An example of consequence calculus, showing stacked bar graphs weighing the potential paths towards access through consequence calculus for each tool and contextual factor. The cane has a low safety score, a high affordability score, and a low social acceptability score. the bus has a medium safety score, medium-high affordability score, and medium acceptability score. The rideshare has a high safety score, very low affordability score, and medium acceptability score. When combined, the cane emerges as the most affordable option, the rideshare is the best for safety, and the bus is the highest-scoring overall.

What Do We Mean by “Accessible”

Lots of people have ideas about what “accessible” means — but they don’t all agree. Maybe we should ask disabled people. We could also learn a lot by asking a wide variety of disabled people, including disabled people who are gender diverse, racially diverse, have multiple disabilities, and have a wide range of disabilities.

We asked 25 disabled people about what accessibility means to them. We learned that it goes beyond typical definitions of addressing an impairment of some kind. We also learned about how people decide what accessibility technologies they want to use. Many people told us that they choose from many possible approaches in each specific situation, weighing all the available options and their priorities in a so-called “consequence calculus”.

Reference: Modeling Accessibility: Characterizing What We Mean by “Accessible” Kelly Avery Mack, Jesse J Martinez, Aaleyah LewisJennifer Mankoff, James Fogarty, Leah Findlater, Heather D. Evans, Cynthia L Bennett, Emma J McDonnell. ASSETS 2025

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