The Curb-Cut Effect and the Perils of Accessibility without Disability

Abstract

The Curb-Cut Effect is an oft-observed phenomenon that occurs when technology designed to dismantle barriers to the accessibility of society for disabled users affords positive benefits—positive externalities or spillovers in economic terms—for non-disabled people. The Effect’s repeated invocation over the past several decades has resulted in erasure, to varying extents, of disabled people from innovation and disability law and policy, with serious harms to disabled people and their civil and human rights to accessibility. This chapter endorses, highlights, and builds on the work of disability and design scholars who have raised concerns about the potential harms of the Curb-Cut Effect—the benefits of spillovers notwithstanding—and concludes that law and policy efforts at the intersection of disability and technology should be wary of invoking or relying on the Effect.