What Is A Disability?

For the purposes of this discussion, a disability is simply a physical or mental limitation that makes performing a given task difficult, if not impossible. When used in reference to the software industry, disabilities are normally categorized as follows:

• Vision: includes such impairments as blindness, low vision, and color blindness.

• Hearing: includes deafness and reduced hearing.

• Mobility: includes paralysis, weakness, and a wide variety of injuries and diseases.

• Cognitive/Language: includes problems with thinking, memory, learning, and general perception.

• Seizure: Includes epileptic seizures of varying degrees.

In the next section, as I go through some of the main features of accessible software, I'll highlight some of the reasons these features are necessary and who will benefit most from them.