WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Usability vs. Accessibility

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mar 23, 2016 9:22AM

Well said Tim.

The exciting thing about working in accessibility is when you truly
feel you are making a website more usable for everybody.
Sometimes we get lucky enough to work with those who really want a
great user experience for everyone, in which case there is less of a
distinction.
But sometimes you work with people who want to do the minimum possible
to comply with accessibility regulations (and, hey, that is not always
a bad thing, it is a start and beats not caring at all), and then you
have to be more careful about the distinction.

The QA teams usually catch usability issues on websites for the, and I
don't like that phrase" (regular user), so the issues we discover are
more subtle and specific to users with accessibilities
I always report usability issues I come across when carrying out an
accessibility audit, making sure I mark them as such.




On 3/23/16, Tim Harshbarger < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> 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
>
>
>