Accessibility

Common disabilities and barriers

Disability types
Disability type Disability examples

Auditory

Disability examples:
  • mild to moderate hearing impairments in one or both ears (i.e. hard of hearing)
  • substantial and uncorrectable impairment of hearing in both ears (i.e. deafness)

Cognitive and neurological

Disability examples:
  • disorders of any part of the nervous system, including the brain and the peripheral nervous system

Physical

Disability examples:
  • weakness or limitations of muscular control (i.e. involuntary movements including tremors, lack of coordination or paralysis)
  • limitations of sensation
  • joint problems (i.e. arthritis)
  • pain that impedes movement
  • missing limbs

Speech

Disability examples:
  • difficulty producing speech that is recognizable by others or by voice recognition software

Vision

Disability examples:
  • mild to moderate vision impairments in one or both eyes (i.e. low vision, partial sight)
  • substantial and uncorrectable loss of vision in both eyes (i.e. blindness)
  • lack of sensitivity to certain colours (i.e. colour blindness)
  • increased sensitivity towards excessive brightness in colours
Access barriers for people with disabilities
Barrier Auditory disabilities Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities Physical disabilities Speech disabilities Vision disabilities
No captions or transcripts

Impacted

Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities: Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities:

Impacted

Voice only web services

Impacted

Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities: Physical disabilities:

Impacted

Vision disabilities:
No supplemental sign language

Impacted

Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities: Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Inconsistent/overly complex navigation Auditory disabilities:

Impacted

Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Difficult to understand sentences/words Auditory disabilities:

Impacted

Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Long passages of text Auditory disabilities:

Impacted

Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Moving, blinking or flickering content Auditory disabilities:

Impacted

Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Lack of full keyboard support Auditory disabilities: Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities:

Impacted

Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Missing visual cues Auditory disabilities: Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities:

Impacted

Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Overly complex page functions Auditory disabilities: Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities:

Impacted

Speech disabilities: Vision disabilities:
Missing page structure Auditory disabilities: Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities:

Impacted

Speech disabilities:

Impacted

Insufficient contrast Auditory disabilities: Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities: Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities:

Impacted

No equivalent text alternatives Auditory disabilities: Cognitive/ Neurological disabilities: Physical disabilities: Speech disabilities:

Impacted