Permanent, temporary and situational everyday barriers

Infographic from Microsoft describing disability as permanent, temporary and situational. Touch showing permanent as having one arm, temporary as an arm injury and situational as new parent with child in arms. See showing permanent as blind, temporary as cataract and situational as a distracted driver. Hear showing permanent as deaf, temporary as an ear infection and situational as a bar tender in a noisy environment. Speak showing permanent as non-verbal, temporary as laryngitis and situational as heavy accent.

There is an interesting infographic by Microsoft design that categorises disabilities in a much wider way as a series of personas.

It suggests that all of us can experience being disabled in some way, due to a permanent disability, temporary disability, or by a situation.

One example on the infographic is for hearing. It shows a permanent disability as being deaf, a temporary disability as an ear infection, or situationally a bartender in a noisy environment finding it hard to hear.

An example of universal design

Using this model offers a great way to demonstrate universal design in digital content from three perspectives.

Take for example a news video online that has captions.

Situational: You are on a loud train and have forgotten your headphones. You can still watch the news video and follow it by reading the video captions
Temporary: You have just landing from a plane journey, your ears temporarily feel strange and you can't hear properly. You can still watch the news video and follow it by reading the video captions
Permanent: You may be hard of hearing or deaf. You can still watch the news video and follow it by reading the video captions

Did you know?

If it wasn’t for inventions developed for the disability community we would not have half of the useful things we have today. Visit the did you know page to find out more.