"Most people are not "disabled" or "able bodied." They are navigating a continuum. A parent carrying a toddler, a traveler pulling luggage, a cook with wet hands, someone recovering from surgery, a person with arthritis on a cold morning, an older adult managing fatigue at the end of the day. These are not edge cases. They are the mainstream experience of modern life."
"Accessibility is often framed as a feature set for a specific group. That framing keeps it stuck in the margins. A better lens is to treat accessibility as the practical reality of everyday variability. People's abilities change with context. Lighting changes. Noise changes. Energy changes. Hands get full. Attention splits. Stress rises. Injuries happen. Bodies age. Life intervenes. Once you design for that reality, the business case becomes obvious. Products that work across more conditions work for more people."
Ability exists on a fluid continuum rather than as fixed 'disabled' or 'able-bodied' categories. Everyday situations—carrying a child, pulling luggage, cooking with wet hands, recovering from surgery, arthritis in cold weather, or end-of-day fatigue—alter functional capacity. Accessibility should be reframed as designing for variability in context, accounting for changes in lighting, noise, energy, attention, stress, injury, and aging. Mapping ability states such as one-handed use, low vision, low dexterity, and limited mobility informs practical design decisions. Products that accommodate shifting ability states work across more conditions, reach more people, and improve adoption, satisfaction, and repeat use.
Read at Fast Company
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