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A Guide to Invisible Disabilities

Posted August 20, 2024

AudioEye

Posted August 20, 2024

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Not all disabilities are visible — millions of people worldwide have invisible disabilities that affect how they access and use digital content. Discover how to design for hidden disabilities and create a more accessible, inclusive browsing experience below.

Worldwide, about 1.3 billion people have at least one serious disability. Some of those disabilities are immediately apparent to others, but other disabilities are not visible. Known as invisible disabilities, these types of disabilities have a significant impact on the way people live and how they use the internet. 

Below, we’ll explain why invisible disabilities are an important part of the digital accessibility conversation. We'll also outline some of the best practices for designing content for people with visual, auditory, cognitive/neurological, and physical/motor disabilities — and how those best practices can help your business communicate more effectively with a wider range of users.

What are Invisible Disabilities?

Invisible disabilities (or hidden disabilities) are conditions that impact a person’s life without being immediately noticeable to the people around them. 

For example, if you see a person using a wheelchair, you’ll probably assume they have a motor or physical disability. If a person has an invisible disability — for instance, memory loss or chronic fatigue — you might not notice their condition right away. You may never notice the disability, even if you interact with the person regularly.

It’s important to recognize invisible disabilities aren’t “less severe" than visible disabilities or vice-versa. By definition, any disability has the potential to change how a person lives. 

Additionally, it’s important to know that invisible disabilities are quite common. According to Disabled World, about 10% of Americans have a medical condition that could be considered an invisible disability.

Unfortunately, the absence of visible symptoms often fuels misconceptions and stereotypes. Others might assume that a person with invisible disabilities is “faking it," or somehow less disabled than a person with a visible limitation. 

Those types of misconceptions can have consequences:

  • A lack of acknowledgment, support, or patience from people who are unaware of the disability. 
  • Social stigma from people who are aware of the disability.
  • Difficulty accessing support and accommodations.
  • Challenges in finding employment due to discrimination. 
  • Limited career opportunities. 

The impact can extend to online experiences. Many types of disabilities are invisible to web designers and developers.


Those content creators might mistakenly think that accessibility is all about accommodations for screen readers (software that outputs text as audio or braille) and other assistive technologies. But to be truly inclusive, content needs to provide an equivalent user experience for as many people as possible — including those with invisible disabilities.

Types of Invisible Disabilities

Visual Disabilities

Many people have vision that cannot be fully corrected with contact lenses or eyeglasses. A common example is color vision deficiency (CVD, also referred to as color blindness). Worldwide, about 300 million people have CVD, including about 8% of men. Other examples of hidden visual impairments and disabilities include low vision, blurred vision, cataracts, and glaucoma.

Auditory Disabilities

Deafness and hearing loss are considered to be invisible disabilities. Auditory disabilities or hearing impairments can affect anyone, but they’re especially common among older adults: According to the American Academy of Audiology, one in three people over age 60 have some form of hearing loss.

Cognitive/Neurological Disabilities

Cognitive and neurological disabilities may affect a person’s ability to pay attention, read, speak, communicate, or remember information. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism, learning disabilities, and epilepsy have an especially high potential to affect the way that a person reads and interacts with online content.

Physical/Motor Disabilities

This category of invisible disability includes cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and spinal cord injuries that often have visible characteristics, but that’s not always the case. 

For example, some people have trouble standing for longer periods of time; some have limited motor control or chronic illnesses that affects their mobility. Others may have difficulty with balance, coordination, or fatigue. 

Simply put: You can’t determine whether someone has a disability just by looking at them.

How to Design for Invisible Disabilities

Your website should work for all users. To accomplish that goal, you’ll need an inclusive approach. Fortunately, there’s a simple rulebook: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG is a set of standards that can be applied to both website content and mobile apps. It’s based on four principles of accessibility: Content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Those basic principles support web experiences that are intuitive and accessible for all users — including those with hidden disabilities. 

Let’s examine how following these principles can remove the barriers that impact individuals with invisible disabilities.

Silhouette of a blind man walking in a spotlight holding a cane against a red background.

Visual Disabilities

  • Make sure text maintains sufficient contrast with its background. High-contrast text is easier to read, particularly for people with low vision or color blindness.
  • Use colorblind-friendly palettes and avoid red-green color combinations. 
  • Include alternative text (also called alt text) for all non-text content. Alt text describes images and other visual elements for people who can’t perceive that content visually.
  • Test your content to make sure that it’s usable with screen readers and other assistive technologies. 
  • Use descriptive subheadings and semantic HTML to structure your website. These features make your content easier to navigate for people who use assistive technology. 
  • Write descriptive hyperlink text. This lets people know where a link will take them before they click on it, which is especially important for screen reader users.
A single ear with sound waves behind it against a red background.

Auditory Disabilities

  • Ensure videos have accurate captions and/or transcripts. 
  • Ensure audio is high-quality. Clear audio is better for everyone.
  • Give users the option to play, stop, pause, or adjust the volume of audio content. Avoid automatically playing audio. 
  • Avoid using web applications that rely solely on voice interaction. This ensures that people with speech disabilities aren’t left out.
Icon of a brain in front of numerous gear shafts against a dark red background.

Cognitive/Neurological

  • Use clear, plain language. Avoid complex sentence structures and technical jargon.
  • Keep layouts simple and consistent. This helps people navigate the website more easily and reduces confusion.
  • Use visual cues to help focus attention. This can include things like arrows, highlighting, or bold text to guide the user's eye to the most important information.
  • Minimize distractions. Avoid excessive animations, pop-ups, or auto-playing videos that can overwhelm users.
  • Use an accessible font. Choose a font that is easy to read and avoid using too many different fonts or styles. For example, there are fonts that are best for ADHD and dyslexia, improving readability for individuals with these conditions. 
  • Establish a content hierarchy. Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to organize the content and make it easier to scan.
Person in a wheelchair sitting at a desk and looking at a laptop.

Physical

  • Ensure web content is navigable via keyboard commands and shortcuts. Many people use a keyboard alone (with no mouse) to browse the internet. 
  • Utilize white space. Ensure form fields and buttons have enough inactive white space around them to give people more room to activate elements. This can be helpful for those with limited dexterity or who use assistive technologies.
  • Give users plenty of time to interact with the website. Avoid timeouts or time limits, and allow users to extend time limits when they need more time to complete tasks. 
  • Include large, clickable buttons and icons. This makes it easier for people with limited dexterity to navigate and perform actions. 
  • Minimize the number of clicks needed to complete actions. Simplifying your website’s processes can improve usability for all users, not just people with physical limitations.


It’s important to note that this isn’t a comprehensive list of all possible accommodations and improvements. You’ll need a consistent, long-term strategy for testing your content against all WCAG Level A/AA criteria

Invisible Disabilities, WCAG, and Digital Compliance

Following the practices of inclusive design isn't a nice-to-have — it's a legal obligation as well.

In the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities — visible and invisible — in places of public accommodation. According to the Justice Department, the ADA applies to websites and other online spaces. 

Failing to make your digital content accessible to individuals with disabilities can result in legal action, including lawsuits, demand letters, or fines — all of which can get expensive quickly. Additionally, a lack of accessibility can paint your organization in a negative light in the eyes of the public. They may view your brand as uncaring towards the disability community or socially irresponsible. That negative perception can permanently damage your business’s reputation, making it difficult (if not impossible) to attract and retain new and existing customers.

Luckily, WCAG’s Level A and AA requirements help improve compliance with the ADA and other non-discrimination laws, including the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the European Accessibility Act (EAA). 

The bottom line: By following WCAG’s requirements, you can fulfill your responsibility to help people access and use online content. To learn more about which WCAG success criteria you need to follow, check out our Essential WCAG Checklist for Website Accessibility. 

But while compliance is important, it’s far from the only reason to start thinking about accessibility.

The Benefits of Accessible Content

Consider this: About 26% of U.S. adults live with some type of disability. If your business ignores digital accessibility, you’re also closing the door on those people — and that’s a big audience.

The simple fact is that every business has customers with disabilities. While no website is perfectly accessible for everyone, following the accessibility standards in WCAG can help you create a more inclusive and accessible online experience. That matters to the people who use your website, and it’s an excellent way to gain a competitive edge. 

Some additional benefits of an accessible website include: 

  • More revenue opportunities, thanks to extended audience reach.
  • An improved brand reputation and more traffic through word-of-mouth. 
  • A more useful website, which leads to improvements in clickthrough rates and other key metrics. 
  • Improved search engine optimization (SEO) rankings and more organic traffic.

Create Digital Content that’s Accessible for All with AudioEye

In online spaces, all disabilities might be considered “invisible” in a sense — they’re not an obvious consideration for developers and designers. That’s a big part of the problem: If content creators don’t actively think about users and their abilities, limitations, and preferences, they can make mistakes. 

But by designing with accessibility in mind and testing content against WCAG, you can start creating stronger content. Your website can provide a more intuitive experience for those with both visible and invisible disabilities. It’s a better approach for your business and the people who support it. 

Whether you’re building a new website or improving your existing digital content, AudioEye helps you create more accessible, inclusive digital content. From our free Web Accessibility Checker, which identifies common accessibility errors to our Expert Services led by a team of experts, AudioEye has everything you need to design accessible content for all users.


Get started with a free web accessibility scan or use our Color Contrast Checker to test your site against WCAG’s color contrast requirements. And if you’re ready to build a long-term strategy, schedule a demo to see how AudioEye can help. 

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