The first thing a blind user meets in your app is not your brand.
Not your color palette.
Not your animation system.
Not your typography.
They meet sound.
And inside that sound, a decision happens:
“Can I trust this product?”
I once opened an app and tapped what looked — visually — like an obvious Send icon.
My screen reader said:
“Button.”
Nothing else.
No hint of consequence.
No sense of purpose.
Just a generic control floating in uncertainty.
It didn’t feel like a bug.
It felt like someone forgot I exist.
Not cruelly.
Not intentionally.
Quietly.
And that quiet is where a lot of accessibility failures live.
The Developer Voice (We’ve All Heard It)
“It’s just an icon.”
“Everyone knows what that does.”
“The designer already made it obvious.”
“I’ll come back and label it later.”
None of these thoughts sound unreasonable.
That’s the dangerous part.