Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited a common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug

___% of the population has a disability.
Since their world consists
largely of able-bodied 22-year-olds, it’s very hard for them to believe
that a large percentage of the population actually needs help accessing
the Web. They’re willing to write it off as the kind of exaggeration that
people make when they’re advocating for a worthy cause, but there’s
also a natural inclination to think, “If one of their claims is so clearly
untrue, I’m entitled to be skeptical about the rest.”
Making things more accessible benefits everyone.
They know that
some adaptations do, like the classic example, closed captioning,
which does often come in handy for people who can hear.
2
But since
this always seems to be the only example cited, it feels a little like
arguing that the space program was worthwhile because it gave us

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Tang.
3
 It’s much easier for developers and designers to imagine cases
where accessibility adaptations are likely to make things worse for
“everyone else.”
2
 
Melanie and I often use it when watching British films, for instance.
3
 
A powdered orange-flavored breakfast drink, invented for the astronauts (see also: freeze-dried
food).
The worst thing about this skepticism is that it obscures the fact that there’s
really only one reason that’s important:
It’s the right thing to do.
And not just the right thing; it’s 
profoundly
the right thing to do, because the one argument for accessibility that
doesn’t get made nearly often enough is how extraordinarily better it
makes some people’s lives. Personally, I don’t think anyone should
need more than this one example: Blind people with access to a
computer can now read almost any newspaper or magazine on their
own. Imagine that.
How many opportunities do we have to dramatically improve people’s lives
just by doing our job a little better?
And for those of you who don’t find this argument compelling, be aware that
even if you haven’t already encountered it, there will be a legislative stick
coming sooner or later. Count on it.