Accessibility is far broader than ARIA tags and screen reader support. It encompasses performance on low-end hardware, localization and design language differences across cultures, intuitive UI for users unfamiliar with common conventions, and avoiding resource-heavy software that penalizes users with older or cheaper devices. The author argues that developers typically bolt on accessibility as an afterthought rather than designing for it from the start, and that true accessibility requires empathy-driven design that considers the full diversity of users. Free software is called out for its own accessibility failures, attributed to laziness and building for authors rather than users, not profit motives.
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