Designing Your Own Accessible Life
If you’re searching for ways to better navigate your own life, using accessibility principles might be helpful—particularly if you are neurodivergent, experiencing burnout, and/or are finding the structures you exist within are not accessible.
POUR Principles
The POUR principles—which stands for Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust—are guidelines to ensure web content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, by making information available and usable across a wide range of user interfaces and assistive technologies.
In creating a life that’s uniquely accessible to you, the POUR principles of accessibility offer a structured approach to assess and adapt your environments and routines. Here's how you can apply each principle directly to your personal life, with questions to guide you:
Perceivable
Make the essential elements of your life accessible to your senses.
Question: What environments or stimuli (e.g., noise, lighting, crowds) tend to overstimulate or overwhelm me, and how can I adjust my surroundings to mitigate these effects?
Example Action: Consider labeling items in your living space for easy identification or using noise-cancelling headphones in noisy environments to make your day-to-day experience more perceivable and less overwhelming.
Operable
Ensure that the tools and systems you use in daily life align with your personal energy levels and capabilities.
Question: Which daily tasks do I find most challenging to start or complete, and what strategies or tools could make these tasks more manageable?
Example Action: Break tasks into smaller steps with clear, achievable goals. Use technology or analog tools that complement your workflow, making tasks more operable.
Understandable
Organize your life in a way that enhances predictability and comprehension.
Question: How does my current method of organization or routine enhance or hinder my understanding and predictability of daily tasks?
Example Action: Create a visual or digital planner that outlines your week with clear, color-coded activities. This can help make your schedule and tasks more understandable at a glance.
Robust
Build resilience and flexibility into your routines and tools to better withstand unpredictability.
Question: What changes or backups can I implement to ensure my daily routines and tools are adaptable to unexpected changes?
Example Action: Have a 'Plan B' for days when your primary routine isn't feasible, like a set of minimal tasks that still contribute to your goals. This makes your approach to daily life more robust, accommodating fluctuations in energy or circumstances.
Building Your Own Accommodations
Broadly speaking, accommodations are adjustments or modifications made to environments, tasks, or procedures that enable individuals to operate at their best, regardless of physical, sensory, or cognitive differences.
Your life is likely built to neurotypical specifications. You probably try to exist within the structures of capitalism and ableism. But you can provide yourself with accommodations! And they can be literally anything that will help you function better.
Here are some questions to start guiding you toward building your own accommodations:
Cognitive and Emotional Barriers
What tasks or activities trigger anxiety or procrastination, and what changes could help alleviate these feelings?
Are there mental health considerations that require specific strategies or supports to ensure I can engage effectively in work or creative pursuits?
Task and Time Management
Which tasks do I find most challenging to start or complete, and what strategies could assist in making these more manageable?
Who currently dictates my schedule, and are there opportunities to adjust this to better suit my natural rhythms and productivity cycles?
Communication and Interaction Preferences
In what ways do I prefer to communicate (e.g., written vs. verbal), and how can I incorporate these preferences more fully into my personal and professional life?
How do social interactions impact me, and what accommodations might make these experiences more comfortable or fulfilling?
Learning and Processing Information
What methods of learning and processing information work best for me, and how can I ensure these are integrated into my educational or professional development?
Are there specific formats or tools (e.g., visual aids, audio recordings) that enhance my comprehension and retention of information?
Lifestyle and Daily Routines
What aspects of my daily routine feel misaligned with my needs or desires, and what changes could create a more supportive structure?
How can I incorporate practices or rituals that bolster my well-being and productivity into my day?
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