Accessibility (a11y)
Accessibility (often shortened to a11y) means designing a product so people with disabilities can use it — including those who rely on screen readers, keyboards, captions, or high contrast. Accessible design widens who can use your product and often makes it clearer for everyone.
Why does accessibility matter when hiring a studio?
Accessibility widens your audience and reduces legal and reputational risk. It also tends to make products clearer for everyone — good contrast, keyboard support, and readable structure help all users, not only those with disabilities. Retrofitting it later is far harder than building it in.
At Nabee, accessible practices are part of how screens are designed and built, because the same team handles both. Considering keyboard use, contrast, and screen-reader structure during design is much cheaper than bolting them on after launch.
A concrete example
My Permit Pass supports five languages so more learners can prepare in the language they think in. Inclusive thinking like that — meeting people where they are — is the same instinct behind accessibility: build so more people can genuinely use the product. Broadening who can succeed with a product is a design decision, not an afterthought.
What does accessible design actually involve?
In practice it means readable text and sufficient color contrast, controls that work with a keyboard as well as a mouse, images that carry text descriptions for screen readers, and a page structure that assistive technology can follow. None of these are exotic; they are ordinary decisions made with more people in mind. Because the same team designs and builds at Nabee, those choices are made as the screens are drawn, when they cost almost nothing, instead of being discovered as expensive fixes after launch.
Related terms
Common questions
- Is accessibility legally required?
- In many contexts accessibility carries legal obligations, and expectations are rising. Building it in early is the safest and cheapest approach.
- Does accessibility make a product uglier?
- No. Accessible design — good contrast, clear structure, keyboard support — usually improves clarity for everyone, not just users with disabilities.
- Is accessibility expensive to add?
- It is far cheaper when built in from the start than retrofitted later, which is why Nabee considers it during design and build.