Inclusion first: How to make your product accessible and inclusive

Illustration of colorful flowers — progressively more diverse from left to right — by Artist, Georgia Webber

Do you want your product to be more accessible and inclusive but aren’t sure where to start? If you design or build digital products and solutions, deciding where and how to start making them more accessible and inclusive is often the hardest part. This guide will help you take the next step no matter where you are on the journey.

What is accessibility vs. inclusion?

Accessibility is building for people with disabilities, and inclusion is building for all.

You can think of accessibility and inclusion within product development as a spectrum. On the far left of the spectrum, the team has little to no training or awareness of building accessible products/websites. In the middle, the team is trained on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the product is meeting legally required accessibility compliance standards for web and digital. At the right end of the spectrum, the team follows a robust, inclusive product development process, where the solution is designed and built for all users.

The team has methods to identify and measure success for underserved user groups and bring them in as co-creators of the product or solution.