Not long ago I heard an otherwise talented designer complain that accessibility guidelines “impose more restrictions” on them.

I never heard that same designer complain that brand guidelines imposed restrictions on them. They rightly considered brand guidelines to be an essential parameter within which their designs needed to work.

A designer who begrudged having to work within brand guidelines would not be taken seriously as a designer. Yet a designer who begrudges working within accessibility guidelines barely raises an eyebrow amongst their peers.

Why is this?

In short, it is because accessibility is viewed as a minority need.

At worst, this manifests itself in outright prejudice – a resistance to “cater for a minority” in favour of a preferred solution for a majority.

At best, it manifests itself in a view that the disabled are a minority who don’t really care about design, and are happy to be accommodated separately.

But guess what? Disabled users don’t want an accessible version of your site – they simply want the sites they visit to be designed properly in the first place.

By ‘designed properly’ I simply mean this – a site that is designed well, that solves its problems with solutions that work for as many people as possible – a design which is inclusive. A solution that excludes people unneccesarily is not a solution at all, it is a failure.

It is not sufficient to have a list of bolt-on ‘accessibility enhancements’ to run through after you’ve designed for your idealised user. Because there is no ideal user – there are simply users, all of whom have different motivations, different feelings, and yes, abilities. Take that approach and you’ll end up compromising the experience for everyone.

Inclusivity should be embraced by designers because it is the socially responsible thing to do, and because it is fundamental to good design. Or as @SandiWassmer (who writes eloquently on these matters), summed it up nicely: “Inclusive design is about making a product fit for purpose. “

There is much debate amongst designers these days about how to design for the increasing range of devices being used – from mobile to desktop, and everything inbetween. New methods are emerging such as responsive web design, which attempts to allow sites to adapt effortlessly to device and context.

But to my mind, a more pressing problem is this – how do we design for such wide ranging people? There is no ‘normal’ user just as there is no ‘normal’ device. We have to embrace the fundamental principle of inclusivity, and ensure our sites are usable by all who wish to use them.

In short, we have to start designing things properly