Assistive technology

Get familiar with the basic ways people use assistive technology.

Some assistive technologies are likely only going to be used by people with specific, long-term disabilities. These include screen readers, switch devices, screen magnifiers, and others. Other kinds of assistive technologies may be more familiar to you and include voice control on your cell phone, ergonomic keyboards, or a browser’s native zoom function. People have different skill levels in how they use these technologies.
Take an Accessibility 101 class, such as Udacity’s Web Accessibility class, to get a baseline knowledge of accessibility.
Learn how to navigate a webpage using only your keyboard and learn how to use a screen reader, such as VoiceOver on your Mac so you can spot check new features when necessary. This can help you understand the technology itself, but keep in mind that folks who use it every day will often have their own strategies for using these tools.
Observe people using assistive technology (AT) on your product or others. In some cases you may be able to find videos demonstrating how people use different strategies to interact with digital products.