According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one in four adults has some type of disability. Those disabilities include physical/mobility, visual, cognitive, speech, and hearing issues and impairments.
To effectively implement accessible content, it is helpful to understand how each type of disability impacts an individual and how they interact with digital content. The World Wide Web Consortium has an informative site that provides detailed information about these areas of disability and other aspects of web accessibility fundamentals.
Learn more about the different types of disabilities using the links below, and check out the accompanying user story video to see how the disability can impact the individual.
Disabilities and Barriers
Auditory
Hearing loss or impairment, deafness.
Cognitive
Learning and comprehension issues.
Physical/Motor
Weakness or pain, limited range of motion, paralysis.
Speech
Producing understandable speech.
It Helps All Users
Ensuring that all users can access the information on your website or other web content is legally required. But the efforts towards creating accessible content benefit all users, not just those with disabilities or impairments.
An accessible site—one with logically and simply organized content, clean and clear text and visuals, and well-functioning interactive features (among many others)—creates a better user experience for all users.
Additional benefits like improved SEO (search engine optimization, important for online search) and better functionality across multiple types of devices can mean better results overall.
Accessibility Education Resources
IUP CMS maintainers who have set up their Siteimprove accounts can take the accessibility courses available through that platform. Email web-team@iup.edu with questions.