Accessibility: The “Everyone” Kind of Problem.

From Issue 005 of the Thought Bloom newsletter

I remember learning about a phenomenon known as the “Curb-Cut Effect” on this 99PI podcast some time ago. The Curb-Cut Effect, for those who are unfamiliar:

“is the phenomenon of disability-friendly features being used and appreciated by a larger group than the people they were designed for” (Wikipedia)

The 99PI episode explains what a curb-cut is (the ramp on a sidewalk at an intersection that you walk/roll up or down when crossing a street), and retells the story of an activist named Ed Roberts who fought for these curb-cuts, and the general rights of other disabled people, in Berkley California during the 1960s.

Today we take these sidewalk features for granted, mostly because they are so ubiquitous. It’s a feature designed to help the disabled but works as a feature that benefits everyone. This is the case with a number of accessibility-designed features.

Recently, closed captioning has been elevated to Curb-Cut Effect status.

Closed captioning (or subtitles) is a feature built into digital video players that allows the auditory-impaired audience to read the audible dialogue/narration of a video. Younger generations have embraced this feature because of its…