# Global South Accessibility Gaps Are Infrastructure Gaps First ## Claim Where bandwidth, device capability, and assistive-technology cost are the binding constraints, accessibility guidance written for fast connections and current screen readers prescribes remedies that cannot be executed, so the first accessibility question in those contexts is infrastructural rather than semantic. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - The constraints are concrete: metered data, older Android devices, intermittent connectivity, and commercial screen readers priced beyond reach where free alternatives lag. - This does not excuse semantic failures. Correct headings and labels cost nothing in bandwidth and matter more, not less, under constraint. - What it does reorder is the *heavy* remedies — JavaScript-dependent widgets, large accessibility libraries, video-first alternatives — which can make a page less usable on the devices most affected. - Generalizes past geography to any low-resource context, including rural and low-income users inside wealthy countries. ## Evidence From a WordPress Accessibility Day 2025 session on building accessibility that works in the Global South, arguing that guidance produced in high-bandwidth contexts assumes conditions its intended beneficiaries do not have. ## Links - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Universalizing Disability Language Risks Erasing Specific Hardship]] — because extends; both warn that a universal frame can erase the conditions that determine whether a remedy works. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Format Choice Is an Accessibility Control Exercised Before Remediation]] — because applies-in; under bandwidth constraint, format choice is also a delivery-cost decision, which sharpens that note's claim. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Overlay Widgets Relocate Accessibility Risk Rather Than Reducing It]] — because evidence-for; a heavyweight overlay is worst exactly where connections are slowest and devices oldest. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Accessibility & Disability Inclusion MOC]] — because applies-in; reframes whose conditions accessibility guidance is written for. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Events/WordPress Accessibility Day 2025 MOC]] — applies-in: the WP Accessibility Day 2025 map; Ikpae's talk sits with Osei's Ghana program in the community cluster ## Tests / falsifiers - Measure task completion for the same accessible page on a throttled connection and an older device against a current one. Convergent results would weaken the claim. - Survey assistive-technology cost as a share of median income across regions and compare with adoption rates. - Check whether widely-recommended accessibility libraries measurably degrade performance on low-end hardware. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-09-11 - Next review: 2026-12-11 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Reality Check Building Accessibility That Works in the Global South]] — WordPress Accessibility Day 2025, Yigakpoa Ikpae.