Core Principles
The principles of accessible Bitcoin design are founded on the recognition that designing for edge cases often creates more robust systems for everyone.
From Accommodation to Innovation
Accessibility in Bitcoin design isn’t just about adding features for a small minority. It’s about leveraging diverse human experiences to create more robust, usable systems for everyone.
WCAG POUR Principles
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 establishes four essential principles that form the foundation of accessible design, known as POUR:
Perceivable
Users must be able to perceive all information and interface elements through at least one of their senses. This means providing text alternatives for non-text content, captions for audio, and ensuring content can be presented in different ways without losing meaning or structure.
Operable
All interface components and navigation must be operable by all users, regardless of how they interact with technology. This includes ensuring keyboard accessibility, giving users sufficient time to read and use content, avoiding designs that could cause negative physical reactions, and providing clear wayfinding throughout the interface.
Understandable
Information and interface operation must be understandable to all users. Content should be readable, interfaces should work in predictable ways, and systems should help users avoid and correct mistakes (especially important in Bitcoin applications where errors can have significant consequences).
Robust
Content must be robust enough to be reliably interpreted by a wide range of user agents and assistive technologies, both current and future. This requires clean code that follows standards and is compatible with evolving tools and technologies.
These principles align well with Bitcoin design needs - creating interfaces that all users can perceive, operate, understand, and access using diverse tools.
Security Through Accessibility
In Bitcoin applications, poor usability isn’t just inconvenient - it’s dangerous. When we design for users at the margins:
- We reduce the likelihood of catastrophic errors
- We make security features more understandable and therefore more effective
- We create resilient systems that work across diverse contexts
Design Philosophy Shift
| Traditional Approach | Edge-Driven Approach |
|---|---|
| Design for the “average user” | Recognize there is no average user |
| Add accessibility features later | Start with the most constrained use cases |
| Security over usability | Security through usability |
| “Edge cases” as exceptions | “Edge cases” as insights |
“Solve for one. Extend to many.”