The five types of people who produce inaccessible code

There are roughly five types of people you’ll meet doing accessibility development work. They are:

1. People who create inaccessible code, but do not realize they are doing so.
2. People who create inaccessible code and realize they are doing so, but do not know how to fix it.
3. People who create inaccessible code, and do not care about fixing it.
4. People who create inaccessible code that they think is accessible.
5. People who create inaccessible code that our industry thinks is accessible, but experientially is not.

The fifth type has been me more than I care to admit.

Discussing the nuance behind each one of these types is an essay unto itself. The real goal, however, is to get the development industry as a whole aware of the state of things up to the fifth type’s existence.

There is also a secret sixth type. It is not a person, but instead a robot parrot drawing from a dataset of the other five types and presenting it with extreme confidence.

The way to actually create accessible code? Ask disabled people if they can use what you made. Even better, hire them to make it.