A11y is not accessible

See A11y is not accessible on mobilea11y.com

The irony of this abbreviation is that a11y isn’t accessible. Using jargon in this way can be a fail for WCAG guideline 3.1.3. Some people with disabilities… can struggle to understand non-literal language. Dyslexia can make some characters difficult to distinguish… Screen readers often won’t understand how to pronounce non-common words and abbreviations, so the pronunciation of a11y can vary.

And yet the site’s name is mobilea11y.com, curious.

Hold on.

By being less accessible, the word a11y denotes a more technical approach to accessibility, not necessarily from those who use accessibility tools, but those who create them.

That’s why I choose to use the word a11y here, and why I choose the hashtag #a11y on social media. And I’d recommend you do the same to avoid creating noise for people looking to improve their personal accessible experience.

Ah, it being jargon makes it easier to find technical resources on accessibility.

So then, why am I creating noise for people looking to improve their personal accessible experience if I stuck to #accessibility? Well:

Take a look at the Twitter hashtag for #accessibility. The top 5 tweets cover accessibility for parks, bathrooms, video games, trams, and the coliseum. All by people who are reporting their personal experiences.

In all, #accessibility is used by disabled folk to share their accessibility experiences. Of course, as useful as #a11y is for the web dev accessibility community, don’t use a11y in technical documentation of course unless you define it.

As for me, I’ve grown to like it since a11y is easier to spell than accessibility.