Product Momentum Podcast 123 / Essential Lessons in Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design, with Dave Dame
“I have Cerebral Palsy,” says Dave Dame, Senior Director of Product Accessibility for Windows at Microsoft®. “But my money doesn’t. So if you want my money, you better build a product or a service I can use, or I’m going to spend my disposable income somewhere else.”
Imagine hearing that from the estimated 2 billion individuals worldwide who identify as having a disability. Not to mention those have a disability but don’t identify as such.“ So that’s 2 billion minimally that we know of,” Dave adds.
The fact is, he continues, we’re all going to be disabled someday. “It’s just that some of us beat you to it. So when we design products for someone like me today, we’re also designing for everyone else in the future. So why not get ahead?”
In today’s conversation with Paul Gebel and co-host Emma Rizzo, a UX Writer and Content Strategist at ITX, Dave explains that we’ve all needed accessibility features – and will need them again in the future – whether our disabilities are permanent, temporary, or situational.
Accessibility features allow those of us in the disabled community to do things they were never able to do before, Dave says. They can be innovative, and frankly, life changing. And for everyone else who is not yet disabled, these features open more options for use and often allow product people to discover the routes with the fewest pain points.
All this can be intimidating to consider. Dave Dame offers the following advice: “Don’t worry about saying the wrong thing; worry about saying nothing.” As product people, we are bound to make mistakes, that is when the learning occurs.
Interested in more on the subject of inclusive design and digital accessibility? Check out the following content from Product Momentum and ITX:
A 3-part blog series, authored by Susana Pallero, ITX Accessibility Consultant and a CPACC-certified Accessibility Solutions Specialist.
- Digital Accessibility: Making the Case to Protect a Human Right
- The Business Case for Accessible Design
- Accessible Design Inspires Innovation for All
Product Momentum’s conversation with Sheri Byrne-Haber.
Q&A with Antonella Iselli, a Senior UX Designer at ITX.
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