I recently spent the weekend with some friends whose teenage daughter has lost all but a shred of her vision. It is very likely that eventually she will be totally blind. I was amazed to see how well she adapts to a sighted world but still couldn’t help but reflect on the designs I create and wonder whether she can experience them fully.

Around the time of the last internet boom, bubble and burst the discussions I remember weren’t about web standards, but web accessibility. Flash was extremely popular but because it was a plugin that didn’t expose it’s code structure to the browser, screen readers for the blind couldn’t make any sense of it. As far as they were concerned a Flash object was no different than a single static image.

Today I am shocked to find that many of the younger designers I talk to aren’t aware that the ‘alt’ tag assigned to images in HTML was created so that screen readers could describe the image to vision impaired users. It seems to be thought of as another place to add marketing. A branded opportunity for when the mouse hovers an image.

Now in the wake of CSS3, HTML5, and closer browser alignment to standards the notion of ‘responsive web design’ seems to be the discussion of choice. I’ve even blogged about it. Responsive design is a great thing as it brings accessibility issues to the forefront. Specifically the accessibility of smaller screens, but combined with the latest coding practices the environment for visually or auditory impaired users is now at it’s greatest.

As interaction designers, coders, and creatives we need to be aware of everyone who may want to use our designs. We need to consider smaller screens, the elderly who rely on hearing devices, and a blind teenager who one day wants to be a writer and ask ourselves, is this design good enough for them? Am I being a dick?

Don’t be a dick.