“Not everybody”

There’s a new article on A List Apart (yay!) and the author Alan Dalton reminds the reader once again — because this always bears reminding:

The next—and frustrating—question is, “Why do some designs still exclude people?” After all, we know that:

• not everybody can see perfectly;
• not everybody can hear perfectly;
• not everybody thinks the same way; and
• not everybody moves the same way.

All of a sudden I’m thinking that we’ve all said that for the last 20 years — well, not “all of us”, but us old grumps who’ve been around for longer than we’d care to remember.

And here’s my sudden morning though: what if we replaced “not everybody can” with “most people can’t”?

Here’s the new way we could tell projects and clients about accessibility:

• most people can’t see perfectly;
• most people can’t hear perfectly;
• most people don’t think the same way; and
• most people don’t move the same way.

Because that’s what can be observed in the real world, from my experience of meeting real-world people: most people don’t conform to an archetype.

Maybe it’s time we reversed the paradigm. I think. But you may think differently. See item 3 in list above.