ResourcesHow people use the web
Who web accessibility is for
Quick answer
More than 1 in 4 US adults have a disability, and the share rises with age. People with a short-term injury, or in a setting like bright sun or a loud room, run into many of the same barriers. Web accessibility is for all of them.
Facts last checked
The numbers
More than 1 in 4
US adults have a disability.
CDC, 2022 data
1 in 6
people worldwide experience significant disability. That is about 1.3 billion people.
WHO, 2023
43.9%
of US adults aged 65 and older have a disability.
CDC, 2022 data
About 29 in 100 US adults have a disability (28.7%).
About 44 in 100 US adults aged 65 and older do (43.9%).
Source: CDC, 2022 data. Rounded to whole squares.
By type of disability
CDC's survey asks adults about six types of difficulty.
- Cognition: serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions: 13.9%
- Mobility: serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs: 12.2%
- Independent living: doing errands alone: 7.7%
- Hearing: deaf, or serious difficulty hearing: 6.2%
- Vision: blind, or serious difficulty seeing: 5.5%
- Self-care: dressing or bathing: 3.6%
Source: CDC, 2022 data. A person can report more than one type, so the bars are not parts of a whole.
Permanent, temporary, situational
A limit can be lasting, short-term or tied to the moment. Microsoft's Inclusive Design toolkit calls this the Persona Spectrum.
| Ability | Permanent | Temporary | Situational |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seeing | Blind | Cataract | Distracted driver |
| Hearing | Deaf | Ear infection | Bartender |
| Touch | One arm | Arm injury | New parent |
| Speaking | Non-verbal | Laryngitis | Heavy accent |
Source: Microsoft, Inclusive 101 Guidebook, 2016
What people use
People set up their own devices to suit them. A website's job is to work with those tools.
| Tool or setting | What it does | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Screen reader | Turns what's on screen into speech or braille | People who are blind |
| Screen magnifier and zoom | Enlarges the page, or part of it | People with low vision |
| Braille display | Shows a line of braille by raising and lowering pins | People who are blind or deaf-blind |
| Captions | Show speech and other sounds as text | People who are deaf or hard of hearing |
| Keyboard only | Moves through the page with keys, with no mouse | People with physical, visual or cognitive disabilities |
| Switch | A button worked by a foot, a shoulder or a breath | People with physical disabilities |
| Voice control | Runs the computer with spoken commands | People with physical disabilities |
| Reduce motion setting | Asks websites to cut back on animation | People with motion sensitivity |
Source: W3C WAI, How People with Disabilities Use the Web; W3C, Understanding SC 2.3.3
Color and aging
The most common type of color vision deficiency makes red and green hard to tell apart. Hearing loss gets more common with age.
About 1 in 12
men have color vision deficiency.
National Eye Institute, 2025
About 1 in 200
women have the red-green type, among people with Northern European ancestry. It is less common in almost all other groups studied.
NIH MedlinePlus Genetics
- Ages 45 to 54: 5%
- Ages 55 to 64: 10%
- Ages 65 to 74: 22%
- Ages 75 and older: 55%
Source: NIDCD Quick Statistics, 2015 to 2020 data
What this means for a website
Each group needs something concrete from your site.
People who are blind
Text alternatives
Every meaningful image, button and form field needs a name in the code, so a screen reader has something to say.
People who can't use a mouse
Keyboard access
Every menu, form and button has to work with keys alone. Switches and voice control rely on the same thing.
People who are deaf or hard of hearing
Captions
Video with speech needs captions. They also help anyone in a loud room.
People with low vision or color vision deficiency
Contrast, and more than color
Text needs strong contrast with its background. Meaning can't rest on color alone, like red text to mark required fields.
People with cognitive or learning disabilities
Plain layout
Clear headings, plain words and no surprise pop-ups make a page easier to follow.
People with low vision
Room to zoom
The page has to stay usable when someone enlarges the text or zooms in.
Sources
- CDC, Disability and Health Data Now (2022 data) (2025)
- CDC, media statement on US adults with a disability (2024)
- World Health Organization, fact sheet: Disability (accessed 2026)
- CDC, Disability Impacts All of Us infographic (2022 data) (2026)
- CDC, Prevalence of Disability and Disability Types (accessed 2026)
- Microsoft Design, Inclusive 101 Guidebook (2016)
- W3C WAI, Diverse Abilities and Barriers (accessed 2026)
- W3C WAI, Tools and Techniques: Perception (accessed 2026)
- W3C WAI, Tools and Techniques: Presentation (accessed 2026)
- W3C WAI, Tools and Techniques: Input (accessed 2026)
- W3C WAI, Tools and Techniques: Navigation (accessed 2026)
- W3C WAI, Diverse Abilities and Barriers: Physical (accessed 2026)
- W3C WAI, Diverse Abilities and Barriers: Cognitive and learning (accessed 2026)
- W3C, Understanding Success Criterion 2.3.3: Animation from Interactions (accessed 2026)
- National Eye Institute, Color Blindness (2025)
- NIH National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus Genetics: Color vision deficiency (accessed 2026)
- NIDCD, Quick Statistics on hearing (2015 to 2020 data) (2024)
- US Department of Justice, Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA (2022)
We provide technical accessibility services, not legal advice.
More guides
How screen readers work
How a screen reader turns a web page into speech, how people move around with one, which ones people use, and what breaks them.
Keyboard access and focus
How people use a website with only a keyboard, what WCAG 2.2 asks for, and a quick check you can run on your own site.
Color contrast, explained
What a contrast ratio is, the ratios WCAG 2.2 asks for, and how to check and fix your own colors.
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