The Intersection of Performance and Accessibility

So, I was conducting an accessibility audit a few years ago
If you’re not familiar with what an accessibility audit is, know that it is the process of performing manual and automated checks to see if a digital experience can be operated by assistive technology
It’s very similar to performance profiling and auditing, and equally as nerdy and detail-oriented
For accessibility audits, you identify areas where there would be problems or straight-up barriers that would break assistive technology support, thereby preventing someone from using your website or app
An example of assistive technology that could have its support disrupted would be a screen reader.
If you’re not familiar, a screen reader is specialized software that parses the contents of the screen, announces that content to the person using it, and lets them take action on it
And a button that someone is unable to press to save their progress because of how it is coded is an example of an audit issue that affects a screen reader user
This is a case of accidental exclusion, where someone is prevented from being able to use functionality made available to others, just by virtue of circumstance

And accessibility overlays
If you are not familiar with what an accessibility overlay is, know this:
They are predatory anti-solutions that prey on ignorance and fear of litigious action
By offering a one line of code solution that promises to “fix” all your accessibility issues they all enable arbitrary third party JavaScript execution on your product, which should hopefully already set off some alarm bells in the audience
And believe me when I tell you it’s some of the worst frontend code I’ve seen in my entire career
AccessiBe is one of the worst offenders in the market, and has been repeatedly legally demonstrated to not deliver on what it promises
In fact, I’ve given expert testimony to this effect, so believe me when I tell you I know what I’m talking about here
Additionally, they refuse to comply with European Data Protection Impact Assessment requests, which is suspicious as hell

Accessibility auditing isn’t something people normally do out of the goodness of their own heart.
It’s typically performed after a lawsuit has been levied against an organization
And let me be clear: when you create inaccessible experiences, intentionally or not, you are practicing discrimination
The upcoming European Accessibility Act acknowledges this, and will put protections in place starting next year to help ensure people cannot be discriminated against based on their disability conditions
Similarly, the Americans With Disabilities Act already guarantees these protections
This extends to both private organizations and the digital space, and its language is couched in Civil Rights, which are some of the strongest protections individual citizens have in the United States.
This legislature is a good thing, as it guarantees protections as more and more of the services necessary to living life go online.

Cognitive load is such a problem that NASA developed the Task Load Index, an assessment tool to help quantify it
This isn’t warm fuzzy feelings about empathy, this is a serious attempt by a serious government agency to refine efficiencies and prevent errors
One of the most interesting things about the existence of the Index is that it’s an indirect admission that disability can be conditional
Think about it: when’s the last time you were using technology while tired, distracted, sick, or learning a new skill and the outcome isn’t what you desired?
Heck, when’s the last time you were trying to use technology while drunk?
Cognitive load an important thing to track for building rockets, sure
But it also translates to other complicated things like making and using software

This is such an important thing that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines has a rule for it
Success Criterion 3.3.7 Redundant Entry is level A, meaning it is a baseline requirement for all content on the web
It stipulates that you as the provider of the experience do not require someone to enter information that they have previously successfully submitted earlier on in the experience
Not only is this good UX, but it’s also helpful for people with cognitive and motor control disabilities
Like, observing this rule could quite literally save someone from experiencing pain from unnecessarily filling out information they already submitted
So, be sure to remember to keep this in mind the next time your company’s shoddy reimbursement system makes you fill out the same info in triplicate before submitting