We live in a world that often values appearances over substance. This is especially true when it comes to disability inclusion, both in physical spaces and digital ones. The truth is, exclusion doesn’t always look like a locked door or a missing ramp, sometimes it’s much more subtle.
This week’s focus: The Invisible Nature of Disability
Many people live with invisible impairments such as chronic pain, neurodivergence, mental health conditions, sensory sensitivities, and more. As a result, assumptions about someone’s abilities based on their appearance can be deeply misleading. Similarly, when we rely on able-bodied perspectives to assess whether a website or process is inclusive, we risk unintentionally excluding others.
Digital Accessibility: Beyond the Surface
A website might appear sleek and modern, but that doesn’t guarantee accessibility. For instance, I recently discovered that our website template contained some programmatically incorrect HTML. Visually, everything looked fine, but for users relying on assistive technologies like screen readers, the experience was confusing and frustrating. The issue stemmed from prioritising aesthetics over best practice, just because you can manipulate code to achieve a certain look doesn’t mean you should.
Accessibility and inclusion must go deeper than surface-level fixes. They require empathetic design, correct coding, thorough testing, and a commitment to embedding inclusive practices across delivery teams.
Why It Matters
The invisibility of many impairments often leads to a lack of empathy or urgency around accessibility. When someone’s struggle isn’t visible, their requests for accommodations are frequently met with scepticism or resistance. Even when a disability is visible, the burden of compromise often falls on the disabled person, especially if inclusion requires others to change their behaviour.
The Reluctance to Be Inconvenienced
There’s a quiet but persistent discomfort when it comes to making space for disabled peers. Whether it’s giving up a seat, slowing one’s pace, or redesigning a process, the common thread is resistance to inconvenience. But true inclusion isn’t about convenience, it’s about equity.
Real accessibility means being willing to accept a little discomfort or compromise so that others can participate fully. It means recognising that what’s effortless for one person might be difficult, or impossible, for another. It means choosing to act, even when it’s not the easiest path.
Exclusion is subtle
Subtle forms of exclusion are easy to overlook, especially when they don’t affect the majority. Yet many disabled people endure daily discomfort in a world not designed with them in mind. The disproportionate burden placed on them is often described as feeling like “death by a thousand cuts”, due to the accumulation of small, daily challenges and the lack of empathy shown in response. Those experiences might seem like they aren’t a big deal on the surface, but once again we need to look deeper, because they come together to form a fundamental feeling of exclusion.
A hard truth is that many people are reluctant to experience even minor inconvenience to properly accommodate others. Equitable access, whether physical or digital, requires effort. That might mean rethinking design, challenging assumptions, or slightly reducing able-bodied convenience to ensure everyone can participate.
In digital spaces, this means going beyond visual design to ensure semantic structure and proper coding. A beautiful interface that’s inaccessible is like a building with a grand staircase but no lift or ramp.
Seeing Beyond the Surface
“Looks can be deceiving” is more than a catchy phrase, it’s a reminder to look beyond the surface. Whether we are interacting with people or designing digital experiences, we must move beyond appearances and consider the lived realities of others. Inclusion begins with understanding that what is visible is only part of the story.
Quick Tip
Don’t judge the accessibility of your process, website or document by appearance alone. Use tools to gain a deeper understanding of where something might fall short. When designing processes, offering options for inclusion is good, but redesigning the process so that the burden of compromise doesn’t fall solely on the impaired person is even better.
Try This
Next time you’re reviewing a digital product, or even just browsing a website, try navigating using only your keyboard or a screen reader. Notice what works and what doesn’t. Ask yourself:
What would it be like if I had to experience this every time I used the web?
Also, reflect on how you respond when someone asks for an accommodation. Are you willing to accept a little discomfort to make things more inclusive?
Finally, give yourself grace. It can be uncomfortable to realise you might not be as inclusive as you’d like to be. But inclusion isn’t an easy journey, and when you face that discomfort with curiosity rather than resistance, great things can happen.