Engineering inaccessible computing systems

Accessibility is usually the last feature taken into account when designing interactive systems (in case that it is considered at all) [4]. The most important barriers to accessibility are frequently embedded in the own structure of the system and cannot be removed without a painful reengineering process [1]. Too frequently designers decide to skip deep changes arguing that accessibility is expensive, time consuming, and only sporadically necessary [2]. If the objective is to produce accessible interactive systems, using design methods that take into account the accessibility from the conceptualization of the system can save time and money [5]. In this talk I will present arguments to embrace accessibility as an important feature of the design [3], illustrated with examples of good and bad practices of the design for accessibility.