📄️ Use (Assistive Technologies)
Assistive technologies are tools and devices that people with disabilities use to interact with digital and physical environments. These include screen readers, magnifiers, switch devices, Braille displays, speech recognition software, and more. When accessibility is not built into a product or service, users must rely on these tools to access information or complete tasks -- often bending them beyond their original intent.
📄️ Augment with (Third-Party Tools)
When websites, apps, or systems are not accessible by default, end-users are often forced to install or activate third-party tools to bridge the gap. These tools may be browser extensions, overlay widgets, plugins, or standalone applications that provide missing accessibility functions like keyboard navigation, text-to-speech, or visual adjustments. These tools are not native to the experience -- they are compensations layered on top.
📄️ Change (System Settings)
Changing system or device settings refers to the manual configuration of accessibility features at the operating system level -- such as increasing text contrast, enabling screen magnifiers, turning on voice control, or adjusting keyboard input settings -- to make digital content usable. End-users resort to this when a website, app, or digital product fails to support their needs by default.
📄️ Create (Workarounds)
Workarounds are user-devised or community-shared solutions that bypass inaccessible features. These may include custom scripts, browser extensions, hacks, or alternative interaction flows. Users resort to them when accessibility was not adequately addressed during development, leaving them to "patch" access themselves.
📄️ Use (Humans) for Assistance
This compensation occurs when a person with a disability must rely on another human being -- such as a friend, aide, stranger, or interpreter -- to complete a task they could have completed independently if accessibility had been ensured during design and development. This is not a request for help by choice, but a last resort in response to inaccessible systems.
📄️ Submit (Feedback) to Creators
When accessibility barriers block interaction, users may attempt to notify creators -- developers, designers, organizations -- that something is inaccessible or broken. This compensation shifts the burden to the end-user to identify issues, articulate them clearly, and hope for a response. Feedback can be submitted via email, forms, app stores, GitHub issues, or social media DMs -- any place where creators might listen.
📄️ Assert One's (Rights)
Asserting your rights means taking formal action to demand accessibility -- through legal complaints, policy escalation, or public accountability. It's a last-resort compensation when every other avenue has failed. It requires knowledge of the law, courage to speak up, and often, personal resources that many don't have.
📄️ Stage a (Protest)
Staging a protest is a last-resort form of advocacy when users -- especially disabled people -- encounter persistent, systemic inaccessibility with no recourse. Protests may be physical (sit‑ins, marches), digital (social media campaigns, hashtag storms), or symbolic (boycotts, media attention). These actions shouldn't be part of a product lifecycle -- they're triggered by continued neglect and exclusion.
📄️ Switch to an (Alternative)
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