Accessibility Versus Accommodation

Let's get our terminology straight. We often use accommodations when we mean accessibility, and vice versa.

Accessibility

Examples from the physical environment are often used to illustrate the idea of accessibility. For example, the curb cut: It was originally meant for people using wheelchairs, but it benefits everyone—those with strollers, with carts, and on bikes and skateboards. 

Accessibility means designing websites, tools, and learning experiences in a way that allows people with disabilities to get the same information, do the same things, and use the same services as everyone else, just as easily. It means planning and using guidelines and best practices to ensure that everything is inclusive and usable for as many people as possible.

In the digital space, a good example is video captions, which were created so that people who are deaf or hard of hearing can understand spoken words in videos. They also benefit others, though, by helping them focus or watch TV in bed or at an airport. That's why it's our policy to provide captioned videos without waiting for an accommodation request.

Accessibility is proactive.

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Accommodations

Making inclusive content helps everyone, but we still can't predict each individual's needs—that's where accommodations come in. An accommodation is a specific one-time adjustment for a qualifying individual with a disability. A common example is extended time on an exam.

Accommodations are reactive.

 

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