What is Accessible Content?

Let’s start with what access means first.

Many people in the world can achieve some things they want to, but not all. And sometimes that is down to lack of access.
Google defines access as “the means or opportunity to enter or approach a place” but that is simplistic. To me, access also refers to permission to use a resource or take in information.

In short there are different types of access, and different needs. Sometimes it’s about being getting into a place, as the definition suggests.

As a person with learning disabilities, and neurodiverse status this is how I see access.
With access, I can reach the same goals and outcomes, as everyone else.

Wouldn’t it be perfect if everyone got the same education, jobs, housing, and community.
(Spoiler alert -if that sounds like a fantasy it is one but society could change one day. For now, the pursuit of access is a reality.)

What happens when you don’t have access? You can’t get to the same places or do the things that others can. This is the reality of life without access. To highlight this point let me tell you my own story of getting work as a disabled person.

After I graduated university, it took 6 years to get a job. To get there meant having to be put in a disabled box in the end. As someone who would much rather fit in it felt soul destroying. I had to concede it was the only way.  This disabled box though was a specialist employment agency that got me my first proper job.

Between university and getting a job I did temp work for a bit through an agency. One of the most devastating experiences was when the agency sent me to do an admin for a company. I thought I was getting everything right but half an hour later I was sent home. Can you imagine what that feels like?

So now you perhaps get a bigger picture on why access is important. Let’s move on to accessible content.