Have you ever thought that a stranger you interacted with on social media might be blind? Unable to see you in real life? Or maybe deaf? Now, everything we do becomes digital, from the moment we wake up in the morning, read news, share updates about our day, highlight our moments, and almost every other thing. To the extent that it is impossible for the majority of people to leave their house without having their phones with them, but what about people with disabilities? Waad al-Azmi examines the ways new technology are providing easier options to accomodate the needs of persons with disabilities.
Accessibility, according to the ninth article of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is defined as “the comprehensive identification and elimination of obstacles and barriers in the physical environment, transportation, communication and public services, including information and communications technology, to enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life on an equal basis with others”. This means the tools, online systems, applications, and even technical design of devices and gadgets should be possible to be used by all people, including those with disabilities.
Known as electronic system design, these devices are supposed to be both inclusive and user friendly. However, how can a person with limited mobility use a mobile phone as equally as others? Or how can a blind person use a tablet that comes with a touchscreen? That was the mystery people in technology were trying to solve ten years ago. The answer comes from offering alternative ways to use or access the tools independently, rather than creating special devices for those people, which will eventually make the tech world exclusive for some, based on ability.
Inclusive tools for all
Now, all devices come with settings that all users can choose from or customize. For example, a person with limited mobility, for instance, can use Apple’s Assistive Touch feature to better control their devices while easily connecting their adaptive accessories. It also offers Touch Accommodations, where users with limited mobility can adjust the main settings to change the way their screens respond to specific gestures. Additionally, users with low vision can also use the zoom in feature to make the screen size larger and easier for them to read. And users who are totally blind can use VoiceOver, a text-to-speech feature that makes everything on screen spoken for those who are blind. Things did not stop here; individuals who are deaf can easily interact by effectively communicating with people through texting, with the vibrations that these devices offer.
Closed captioning allows, for example, deaf and hard-of-hearing people to have acoustic signals reproduced synchronously in written form while watching videos. | © tuffix
While these tools are the infrastructure for accessibility, social media platforms offer many features for everyone to be included in a world where almost all communication is made through these platforms. For instance, deaf individuals can still watch videos thanks to closed captions, speech-to-text transcription, which opens doors for everyone. And as visual content is impossible for users who are blind to interact with, these platforms offer an option where users can provide alt-text (alternative text) that they can write to provide descriptions for the content being shared.
Compromising confidentiality
While these settings and tools are particularly important to ensure inclusion for users with disabilities, building systems without accessibility considerations in mind puts people with disabilities at a risk of having their data compromised. For instance, when a banking app does not recognize the needs of users who are deaf, offering customer care only through phone, such customer would need to rely on another person to call the bank on their behalf, and that reliance means disclosing their data, including bank account, transactions, and so on. In case of disclosing information of disabled persons, their bank account could be easily hacked.On the other hand, when systems are not built with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in mind, they automatically dismiss blind users, like myself, who rely on screen-readers, to access their services equally, which makes accessibility no longer a nice-to-have option, but a matter of cyber security. For example, if a government application does not cater for the needs of screen-reader users, those individuals would need to ask others for help, to access their accounts, and do the important paperwork on their behalf. This may seem doable; however, what if that person misused the situation and submitted wrong information to relevant government entities?
Accessibility is not a nice luxury feature, but an essential prerequisite for cybersecurity. For example, if a government agency's online service doesn't work for blind or visually impaired users who use a screen reader, a trusted person must always be involved, who then gains access to the affected person's user account, which can easily be exploited. | © tuffix
Or what if that person changed the account information for that blind user, including residency and bank account details? It recently happened to me when I needed to apply for some paperwork through one of the government applications. Being in dire need of these papers made me rely on so many strangers. That said, there was no choice for me; either the important paperwork gets delayed, or I ask for the help of individuals that I cannot fully trust for assistance. Here, it is worth pausing and asking, is it the person’s fault for using a screen reader, or developers’ responsibility to create solutions for all? This application was meant to make things easier, but in reality, it is a challenge for me as a blind person.
Additionally, systems that have time-sensitive authentication, where verification should be done in a very short time, makes it harder for users with motor control issues or cognitive disabilities to use these systems effectively, making technology a barrier more than a bridge.
As for accessibility, specifically the digital aspect of it, it is guided by WCAG and set by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to establish clear standards that can be used globally to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities everywhere. This focuses on four principles, for any product, which are: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
In this world, where the infrastructure is mainly built, the real question is about mindset and approach; Does the designed technology cater for everyone’s needs? How can the designed tools and platforms acknowledge all users, regardless of ability? In today’s world, with everything being done online, it is up to developers and designers to choose between two options, either inclusion, and design for all, or exclusion, where people with disabilities are dismissed based on physical abilities, they did not have the option to choose.
Now, the issue is not disability—it is mindset. Would a person without a disability want to enter a room where everyone speaks a language they cannot understand, and be left behind simply because they do not understand that language, with no translation provided? This is exactly how inaccessibility works. Accessibility should never be a secondary or overlooked part of the user experience. It must be a fundamental consideration from the start.
March 2026