Most designers don’t know about accessibility or have misconceptions about it, such as thinking it will hinder their creativity or that it doesn’t apply to their clients. Find out 9 myths about accessibility and why you and your clients should care.

大多数设计师都不了解可访问性或对此有误解，例如认为它会阻碍他们的创造力或不适用于他们的客户。 找出有关可访问性以及为什么您和您的客户应该关心的9个神话。

误解1：辅助功能仅适用于盲人用户。 (Myth #1: Accessibility only serves blind users.)

Yes, accessibility does serve individuals with blindness. However, in the United States at least, vision-related disabilities, which total about 6.4 million, comprise the smallest portion of all types of disabilities. That number includes other visual conditions besides blindness, such as low vision or color blindness.

是的，可访问性确实为盲人服务。 但是，至少在美国，与视力相关的残疾总计约640万，在所有类型的残疾中占最小的比例。 该数字包括除失明之外的其他视觉条件，例如低视力或色盲。

Individuals with a hearing-related disability — partial hearing loss or deafness — total about 10.5 million.

患有与听力有关的残疾(部分听力丧失或耳聋)的个人总计约1,050万人。

The next largest group is those with a neurological or cognitive disability, such as cerebral palsy or dementia. They total almost 15 million.

第二大类是患有神经或认知障碍的人，例如脑瘫或痴呆症。 他们总计近1500万。

The largest group — at almost 21 million — is those with an ambulatory disability, such as one-sided weakness that occurred as the result of a stroke.

最大的群体-将近2100万-是那些患有行动不便的人，例如由于中风而导致的单侧无力。

That means that approximately 46 million plus a good portion of the visual disability group do not have blindness.

这意味着大约有4,600万加上视力障碍者中的很大一部分都没有失明。

Considering worldwide numbers, there are about 1 billion people with a disability.

考虑到全世界的数字，大约有十亿残疾人 。

Also note that someone could have more than one disability, such as deafness and blindness. Or that a disability could be temporary, such as a broken arm, wrist or leg from a car accident. A lot of people don’t think of it this way, and they usually think of blindness and wheelchairs or older people.

还要注意，某人可能有不止一种残疾，例如耳聋和失明。 或者说残疾可能是暂时的，例如由于交通事故导致手臂，手腕或腿部受伤。 许多人不这样想，他们通常会想到失明，轮椅或老年人。

Think about people with a birth defect, people who’ve been in an accident, veterans, people of any age.

考虑一下有先天缺陷的人，发生过事故的人，退伍军人以及任何年龄的人。

Personally, I know three people, ranging in age from 25 to 45, who have multiple sclerosis. I have friends who are deaf or have dyslexia, one with cerebral palsy, two different ones who are wheelchair users as a result of a spinal cord injury from a car accident when there were teenagers, and one who is legally blind and at one point was the most decorated Paralympic female swimmer in history.

就我个人而言，我知道三个人(年龄在25至45岁之间)患有多发性硬化症。 我有失聪或患有阅读障碍的朋友，一个患有脑瘫，两个不同的是青少年时因车祸导致脊髓受伤而坐轮椅的人，还有一个在法律上是盲人的。历史上装饰最出色的残奥会女子游泳运动员。

I grew up with a friend who was born with a birth defect. She had a thumb but no fingers on one hand.

我与一个患有先天缺陷的朋友长大。 她的拇指是一只手，但没有手指。

I have numerous friends whose children have cognitive disabilities.

我有很多朋友的孩子有认知障碍。

I’m sure I also have friends with color blindness, macular degeneration — or another one that you can’t tell by looking at them that maybe they’ve just never mentioned.

我确定我也有一些患有色盲，黄斑变性的朋友，或者另一个你看不到他们的人，也许他们只是从未提及过。

Many of the disabilities I just mentioned are not even related to vision.

我刚才提到的许多残疾甚至与视觉都没有关系。

So, often I hear that because accessibility is all about blindness, which, of course, is incorrect, as I just proved. But I hear that from a lot of designers and developers when they build websites. They think, “I’ll just test the site with a screen reader and then it’s good.”

因此，我经常听到这是因为可访问性完全是盲目性，正如我刚刚证明的那样，盲目性当然是不正确的。 但是，我听到许多设计师和开发人员在构建网站时的想法。 他们认为，“我只需要使用屏幕阅读器来测试该站点，然后就可以了。”

But, no, that’s not the case.

但是，不，不是这样。

You have to test it with the keyboard too, not just a screen reader, although screen readers may be used by not only those with blindness but also individuals with low vision or cognitive disabilities.

您也必须使用键盘进行测试，而不仅仅是屏幕阅读器，尽管屏幕阅读器不仅可以用于盲人，还可以用于视力低下或认知障碍的人。

误解2：可访问性不适用于我的客户。 (Myth #2: Accessibility doesn’t apply to my clients.)

You might think that your clients need to be governmental agencies or large corporations to be concerned with accessibility or to legally comply with accessibility laws. But did you know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) pertains to places of public accommodation.

您可能会认为您的客户需要是政府机构或大型公司才能关注可访问性或在法律上遵守可访问性法律。 但是您是否知道《美国残疾人法案》(ADA)与公共住宿场所有关。

Some of those are:

其中一些是：

• hotels and restaurants;
  酒店和餐馆；
• bakeries and grocery stores;
  面包店和杂货店;
• clothing and hardware stores;
  服装和五金店;
• laundromats and dry cleaners;
  自助洗衣店和干洗店；
• banks;
  银行；
• barber shops and beauty salons;
  理发店和美容院；
• gyms and health spas;
  健身房和健康水疗中心；
• travel services;
  旅游服务；
• accountants, lawyers and health care providers;
  会计师，律师和卫生保健提供者；
• public transportation; and
  公共交通工具; 和
• schools.
  学校。

And that’s not even a full list either.

而且那也不是完整列表。

Your clients may assume they don’t serve anyone with a disability — but they do. Clients can’t see who is coming to their website. They can see who comes into their offices but, still, some disabilities are not outwardly obvious. You can’t see if someone has dyslexia or seizure disorder or hearing loss or color blindness, for example.

您的客户可能会认为他们没有为任何残疾人提供服务，但他们确实为残疾人提供服务。 客户看不到谁来访问他们的网站。 他们可以看到谁进入了他们的办公室，但是，有些残障并不明显。 例如，您看不到某人是否患有阅读障碍或癫痫症，听力丧失或色盲。

The only way your clients might find out is if someone contacts them and says they can’t read some of the text on their website. Or they can’t access the navigation with a keyboard, so they can’t get around the site. Or they can’t understand the charts in the annual report because they weren’t designed with colorblind users in mind.

您的客户可能会发现的唯一方法是，如果有人联系他们并说他们无法阅读其网站上的某些文本。 否则他们无法使用键盘访问导航，因此他们无法绕过该站点。 否则他们无法理解年度报告中的图表，因为它们在设计时并未考虑色盲用户。

If the website needs to be fixed or rebuilt and you were the one to build it to begin with, that would be embarrassing! The client would wonder why you didn’t bring this up.

如果网站需要修复或重建，而您却是首先构建它的网站，那将很尴尬！ 客户会想知道您为什么不提出来。

What if a costly legal claim is made against your client? That could potentially put you on the hook! I’ve heard of several scenarios where this has happened.

如果对您的客户提出了昂贵的法律诉讼，该怎么办？ 这可能会使您陷入困境！ 我听说过发生这种情况的几种情况。

Implementing accessibility is good for every business. It is definitely your client’s problem if they lose sales because people can’t access their content or if they get a bad reputation for not being inclusive of all users.

实现可访问性对每个企业都有好处。 如果客户因为人们无法访问他们的内容而失去销售，或者由于不包容所有用户而声誉不好，那绝对是您客户的问题。

Plus, people with a disability are three times as likely to avoid a business that seems to have a negative reputation toward diversity and twice as likely to dissuade others from doing business with them.

此外，残疾人避免经营似乎对多元化负有声誉的企业的可能性是其的三倍，而劝阻他人与他人开展业务的可能性是其的两倍。

Your clients may not even know they’re already losing sales for this reason.

您的客户可能甚至不知道由于这个原因他们已经在失去销售。

误解3：可访问性很丑。 (Myth #3: Accessibility is ugly.)

I hear this so much from designers. “If I design sites to be accessible, they’ll look ugly. They won’t appeal to people who don’t need accessibility.”

我听到设计师这么多。 “如果我将网站设计为易于访问，它们将看起来很丑陋。 他们不会吸引那些不需要辅助功能的人。”

No. A lot of documents and websites are ugly. But that’s because they were poorly designed. Making something accessible has nothing to do with how good it looks.

否。许多文档和网站都很丑陋。 但这是因为它们的设计不佳。 使某事物可访问与它的外观无关。

There’s no single way to style something for accessibility, designwise, so you have lots of options. It could actually force you to challenge yourself creatively.

没有一种以设计方式为可访问性设计样式的方法，因此您有很多选择。 它实际上可能迫使您创造性地挑战自己。

误区4：辅助功能意味着我必须设计深色。 (Myth #4: Accessibility means I have to design with dark colors.)

I’ve hear this one a lot too. But this is not at all the case.

我也听到过很多。 但这并非完全如此。

One aspect of accessibility involves ensuring sufficient contrast between foreground and background colors for text and many other essential elements, but that doesn’t mean you need to use dark colors.

可访问性的一方面涉及确保文本和许多其他基本元素的前景色和背景色之间有足够的对比度，但这并不意味着您需要使用深色。

In fact, if all you used were dark colors, then you couldn’t use them in tandem with one another. It simply all comes down to how they are used.

实际上，如果您使用的只是深色，那么您将无法将它们彼此串联使用。 一切都归结为如何使用它们。

Apparently, designers aren’t the only ones who think accessibility means dark colors either. Before creating an accessible email design for a client last year, I asked them to send their color palette. We designed the email with the colors we were provided and made sure the design was accessible.

显然，并非只有设计师认为可访问性意味着深色。 在去年为客户创建可访问的电子邮件设计之前，我请他们发送其调色板。 我们使用提供的颜色设计了电子邮件，并确保设计可访问。

The client questioned one of the color combinations that we had used for one of the section’s text and background colors, which had passed contrast checks. I explained that we thought this was the best possible option based on their color palette.

客户质疑我们用于该部分文本和背景颜色之一的颜色组合，该颜色组合已经通过了对比检查。 我解释说，我们认为这是基于其调色板的最佳选择。

They suddenly mentioned there were other colors in the color palette that they hadn’t sent. What? I asked why. They said they thought those other colors were too light to use.

他们突然提到调色板中还有其他未发送的颜色。 什么？ 我问为什么。 他们说，他们认为其他颜色太浅而无法使用。

So it all depends on how they are used. No, you can’t use a light color against a light background or a dark color against a dark background. But you can use a lighter color against a darker background and vice versa — as long as you check that the contrast requirements are met for essential elements.

因此，这完全取决于它们的使用方式。 不可以，您不能在浅色背景上使用浅色，也不能在深色背景上使用深色。 但是您可以在较暗的背景上使用较浅的颜色，反之亦然-只要您检查基本元素是否满足对比度要求即可。

Sometimes you can modify them just a tad — lightening or darkening one of them — to get them to work.

有时，您可以稍加修改即可(使其中之一变亮或变暗)以使它们起作用。

误解5：无障碍服务仅对残疾人有帮助。 (Myth #5: Accessibility only helps people with disabilities.)

Most people won’t notice good design or accessibility, but accessibility results in a better design and a better experience for all users.

大多数人不会注意到良好的设计或可访问性，但是可访问性为所有用户带来了更好的设计和更好的体验。

This reminds of when I rented an apartment many years ago. It was handicap accessible, to accommodate a wheelchair. I didn’t need that, but that was the only apartment they had available. Well, I loved it! It had extra-wide doorways, which is great, especially for me, since I always bump my shoulders and elbows on doorways. It also had a large bedroom closet and a big bathroom.

这让我想起了很多年前我租公寓的时候。 方便残疾人士使用轮椅。 我不需要那个，但是那是他们唯一可用的公寓。 好吧，我喜欢它！ 它有超宽​​的门口，这对我来说尤其棒，因为我总是在门口碰我的肩膀和手肘。 它还有一个大卧室壁橱和一个大浴室。

On the other hand, poor design and functionality will definitely get noticed.

另一方面，不良的设计和功能肯定会引起注意。

I myself do not have a disability, but I can tell you that it boggles my mind when I see hyperlinks that are styled simply as bold text and nothing else. I’m like, where do I go? Is this a hyperlink? I have to try to interact with it to even find out.

我本人没有残疾，但是我可以告诉您，当我看到超链接被简单地设置为粗体且没有其他样式时，这让我感到困惑。 我想，我要去哪里？ 这是超链接吗？ 我必须尝试与之互动才能找到答案。

Or I go to a site with tons of videos that get in my face and I can’t stop them from playing. I bet that annoys you too!

或者，我去了一个网站，里面藏着很多视频，我无法阻止他们播放。 我敢打赌，这也会惹你生气！

误解6：辅助功能昂贵。 (Myth #6: Accessibility is expensive.)

Implementing accessibility costs less and is easier to do when it’s done as part of the design process — whether that’s for branding, a document or a website.

在设计过程中完成可访问性的成本更低，并且更容易实现，无论是用于品牌，文档还是网站。

When you think about accessibility at the branding stage, you can plan an appropriate color palette. If you don’t think about this early on, then what happens is that existing colors need to be modified or new ones need to be chosen.

在品牌推广阶段考虑可访问性时，可以计划适当的调色板。 如果您不早考虑这一点，那么会发生的事情是，需要修改现有的颜色或选择新的颜色。

If your client has to redo their marketing materials down the road to make the colors accessible, that will be costly, especially if they need to be reprinted. I mean, you don’t want to have to use a modified color palette for the website and digital documents and the original one for print. That would be inconsistent and not good for branding.

如果您的客户必须重做其营销材料以使颜色更容易使用，那将是昂贵的，尤其是在需要重新打印时。 我的意思是，您不需要为网站和数字文档使用经过修改的调色板，而不必为打印而使用原始调色板。 这将前后矛盾，不利于品牌推广。

When I remediate InDesign files for creative firms, I often have to modify or swap out colors to get combinations that work for accessibility. Sometimes it’s time consuming. It involves not only checking what works but then considering how these colors will all work in a document. You don’t necessarily want to be too heavy on one color — or you might. But if not, you have to take that into consideration.

在为创意公司修复InDesign文件时，我经常必须修改或换掉颜色才能获得适用于可访问性的组合。 有时很费时间。 它不仅涉及检查什么有效，而且还考虑这些颜色将如何在文档中全部起作用。 您不一定要在一种颜色上过分沉重，否则您可能会想要。 但是，如果没有，则必须考虑到这一点。

Also, using best practices in the page layout software goes a long way. If you aren’t using best practices, you aren’t using the software to its potential and you’re slowing down your workflow.

此外，在页面布局软件中使用最佳做法还有很长的路要走。 如果您没有使用最佳实践，那么您就不会充分利用该软件的潜力，并且会减慢您的工作流程。

I’ve gotten InDesign files from designers who’ve been in the industry a very long time who do not use best practices. Not only do I have to redo the entire layout properly but then incorporate accessibility. That ends up costing their client more.

我已经从从事该行业很长时间并且不使用最佳实践的设计师那里获得了InDesign文件。 我不仅必须正确地重做整个布局，而且还要合并辅助功能。 最终导致他们的客户花费更多。

Like with documents, with websites, best practices in web development and usability go a long way toward achieving accessibility.

与文档，网站一样，Web开发和可用性的最佳实践对实现可访问性有很大帮助。

If your client thinks accessibility is expensive, you can tell them that accessibility claims and lawsuits cost much more than that. They can range from $4,000 to $100,000 per claim.

如果您的客户认为可访问性昂贵，您可以告诉他们可访问性索赔和诉讼的成本远不止这些。 每项索赔的范围从4,000美元到100,000美元不等。

One person could sue them and they end up being given six months or a year to redo their site, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t come along and sue them too during that time period.

一个人可以起诉他们，他们最终被要求六个月或一年的时间来重做他们的网站，但这并不意味着在此期间也不会有人来起诉他们。

误解7：我只会使用自动检查程序或叠加层。 (Myth #7: I’ll just use an automated checker or overlay.)

I see designers and developers talking online about this all the time — how they’ll just use an automated checker to make sure their documents and websites are accessible.

我看到设计师和开发人员一直在网上谈论这件事–他们将如何使用自动检查器来确保其文档和网站可访问。

If you check a PDF document with Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker, it doesn’t mean it’s good to go. It cannot detect all accessibility issues. Testing, manual checks and even some manual work still need to be done in the PDF.

如果您使用Acrobat的辅助功能检查器检查PDF文档，那并不意味着最好。 它无法检测到所有可访问性问题。 PDF中仍然需要进行测试，手动检查，甚至一些手动工作。

When it comes to websites, it’s similar. There is no single automated accessibility tool that can check for every issue. Only about 25% of potential accessibility issues can even be detected by these tools.

当涉及网站时，它是相似的。 没有单一的自动辅助功能工具可以检查每个问题。 这些工具甚至只能检测到大约25％的潜在可访问性问题。

Not only that, they sometimes give false passing results or flag things that are indeed OK, such as text with sufficient contrast on a background gradient or image.

不仅如此，它们有时还会给出错误的通过结果或标记确实可以的结果，例如在背景渐变或图像上具有足够对比度的文本。

Then there is the question of whether or not the checker or overlay will properly fix something. For instance, it may find images without an Alt attribute, but a person still needs to determine if that image should have an empty Alt attribute or have Alt-text.

然后是一个问题，检查器或覆盖层是否可以正确地修复某些东西。 例如，它可能会找到没有Alt属性的图像，但是仍然需要确定该图像应具有空的Alt属性还是具有Alt-text。

If it should have Alt-text, then what will be appropriate? That depends on the image and how it’s being used.

如果它应该具有替代文本，那么什么合适呢？ 这取决于图像及其使用方式。

So someone who understands accessibility would need to address all of these situations.

因此，了解可访问性的人将需要解决所有这些情况。

In addition to automated checkers, I see so many web designers and developers talking about how they use accessibility overlays on client sites. I did an entire episode about how accessibility overlays don’t work and how the companies who make them use them on their own sites, and they have tons of accessibility issues!

除了自动检查器之外，我看到许多Web设计人员和开发人员都在谈论他们如何使用客户端站点上的辅助功能覆盖。 我做了整整一集关于可访问性覆盖不起作用以及使它们使用的公司如何在自己的站点上使用它们的问题，并且它们存在大量的可访问性问题！

If you’re using an overlay for client sites, please run — don’t walk — and listen to that episode.

如果您要在客户网站上使用叠加层，请运行-不要走路-并收听该剧集。

You can’t shortcut accessibility. There is no silver bullet.

您无法快捷访问。 没有银弹。

误解八：可访问性仅是避免诉讼。 (Myth #8: Accessibility is only about warding off lawsuits.)

Think of accessibility as enabling everyone to read your clients’ websites and digital publications. There are so many benefits!

将可访问性视为使每个人都能阅读您客户的网站和数字出版物的方法。 有很多好处！

• It’s good business. Like I said earlier, better reputation and more sales as a result. But, also, accessible sites are better coded and their content is properly formatted. That means attracting more people via search engine results.
  生意很好 就像我之前说的，结果是更好的声誉和更多的销售。 而且，可访问的站点也得到了更好的编码，其内容也进行了正确的格式化。 这意味着通过搜索引擎结果吸引更多的人。
• Users also won’t have to wait as long for pages to load due to the better and leaner code. That means users are more likely to stay on your client’s site rather than go to a competitor’s site.
  由于更好，更精简的代码，用户也不必等待页面加载的时间。 这意味着用户更有可能留在您客户的网站上，而不是去竞争对手的网站上。
• Easier to read due to good typography and color choices.
  良好的排版和颜色选择，更易于阅读。
• Easier to use because users will be able to tell where hyperlinks are and able to use the navigation with any device, whether they’re using a keyboard, trackball, a sip-and-puff system or something else.
  易于使用，因为用户将能够知道超链接在哪里，并且能够在任何设备上使用导航，无论他们使用的是键盘，轨迹球，饮系统还是其他。
• Users will be able to understand any audio or video on the site, whether or not they have a disability. They could be in a room with loud kids running around, finding it hard to hear what’s being said.
  用户将能够理解网站上的任何音频或视频，无论他们是否有残障。 他们可能在一个房间里，大声的孩子到处乱跑，发现很难听到他们在说什么。

误解9：我使用可访问的网站主题，所以我很好。 (Myth #9: I use an accessible website theme, so I’m good.)

I hate to break it to you, but even if you use an accessible theme, it’s not going to be 100%. It also only takes into account the structure of the site.

我不愿意将它透露给您，但是即使您使用的是可访问的主题，也不是100％。 它还仅考虑站点的结构。

It doesn’t take into account the design, the page content (text, images, audio and video) or any PDF, Word or PowerPoint files that may be available for download on the site. Those need to be accessible too.

它没有考虑设计，页面内容(文本，图像，音频和视频)或任何可在网站上下载的PDF，Word或PowerPoint文件。 这些也需要访问。

Plus, accessibility is an ongoing process. It’s definitely not “set it and forget it.” You could design an accessible site and next week your client mucks it up because they didn’t know how to make their page content accessible.

另外，可访问性是一个持续的过程。 绝对不是“设置并忘记它”。 您可以设计一个可访问的网站，下周您的客户会拒绝它，因为他们不知道如何使其页面内容可访问。

There is a lot to consider.

有很多考虑。

学到更多 (Learn More)

I really hope you want to learn more about this topic. It is so important.

我真的希望您想了解有关此主题的更多信息。 非常重要

If you are the one who introduces your client to this topic, think about how far ahead you can help them get and how they’ll appreciate you for that, for looking out for them.

如果您是向客户介绍此主题的人，请考虑可以帮助他们取得多大的进步，以及他们会如何感谢您，以帮助他们。

If you’re interested in learning more on this topic of accessibility, I have several accessibility resources.

如果您有兴趣了解有关此可访问性主题的更多信息，那么我有几种可访问性资源 。

Originally posted as a podcast and transcript at https://creative-boost.com/9-myths-about-accessibility

最初以播客和字幕形式发布在 https://creative-boost.com/9-myths-about-accessibility