Life Changing Events Happen, Even to the Most Cautious
I didn’t ever really think about accessibility until March of 2019 when I suffered a snowboarding accident that resulted in major orthopedic surgery and 6-8 months of paralysis of my left arm and hand. As a recruiter, my primary responsibilities were technical note-taking over phone discussions and system notation. I was forced to take handwritten notes.
In the days following my accident, 13 screws and a titanium plate later, I was immediately confronted by a middle manager with the proposition, “You could go on short-term disability.” While this was well-intentioned, it would have equated to the inability to make commissions on the hires I had already secured as well as being paid for only a fraction of my salary to go toward basic living expenses.
Luckily, my director knew this was a roadblock and not an impasse. This was not the quick or easy solution but to this day, I am so grateful he stepped in and made the decision to let me continue to work.
This small leadership action of simply supporting and clearing roadblocks for me resulted in my hires skyrocketing in the next few months while I suffered this setback.
At the time the talk-to-text notation between two people was not as advanced as it is today. Today, in 2023, I can use my Apple pencil to hand write notes while it quickly converts content into text. I think of how in just a few short years, simple accessibility innovations have become life-changing.
Another Life Changing Event…
As I sit here and write today, I have hit another roadblock. About a week ago, I woke up on a Friday to discover something was wrong with one of my eyes. I went to bed the night before with perfect vision in both eyes, and I woke up the next day with blurry vision, and by noon, I could barely see out of the affected eye.
After a frantic call to the ophthalmologist and a Saturday on-call visit, he determined that I have lattice degeneration. When I rely on vision in my affected eye, I can see about 20-30% of my former vision.
The impairment is akin to looking through a cloud of brown cobwebs. I can see outlines of large shapes and if I focus hard enough I can read very slowly word by word. This is shocking for someone who has never had significant vision issues in their life.
More to come on how this shakes out but again for the second time in my life, I have been abruptly shocked into thinking about accessibility.
The UX industry has only scratched the surface of accessibility and from what I’ve witnessed so far, vision concerns with ADA compliance take precedence. We can check accessibility for red-green color blindness with a simple Figma plug-in.
My on-call ophthalmologist appointment got me thinking and talking with him about how many industries are behind in the users they serve.
How many vision MDs and DOs do you know who think about the accessibility of their website for their primary patients? It seems like a simple problem right, these people have an abundance of education in curing eye-related disabilities.
Because they don’t independently manage the technology part of their business they may not realize, a website is the first introduction that a patient who may be suffering from a disability.
Accessibility & AI In The Future
While vision impairment currently dominates accessibility in design, I’m overwhelmed with excitement at the thought of how AI could enhance accessibility for those that suffer from other disabilities.
Assisting those with auditory, learning, and physical disabilities online, the opportunities are endless and the disruption is ripe for the picking, perhaps a lengthier post for another time.