Accessibility Glossary
WCAG criteria, patterns, and standards — with interactive demos, detection methods, and audit data.
General usability and design concepts. Good practice that supports accessibility — but not, by themselves, WCAG requirements.
Affordance
Visual cues that indicate how an element can be used. Buttons should look clickable (raised, colored, labeled). Links should look tappable (underlined, colored). Flat design often destroys affordance — add it back with shadows, borders, or underlines.
Cognitive Load
Mental effort to process information. More options = slower decisions (Hick's Law). More fields = more abandonment. Chunk content, simplify choices, eliminate unnecessary inputs.
Dark Patterns
Deceptive UI tricks that manipulate users: hidden costs, forced continuity, misdirection, confirm-shaming, roach motels, disguised ads. The ethical counterpoint to Laws of UX. Increasingly illegal under GDPR, FTC enforcement, and the EU Digital Services Act.
Disability Spectrum
Disability isn't one fixed group. It can be permanent (one arm), temporary (a broken arm), or situational (holding a baby). Solve for one and you extend to many — the curb-cut effect: curb ramps built for wheelchairs also help strollers, luggage, and carts.
Error Recovery
Make errors easy to fix, not punishing. Preserve form data on validation failure. Allow undo. Clearly identify what went wrong and how to fix it. Norman's 'Design of Everyday Things' principle.
Inclusive Design
Design for the full range of human diversity from the start — not as a remediation step. Microsoft's framework: recognize exclusion, learn from diversity, solve for one/extend to many.
Progressive Disclosure
Show essential info first, details on demand. Reduces overwhelm, supports scanning, and aligns with how people actually read (F-pattern). Especially valuable for users with cognitive disabilities.
Readability
Write at a lower secondary education reading level when possible (WCAG AAA). Short sentences, common words, one idea per paragraph. Flesch-Kincaid Grade 8 or below is a good target.