We need to talk about disability, even if it makes us squirm. Most of us get awkward and tongue-tied around the subject.
I know I do lots of times. I worry I'll say the wrong thing or offend someone. But what can we do? Stay quiet?
No.
Our silence is hurting everyone.
When we avoid talking about disability, we're not only being awkward. We're making a decision to make everything less accessible. Starting with the web.
Developers skip over accessibility features because they're not sure how to approach them.
Designers leave out crucial elements because they've never had an honest conversation about disability and user experience.
Testers won't bother with accessibility because they can't identify with users with disabilities.
The solution isn't complicated. It just takes guts.
If we only push through that initial discomfort, we can start having real conversations. We can start asking questions. Listening to disabled voices. We can make mistakes and we can learn from them.
Because the only way to build an accessible web and make room for everyone is to face our own hesitation head-on. If we don't consciously choose to engage with our discomfort directly, we’ll never achieve our full potential.