Designing For Accessibility

🌳 Inclusive Design Patterns For 2025 (Google Doc + Videos) (https://lnkd.in/eb9ZW8xs), a free 3.5h-online workshop recording on design patterns for more inclusive and accessible UX — with all video recordings, slides and examples in one single place. Feel free to share with your friends and colleagues — no strings attached! Google Doc (slides, videos, links): https://lnkd.in/eb9ZW8xs All slides (PDF): https://lnkd.in/eVsF8Mvk Full 3.5h-video recording: https://lnkd.in/eFg-Bx46 Key takeaways: 1. Companies often see accessibility as an “external edge case”. 2. They don’t realize that we all rely on accessibility all the time. 3. Eyeglasses are assistive technology, so are subtitles and zoom. 4. People are never “edge cases” and “average” users don’t exist. 5. Exceptions will occur eventually, it’s just a matter of time. 6. Accessibility is a reliable way to ensure design resilience. 7. Every person is unique, their experience is on a spectrum. 8. Accessibility overlays are a band-aid that rarely improve UX. 9. You can’t build empathy with facts, charts or legal concerns. 10. Nothing is more impactful that seeing real customers struggling. UX guidelines: 1. Blue is the safest hue for users to perceive color as you do. 2. Respect physics: map scrolling behavior to your animations. 3. Ask for consent before presenting “parallax” features. 4. For animated storytelling, add “skip to end” shortcut. 5. Drag-and-drop needs UI controls to drag with keyboard only. 6. Avoid newsletter pop-ups, feature newsletter areas instead. 7. Support spaces and copy/paste when typing into form fields. 8. Avoid complex pass requirements → suggest 2FA/passkeys. 9. Avoid superscript, use same letter size instead (1st, 2nd). 10. Rephrase fractions for understanding: 14.3% → 1 in 7 people. 11. Avoid time countdowns, time outs, sense of urgency. 12. Remind people of key events, unfinished drafts. 13. Show recent files, recently used filters/presets. 14. Guide user’s attention with Layer-Cake pattern, not F-pattern. 15. X icon is remarkably confusing, name it explicitly (Discard/Save). 16. Avoid pre-selected radio-buttons or add "None of the above". 17. Don’t assume that every deaf person can lip read well. 18. With children apps, you’re always designing for parents, too. 19. Parents value reviews from teachers, parents, doctors. 20. For teenagers, default search engine is YouTube, not Google. 21. Show sources/data: it’s difficult for teens to judge credibility. Recorded by yours truly with the wonderful UX community yesterday. And a huge THANK YOU to everybody sharing their work and their findings and insights for all of us to use. 🙏🏼 🙏🏾 🙏🏾 #ux #design #accessibility

For most disabled people, disability isn’t the barrier – inaccessibility is. Too often, people assume that a disabled person’s condition is what disables them. But, whilst for a few disabled people it is, for most it’s the environment, systems, and attitudes that create the real barriers. A wheelchair user isn’t stopped from entering a building because they use a wheelchair – they’re stopped because there’s no ramp or lift. A deaf or neurodivergent person isn’t unable to engage with a video because they’re deaf – they’re excluded because there are no captions. A blind person isn’t unable to read a menu because they’re blind – they’re excluded because there’s no large print or accessible format available. Barriers are what disable most people, not impairments. If we want to build a truly inclusive society, we need to stop focusing on “fixing” disabled people and start fixing the barriers that exclude them. ID: A purple Robbie Crow infographic titled “Someone’s medical condition doesn’t stop them being able to…” followed by six illustrated panels, each highlighting a barrier that prevents access: 1. Access a building – Shows a wheelchair user in front of stairs. The text states, “A lack of a ramp or lift does.” 2. Watch online videos – Displays a smartphone with a play button. The text states, “No subtitles or captions does.” 3. Search the internet – Features an angry face in front of a laptop. The text states, “An inaccessible website does.” 4. View the choices in a restaurant – Shows a confused person standing next to a menu board. The text states, “A lack of a large print menu does.” 5. Participate fully in a meeting – Displays a circular meeting icon with question marks. The text states, “No agenda does.” 6. Communicate in a first language – Shows two people signing in British Sign Language. The text states, “A lack of a BSL interpreter does.” At the bottom of the image, bold text states: “Barriers are what disable most people, not impairments.” In the bottom right corner, there is a QR code and my name. #DisabilityInclusion #Disability #DisabilityEmployment #Adjustments #DiversityAndInclusion #Content

This isn’t a luxury. This is a $200 wheelchair redefining what’s possible. For millions, standing wheelchairs have always been out of reach. Until now. At R2D2, IIT Madras, a team dared to ask: What if mobility wasn’t a privilege, but a right? Their answer is a simple innovation -no Big Tech: A wheelchair that lets you stand—on your terms Ingenious gas-spring technology for seamless movement: -Supports up to 242 pounds -Priced at $200 (when others cost $2,000 or more) But the true breakthrough isn’t just in the engineering. It’s in the lives transformed. → Physical freedom is restored. Stand tall when you choose. Reach the top shelf. Cook your own meals. Keep your body strong and active. → Health is protected. Standing improves circulation. Strengthens bones. Prevents pressure sores. Aids digestion. Reduces heart risks. → Social inclusion becomes reality. Converse at eye level. Join meetings—no barriers. Participate fully in community life. Experience true belonging. Ask yourself: When was the last time you had to look up just to be heard? For millions, that’s every day. This isn’t only about standing. It’s about dignity. It’s about independence. It’s about living fully. And for the first time, it’s within reach for those who need it most. When innovation meets accessibility, lives change. This is technology for humanity. Follow me, Dr. Martha Boeckenfeld for more stories of tech that matters. ♻️ Share with your network to learn more about how simple innovation can change people's live. #TechForGood #Innovation #Healthcare

The Coming Explosion of “Golden Girls Housing” Remember The Golden Girls—four older women famously sharing a Miami home? That sitcom setup isn’t just TV fiction anymore—it’s increasingly a savvy real-life model. Since 2006, the number of Americans over 65 sharing housing with unrelated roommates has grown 88%, from about 470,000 to 1 million. Driven by rising retirement costs (11 million older households—up from 8.8 million in 2011—spend at least 30% of their income on housing), shared housing is a smart way for older people, especially women, to regain autonomy while staying economically afloat. Given nearly 70% of single Americans over 50 are women, it’s not a surprise that older women are choosing to live together. In fact, half of women 65 and older are single.  But it’s more than savings. Loneliness is real—one in three adults over 45 reports feeling isolated—and shared living can reduce that in a big way. Senior cohousing communities cut isolation rates from 25% to less than 10% by rebooting everyday social life—shared meals, mutual care, and built-in support systems. From chopped housing bills to warm companionship (and a growing need for non-acute caretaking as we age), Golden Girls–style living answers both pocketbook and soul needs. It’s not nostalgia—it’s becoming a modern model for aging vibrantly, together.  And, this recent New York Times’ article, 11 Women, 9 Dogs, Not Much Drama (and No Guys) (https://nyti.ms/4oS3FQ5), captures the zeitgeist of this new housing movement. The article, which profiles a Texan tiny-house village (called The Bird’s Nest) of women ages 60-80, starts with these two sentences: “These retired women in Texas have been through infertility, illness, layoffs, addiction and disappointing marriages. Now they are trying to create a utopia just for themselves.” Later in the article, the journalist explains why she researched this story: “I traveled to The Bird’s Nest in mid-July because I had been searching for real-life examples of a fantasy I have had since my 20s. After child-rearing and a career, my friends and I would buy a big house somewhere affordable and cohabitate the way we had done in college: cooking and laughing and hanging out, chipping in for accessibility ramps and health-help as needed. This fantasy, or versions of it — aging among female friends — is rampant among the women I know. It circulates on Facebook groups.” As some of you know, my MEA cofounder Jeff Hamaoui developed Baja Sage (with me as the other investor), 26 homes around a regenerative farm just a mile from the MEA Mexican beachfront campus. We’re intending to do the same in Santa Fe with possibly a series of regenerative communities (not retirement communities) in the area. Stay tuned for more info on our Golden Girls homes which are more likely to be 4- and 5-bedroom homes than tiny houses. No doubt, there’s a growing need for this kind of housing. 

The new era for foreign aid is here - whether we like it or not - for governments, for humanitarians delivering aid, and for people in need. To maintain progress with fewer resources, the aid system must prioritise its work where it is most needed and can be most impactful.    This requires new thinking on where aid is spent, what it is spent on, how it is delivered, and how it is funded.   The IRC’s newest report, “A New Era for Aid,” lays out a roadmap for initial steps by: 1. 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐭-𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: The IRC has identified 13 countries most at risk from the fallout of aid cuts, based on levels of humanitarian need, pre-existing reliance on US aid, exposure to debt distress, and vulnerability to conflict and climate shocks. 2. 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: With fewer resources, support to proven, cost-effective interventions across sectors will be key. 3. 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭—𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝: Prioritising the impact of aid means delivering not where it is easiest, but where it is hardest - reaching communities often overlooked but most in need. 4. 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬: Local aid responders play a critical and effective role in humanitarian response and recovery, more targeted and tailored to the needs of affected communities, and often cheaper. 5. 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠: With ODA projected to shrink by 20% in 2025, donors should ensure that aid is spent in ways that bring the greatest possible benefits to those impacted by crises. Read more in our report below and on Rescue.org: https://lnkd.in/ejB8n2wQ

🚫 I know this post won’t be popular. But it needs to be said. You’ve probably seen dynamic Hormozi-style captions. Those fast-moving, flashy, high-energy subtitles influencers swear by. They’re everywhere. And yes, they drive views. But what gets attention isn’t always what serves the audience. Here’s the problem. They're not accessible. Let's break it down: - Non-standard colors make text hard to read and cause eye strain. - One or two words at a time are too fast for many viewers. - Motion effects like seesawing cause nausea and distraction. - Karaoke-style pacing forces viewers to follow a rhythm they didn’t choose. - Emphasized words in different colors dilute the message. - ALL hurt readability. Isn’t the message the most important thing? Let the video and its content be the star. If creators want pizzazz, they can add flashy text outside the captions. That’s why I advocate for closed captions. The kind that lets viewers control their captioning preferences. Captioning best practices are simple: * Plain sans-serif font. * Off-white text on off-black background. * Sentence case. * No motion. I know it’s hard to convince creators to change. Influencers are showing them the money. But accessibility isn’t optional. It’s essential. I’ve seen how inaccessible captions can shut people out of the conversation. That's not okay. I’ve worked with creators and audiences who rely on captions. This isn’t theoretical. It’s real. I made a short video to show the difference. Watch it and tell me: Are we prioritizing style over substance? What do you think? Can accessibility and engagement coexist? Reach out if you want help making your content more inclusive. I consult with creators, marketers, and teams who care about accessibility and impact. 🔔 Tap profile bell (You may need to do it again. LinkedIn reset it.) 👉 Follow #MerylMots for past posts #UX #Communication Video description: Identical side-by-side talking head videos of Meryl. Left has boring captions. Right has different dynamic caption styles.

Some technologies don’t just solve problems — they give people their independence back. I rediscovered Liftware, and I was genuinely moved by what it can do. It looks simple: a smart handle connected to everyday utensils. But inside, it’s a powerful piece of engineering designed for people with hand tremors (Parkinson’s, essential tremor, and more). Here’s how it works: 🔹 Sensors detect tiny hand movements in real time 🔹 Micro-motors instantly counteract the tremor 🔹 The spoon or fork stays stable — even if the hand doesn’t The result? Up to 70% less shaking. And for many people, that means eating soup again… without help. This is technology at its best: invisible, intelligent, and deeply human. 💡 My take Most people don’t know this, but Liftware was developed by a small startup before being acquired by Google’s life sciences division (now Verily). What makes it remarkable is the engineering challenge: the device doesn’t try to stop the tremor — it predicts and cancels it. It’s basically a tiny real-time AI system… hidden inside a spoon. This is the future I love: not just smarter devices, but more compassionate ones. If you’ve seen other innovations that genuinely improve people’s lives, I’d love to discover them. What’s one piece of tech-for-good that inspired you recently? #techforgood #innovation #technology #healthtech #accessibility #assistivetechnology #futureofhealth #inclusiveDesign #AI #impact

Did you know there’s a font designed just for accessibility? Meet Atkinson Hyperlegible, it was created by the Braille Institute of America to help people with low vision read more easily. It’s not a braille font (doesn’t include raised dots), but a print typeface. It even won the Fast Company Innovation Design Award in 2019! Molly Burke recently worked with her publisher to use the font for her memoir, Unseen. What makes it different? ⤵️ Hyperlegible exaggerates letter shapes so you can tell the difference between the letter “o” and the number zero (0), capital “i” vs. lowercase “l”, and the capital letter “b” vs. the number “8”. Other design features include: - Big open shapes - Clear spaces inside letters (known as open counters) - Distinct forms for commonly confused characters But who benefits? People who are blind or low vision, and people with dyslexia or visual processing differences. Clearer text equals easier reading! And the best part? It’s totally free 🎉 You can download it via Google Fonts or from the Braille Institute website. It also happens to be the same font this graphic post is written in. Accessibility isn’t always about doing more. It’s about doing things so that everyone benefits! This font is a small design choice with a big impact. Next time you design something: Try Atkinson Hyperlegible. Because readability is inclusion. Did you know about this font?  Share your thoughts or tag a designer friend in the comments! 👇 Image Description: Document with 9 slides. Each slide has a lime green border. The Blindish Latina logo with bold graphic black outline of an eye is at bottom of all slides. There is a white background behind all of the text on all slides. The text is in black and some emphasized phrases are purple. On the bottom of slides 1 and 7 is an image of Catarina, a light-skinned, Latiné woman with medium length wavy brown hair. She’s wearing a black jumpsuit with a V neck and her hands are on her hips. Slide 1 is the title slide that reads: “Did you know there’s a font designed just for accessibility?” On slide 1 there is clip art of a book with a red cover and a brain inside a light bulb. Slide 2 has clip art of an award ribbon. Slide 3 has a screenshot of advocate & content creator Molly Burke speaking at an event from one of her TikTok videos inside the outline of an iPhone. Slide 5 has a dark purple check mark inside a circle. Slide 6 has clip art of a computer outline in black with a wrench and gear in the center. All text on the slides is in the caption and alt text. #Disability #Accessibility #UniversalDesign

India has 150 million+ people above the age 60 and there is a massive opportunity to keep them healthy & fit. But everyone’s focused on Gen Z and no one’s building for their parents. It’s a hard business but a big one. We’ve invested in two companies. Here’s why it’s tough and how one should crack it. Understand the reality first. 1. Elders don’t think of “health” as proactive. They’re conditioned to wait until something breaks before acting. You’re selling a solution to a problem they don’t know they have yet. 2. The 65-year-old needs it but their 35-year-old child pays for it. You're not selling to the elder. You’re selling to their guilt-driven kids in Gurgaon or US. The buyer ≠ the user. 3. Trust is everything and you don’t have it. Indian elders trust: Their doctor, astrologer & their neighbour Not apps. Not tech bros. Not AI. You can't growth hack trust. You earn it slowly, locally. 4. They don’t want new habits. They’ve had the same breakfast for 40 years. You’re not selling a product. You’re undoing decades of routine. 5. Distribution is hyperlocal. Elders don’t click Insta ads. They talk to the uncle in their colony. You scale building by building not by user cohorts. Yes, 150M+ elders. But it’s not one market. It’s a thousand tiny tribes. Different languages, cultures, food habits, family structures, and tech comfort levels. If it were easy, Tata or Reliance would’ve done it already. But it’s wide open now. The one who combines tech + trust + real care will win. So how do you crack it? 1. Think first principles & not trends Don’t build a “senior fitness app.” Ask: Why did they stop moving? What gives them joy? You’re selling independence, not health. 2. Design for peace, not features. One-click help, One daily routine, One trusted face. Great elder products feel like human care not software. 3. Human-first, tech-enable. Don’t replace the daughter. Support her. Train 100 amazing elder coaches. Build tools to help them scale. 4. Don't focus on CAC. Here, it’s about trust per acquisition. You’re not selling toothpaste. You’re asking to be let into their daily life. Start offline. Build trust then tech. 5. You’re in the business of habit change & not selling an app or a pill. Get them to walk 15 minutes a day. Add protein to breakfast. Laugh more. Sleep better. Small wins compound. Don’t build for scale first. Build for consistency. Be in the business of habit change. 6. This isn’t a hackable D2C play. It’s a decade-long trust business. Build for one community. Get to know 100 elders by name. Solve deep, boring problems with elegance. Everyone’s chasing the next billion youth users. But the hidden opportunity lies in serving the first 150 million elders. The elder care market in India isn’t just underserved. It’s misunderstood and needs long-term play. Founders who crack this will build generational companies.

A 35B language model. Running on an iPhone. Peak memory: 1–2.5 GB. No cloud. No remote server. No desktop GPU. Today we open-sourced Edge0 — a framework for running large AI models fully on-device. This is not a demo of a heavily cut-down model. It is a way to keep a large model intact while shrinking the working set that actually lives in memory. The full weights can stay on storage. Only the parameters needed for the current step enter RAM. 1. First release includes: - Runtime and inference code: https://lnkd.in/gsC_BYpx - 8B model: https://lnkd.in/gFcHPiMb - 35B model: https://lnkd.in/gYVmKwrS Built for phones, laptops, PCs, and robots. Fast. Private. Fully local. 2. Why this matters For years, a 35B-class model almost always meant the cloud — or a machine with a large GPU. On-device AI was reserved for much smaller models. Edge0 attacks a different problem: not “how do we make the model smaller,” but “how do we keep the active memory small.” The result is a large model with a small working set. 3. How a 35B model fits in 1–2.5 GB In simple terms: The full model stays in storage. Only the parameters needed for the current step are loaded into memory. The next parameters are prepared while the current step is running. Memory is reused instead of loading the entire model at once. Under the hood, Edge0 is an open-source streaming MoE inference framework for devices with tight memory budgets. - SSD expert offload MoE expert weights are memory-mapped on SSD and streamed on demand. Hot experts stay cached in memory. Long-tail experts are prefetched layer by layer. - Prerouter routing prediction Edge0 predicts the next token’s expert routes one step ahead, overlapping SSD reads with the current forward pass. - Parallel LoRA LoRA adapters are applied at runtime rather than merged. One read-only base model can serve multiple adapter sets. Put simply: the full model lives on storage; only the weights needed for each step are in active memory. 4. Who it’s for Private assistants. Offline agents. On-device robotics. Any product that cannot send user data to the cloud. If you work on edge inference, MoE systems, or local-first AI, the repo and models are public. Clone it, run it, break it, and send the issue. On-device large models should not stay in the demo stage. #OnDeviceAI #EdgeAI #MoE #OpenSource #LLM #Privacy #Edge0