How many people with disabilities use your site?

If you’re a digital developer or designer, you need to know.

Silhouette by engin akyurt on Unsplash | Photo manipulation by the author

Here’s your assignment: Design a website everyone can use.

Of course, this goal is aspirational. In reality, there will always be people who can’t use your site. Some may lack online access. Others may have significant cognitive or physical challenges making such access impractical.

Nevertheless, the goal should be to make sites accessible by as many people as possible. Right? And many designers — in seeking to achieve that goal — measure success by how well they meet the needs of people with disabilities.

But what do you mean when you say the word “disability”?

Good question. (We’ll come back to that in just a bit.)

And how many people here in the United States are disabled?

Another good question. Let’s consider it in the form of a multiple-choice question.

What percentage of people in the United States have disabilities?
a. 12.1%
b. 18.7%
c. All of the above
d. None of the above