Product design processes almost always include user feedback loops, extending the users to include people with disabilities increases the bredth of feedback to make a product better.
Apple iPhone is well-known for it's ease of use and regarded as the gold standard for usability. Apple have been including feedback from people with disabilities for over a decade. They focus entire teams on developing features to make the iPhone more accessible for everyone. The result is a mainstream product that everyone can use regardless of their disability.
Products developed without considering accessibility in the design phase, cost significantly more to add later, if at all possible. It's time to change design processes and focus on accessible, universal design. The small effort up front will pay dividends later.
At first, user interface designers found that the best way to create accessible technology was to study how people with different disabilities used touch screens. For example, early researchers reported that blind users sometimes found locating small icons and specific numbers on the on-screen keypad difficult and time-consuming. To solve this, accessibility researchers used the whole touch screen as an input and navigation control, similar to a game console controller. Instead of having to touch a particular part of the screen, users can tap anywhere in response to audio prompts. These insights would have been impossible to come by without including blind people in the evaluation and design of touch screens.
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