Digital Accessibility is hard. Do it anyway.

1. THE FIRST RULE of Accessible Design is ALWAYS TALK ABOUT ACCESSIBLE DESIGN.
2. The second rule of Accessible Design is ALWAYS TALK ABOUT ACCESSIBLE DESIGN.
3. The third rule of Accessible Design is DON'T TAP OUT.

Trying to implement accessibility into digital content is a hell of a task, especially when you forgot to include it in the original design. The laws that govern it? Broad. The standards? Confusing at best. Learning what works and what doesn't takes time, effort, and a lot of hit or miss. Nobody literally tells you, "This is the way you have to do it," but they will tell you, "Well, that isn't accessible."

As unhelpful as that feedback is, keep going.

Learning takes time, effort, and a lot of hit or miss. Keep going.

Every graphic designer wants visually appealing, even edgy content. UX designers wants to be edgy in navigation. But don't be so edgy you forget those who:

• have trouble seeing the design, or cannot see any of it
• cannot use a mouse
• are confused by over-crowded pages
• might be over-stimmed by auto-play audio
• cannot hear your audio

Digital Accessibility covers those with visual, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments. So you have to learn this very confusing set of rules, implement these rules in images, text and code – and you don't have a clue where to start.

I say, start with empathy. The biggest impact you'll feel is try using a screenreader. (Mac has one native to its OS, you just have to activate it; alternatively, you can download NVDA, a freeware screenreader.)

Start with empathy. Try a screenreader.

Cover your screen and only do keyboard navigation with a screenreader. That will give you an idea of how someone who uses this type of assistive technology will experience a website. Note the people who use screenreaders go beyond those who have visually impairments; some fully sighted people with cognitive and motor impairments prefer to use it.

So yes, it's difficult. Do it anyway. It takes time to learn these things. Do it anyway.

The payoff? Better designs, and more marketable skills.

The payoff is you will have tighter, more deliberate designs from the start, and you will have new skills that are portable to any design job. If you excel, you may just be the next hot thing.

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Christine is a Sr Content Developer at the Center for Applied Learning Science at WGU Labs. She is a Digital Accessibility Ambassador, and follows Rules 1, 2, and 3 to the point where everyone sees her coming and starts talking about accessibility.