Bridging the Gap: How Designers Can Make Accessibility Second Nature

Accessibility is the foundation of good web design, yet even well-intentioned designers sometimes create sites that exclude users. This article explores why that happens and offers a practical solution inspired by Jakob Nielsen's usability heuristics. Below, we break down key questions and answers—including real-world stakes, cognitive overload, and a shift toward recognition over recall for designers themselves.

Why is accessibility considered a life-or-death issue?

It’s easy to dismiss accessibility as a cosmetic concern, but the consequences are serious. As Aral Balkan argues in his essay This Is All There Is, nearly every design decision can influence life events. For example, a poorly designed bus timetable app might cause someone to miss their daughter’s fifth birthday party—a missed life event. Or it could prevent a person from being at a dying grandmother’s bedside—a missed death event. These are not hypotheticals; they are real, everyday outcomes when interfaces fail to accommodate diverse abilities. Designers need to understand that their work directly affects people’s ability to participate in critical moments. Accessibility isn’t just about compliance or good PR—it’s about preserving human dignity and ensuring equal access to the moments that matter most.

If designers are good people, why do some designs still exclude?

No designer ever sets out to exclude users. In fact, most designers genuinely care about usability. Yet we still see text too small to read, buttons that are hard to tap, and confusing navigation flows. The core problem isn’t malice—it’s cognitive overload. Designers are expected to remember an enormous amount of guidance: visual design principles, coding best practices, business goals, brand guidelines, and, on top of all that, accessibility rules. With so many sources of information, it’s nearly impossible to hold everything in mind while designing. As a result, accessibility requirements often get overlooked not because they’re unimportant, but because the sheer volume of knowledge makes them hard to recall in the moment. The solution isn’t to blame designers, but to make accessibility information easier to access when it’s needed.

What is the “too much to recall” problem?

Think about the broad range of topics covered by publications like A List Apart. Designers must keep up with mobile responsiveness, typography, color theory, user research, performance optimization, and more. Adding comprehensive accessibility guidelines to that mental load often becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Our brains simply aren’t wired to store and retrieve dozens of heuristics, checklists, and best practices while also performing creative work. This “too much to recall” phenomenon means that even if a designer knows the theory, they may fail to apply it during a live project. The real challenge is not what designers know in training, but what they can actively use when facing a blank canvas or a tight deadline. The solution must address this short-term memory bottleneck.

How can Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristics help designers with accessibility?

Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics, introduced in the mid-1990s, remain a powerful tool—especially heuristic №6: Recognition rather than Recall. Originally, this heuristic suggested that users should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another; instead, the system should make that information visible or easily retrievable. We can apply the same logic to designers themselves. Instead of expecting designers to recall every accessibility guideline from memory, we can make the relevant information visible or easily retrievable during the design process. For instance, overlay a constant reminder about color contrast ratios, or embed a quick link to accessible pattern libraries right inside the design tool. By shifting from recall to recognition, we reduce mental load and enable designers to spot and fix accessibility issues as they work.

What practical resources support recognition-based accessibility?

One excellent resource is the book A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery. It provides clear, scenario-based guidance that aligns with real design tasks. Another approach is to create “just-in-time” reminders within prototyping tools—for example, plugins that check contrast ratios, keyboard navigation flow, or screen reader output. Design teams can also maintain a living style guide that includes accessibility notes next to each component. Even simple sticky notes on a whiteboard with the POUR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) can serve as a recognition trigger. The goal is to embed accessibility cues into the everyday workflow, so designers don’t have to pause and dig through long documents. When the information is right there, doing the right thing becomes second nature.

What is the key takeaway for designers?

The central insight is that accessibility failure is often a failure of recall, not intent. Designers are good people who want to include everyone, but they are overwhelmed by the amount they need to remember. By turning “recognition rather than recall” inward—applying it to the designer’s own process—we can create environments where accessibility is easily seen and applied. This means integrating checklists, overlays, and quick-reference tools into design tools and team rituals. It also means shifting the culture from blaming designers to supporting them with better systems. Accessibility becomes less about memorizing rules and more about having the right information at your fingertips. When that happens, good designers will naturally produce good websites—for everyone.