I frequently see the word “help” used in accessibility, and I don’t like it. This is certainly a personal gripe, but I want to share my thinking behind avoiding it.

First, where there is “help”, there is “helplessness”. Using the word “help” in the accessibility context implies that disabled people need help from (usually non-disabled) people to accomplish things. While that is sometimes the case, often the same people who “help” are the ones that create accessibility barriers in the first place. You don’t help if you drag a wheelchair and its user up a staircase that you built instead of an elevator. That’s not helping. It’s damage limitation at best. It sounds like we’re doing charity work, but we’re providing concrete technical (and design, and structural) feedback that has societal impact.

Second, typically it is imprecise. Sure, adding an alternative text to an image “helps” screen reader users in the sense that it’s finally accessible. (See point 1.) But I sometimes see sentences like, “Adding an alternative text helps screen readers to convey the image content to their users.”

To me that feels like, “The screen reader would figure it out eventually. It just needs a little help from us!” This is, of course, not what happens. If there is no information, the screen reader cannot convey it.

I often use “enable” or “ensure” instead of the squishy “help” where I can. “Adding alternative text ensures that the content of the image is conveyed to screen reader users.” Or: “Formatting the bold text as headings instead enables users to navigate between headings and use them as reference points for orientation.”