Darice de Cuba, who is a front-end web developer that slowly lost her hearing starting at a young age:

But inclusive design is much more than structure, code and color only. Inclusive design is about the whole website as one — it’s about the complete experience of the user when they visit a website.

She related a challenge that has nothing to do with code:

I can easily make an online appointment on the municipality website for heavy trash pick up. But then I get a confirmation email from a no reply email address and the email only contains a phone number to call if something is amiss.

Then she relates how her experience is not represented even creatively on sites where it would make sense:

For example, a website that sells hearing aids. The stock images all portray older people. I was 12 years old when I got my first pair of hearing aids.

Her call-to-action:

When you are building a website, look further than structure, code, and colors. It can pass the Axe test, Lighthouse audit, Tenon.io and such with 100% marks, but still be frustrating to use for many visitors. The best test tools are people — a diverse group of people. Inclusive design is design. There doesn’t exist one single person who doesn’t profit from inclusive design.

She was nice enough to translate this post into English from Dutch for those of us, unlike her, are not multilingual. Thanks Darice.

To return the favor, I’m creating a ticket at work that will add an option to have the person contacted via text where ever possible/necessary throughout our platform experience.