WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: Web site(s) that list general disability statistics?

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Nov 11, 2005 9:00AM

I would suggest a couple of approaches.

If someone uses the "too few" argument, find out what they mean by too
few. I have often found that other people's perception of the number of
people with disabilities underestimates the statistics. For instance,
most people will definitely underestimate the number of people who are
color blind.

Another approach is to find out what user populations they think are
important to design for. For example, in most businesses today, there
is a focus on what are called emerging markets. Most of those markets
are actually a much smaller percentage of a given population than the
percentage of the population with disabilities.

I think the other good approach is one you all mentioned already. Tell
your audience how designing accessible user interfaces benefits their
other audiences. Talk about new technologies and how they can benefit
from an accessible environment. Talk about how specific elements that
make an environment accessible benefit their other work or goals.

I have found that unless you guide people to define their terms and
perceptions exactly, it is impossible to dispel any misperceptions.