Accessibility ensures a product can be used by everyone, including people with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive impairments. It is not an optional extra: it is an essential part of good UX.

A few best practices

• Sufficient contrast between text and background.
• Alternative text on images for screen readers.
• Keyboard navigation that works without a mouse.
• Clear labels on form fields.
• Readable text size that can be adjusted.

Designing accessibly benefits everyone: captions help in a noisy place, strong contrast helps in bright sunlight, keyboard navigation suits power users. It is also often a legal requirement. Thinking about accessibility from the start costs very little; bolting it on afterwards is far harder.

Key takeaway: an accessible interface is a better interface for everyone, not just for a few.