Accessibility

Accessibility is the degree to which a product or system can be used by people with the widest range of characteristics and capabilities — including disabilities — to achieve a specified goal in a specified context of use. It’s a quality attribute, and ISO/IEC 25010 classes it as a sub-characteristic of usability.

Accessibility work typically targets specific categories of barrier: visual (contrast, screen-reader compatibility), motor (keyboard-only operation, tap-target sizing), auditory (captions, transcripts), and cognitive (plain language, predictable navigation). Standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) translate the general principle into testable criteria for particular technologies.

References

• ISO/IEC (2023). ISO/IEC 25010:2023 — Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) — Quality model.