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The myth of ‘fully accessible’
Embracing access as action.
Why we love the myth
In product development and design, the term “fully accessible” is often used with the best intentions. It’s a compelling phrase to drop in a leadership meeting and looks good in a rebuttal. “Fully accessible” feels good to the brain; it suggests completion and achievement — a destination reached and a flag planted. However, this terminology reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of accessibility in practice. As the WebAIM Million report consistently shows through their annual analysis of top websites, even seemingly “accessible” sites often have significant barriers.
Even in legal proceedings where I’ve served as an accessibility subject matter expert, I’ve sometimes had to clearly state that I cannot write “this site is fully accessible” in a report. I can write that my client’s site did not have barriers to using it, but I have never been able to judge that a site is 100% accessible. Even if it were in that moment, judged by me and 4 trusted peers to meet all the guidelines and deemed accessible, that could all change instantly.
