Designers are inherently good people who care deeply about user experiences. Yet, despite their best intentions, many digital products remain inaccessible to large segments of the population. This article explores why this gap persists and offers a practical approach to embedding accessibility into everyday design practice—without adding cognitive overload.
The Life-or-Death Stakes of Inaccessible Design
In his influential essay This Is All There Is, Aral Balkan reminds us that design decisions can have profound consequences on life events and even death events. A poorly designed bus timetable app might cause someone to miss their daughter’s fifth birthday party, or worse, prevent them from saying a final goodbye to a dying grandparent. These are not hypotheticals; they are the real-world outcomes of exclusionary design. Accessibility isn’t a nice-to-have—it is a moral and practical imperative.
Why Do Exclusionary Designs Persist?
If designers are well-meaning, why do so many products still exclude users? The answer lies in the sheer volume of guidelines and best practices designers are expected to remember. From typography and color contrast to interaction design and screen reader compatibility, the list is endless. Add accessibility requirements to an already dense discipline, and it becomes nearly impossible to keep everything top of mind. The problem isn’t a lack of goodwill—it’s a lack of cognitive bandwidth.
A Familiar Solution: Recognition Instead of Recall
In the mid-1990s, Jakob Nielsen proposed ten usability heuristics for user interface design. One of them, “Recognition rather than Recall”, states that information required to use a product should be visible or easily retrievable when needed. This principle is typically applied to users, but it can be just as powerful when applied to designers themselves. Instead of forcing designers to recall every accessibility guideline from memory, we can make that information visible and accessible at the moment they need it.
Applying the Heuristic to Designers
What if we tweak Nielsen’s heuristic to say: “The information required to produce the design should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.” This shifts the burden from long-term recall to in-context recognition. For example, a design tool might highlight low-contrast text as you work, or a checklist could appear when you’re creating forms. The goal is to surface accessibility cues during the design process, not after the fact.
Practical Steps Toward Recognition
Here are a few ways designers can integrate accessibility recognition into their workflows:
- Embed accessibility checks in design tools. Use plugins or built-in features that flag issues like insufficient color contrast, missing alt text, or incorrect heading hierarchies.
- Create a “recognition reference.” Develop a one-page cheat sheet with the most common accessibility pitfalls and resolutions. Keep it pinned to your workspace or as a browser bookmark.
- Adopt heuristic reviews focused on accessibility. Supplement Nielsen’s heuristics with a few dedicated to inclusive design (e.g., “Is all content perceivable through multiple senses?”).
- Pair design reviews with real users. Invite people with disabilities to test early prototypes. Their feedback will make accessibility issues immediately recognizable.
By reducing the cognitive load on designers, we empower them to create experiences that work for everyone—without requiring them to become accessibility experts overnight.
Conclusion
The disconnect between good intentions and accessible outcomes is real, but solvable. By applying the principle of recognition rather than recall to our own design processes, we can bridge that gap. When accessibility information becomes visible and retrievable in the moment of creation, exclusion becomes the exception, not the rule. The result? Products that respect the full spectrum of human ability—and designers who feel equipped to build them.