practice general usability don't specialize on a particular group of users like we do.

I think sometimes the two can appear to be different things. I think that is because most things you read about usability tend to focus on trying to create an optimal user interface, while we still find ourselves struggling with questions about whether or not something can be used. My hope is that, as our own profession matures, we are able to adopt techniques from usability that will help us make better decisions and make progress on the level of accessibility.

Thanks,
Tim


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Greg Gamble
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 4:33 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Usability vs. Accessibility

Usability ... is the page usable, does it make sense?
Accessibility ... can you access the information on the page, can you read it?

A page can be usable, but not accessible. Everything works on the page, but you can access it ...
A page can be accessible, but not usable. You can read everything on the page, but it doesn't make since ...

That's my take ...

Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Kelly Lupo
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2016 9:55 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Usability vs. Accessibility

I did not want to hijack the tabindex thread, so I figured I'd start a new one... It was mentioned at one point that there was more of a usability issue than an accessibility one in one of the examples.

I need to explicitly define the two for an unrelated project, but I find that I am having a hard time doing so without confusing myself (let alone the person reading I imagine!). How do ya'll explain this difference to someone who has little to no experience in web accessibility?

I had started with the analogy of:

- Being directed to a 404 - 'page not found' or having makes the content
inaccessible (thus also unusable),
- Whereas a page in a language you do not speak, and does not provide
pictures or a translation widget, renders the page unusable because you can
access the page - it is just harder to access the content (IE: you need a
translator of some kind).


...And then I got confused by reading other sources which seemed to say the opposite. Affirmation or dissent and correction would be much appreciated!

Thank you in advance,
Kelly