Claire Perlman is an editor covering accessibility and aging. She manages Wirecutter’s Paid Tester Program and has used a wheelchair since age 5.
The going wisdom at Wirecutter, and many product-review sites, has historically been that we make recommendations based on what’s best for “most people.” But that, by definition, leaves out a lot of people. Those on the outer edges of the bell curve—people with disabilities, older folks, bodies that are taller, larger, smaller, or shorter—may not always see themselves or their needs represented in our advice.
And though it may seem like this position only affects a small number of people, that’s very much not the case: Almost 45 million people in the US identify as having a disability.
It’s a balance that can be difficult to get right. We know we’ll never capture every need in our product recommendations. And frankly, we as reviewers are just as constrained as shoppers by the dearth of affordable, well-made products that prioritize accessibility in the first place. But we try to make our reviews as inclusive and useful to as many people as possible.
Here’s how Wirecutter approaches accessibility.
We challenge our assumptions from the beginning
Too often, people make assumptions about who has use for a given product and who doesn’t. As a wheelchair user, I’ve heard people’s intrusive thoughts about what disabled people allegedly are and are not capable of doing: cleaning their homes, gardening, putting together IKEA furniture, having kids (or even pets), traveling. These widespread beliefs make it unnecessarily difficult for disabled and older folks to find the information they need before making a purchase.
As Wirecutter’s accessibility editor, I frequently consult with writers and editors in the early stages of reporting, whether it’s for a new guide or a new round of testing for a guide that’s been on our site for years. We brainstorm perspectives and accessibility needs that are missing from existing coverage.
We try to challenge common biases from the very beginning of writing a new review. When we’re testing, say, handheld vacuums, we look at all the standard criteria: suction power, maneuverability, performance on different surfaces. But we also want to know how it works for people who have limited strength in their hands, people who only have one hand, people who have trouble bending over. This helps ensure that when we put together our list of products to test, we’re including ones that meet those needs, even if they may not be the best vacuums overall.
This benefits everyone, not just those who identify as having a disability. We all need different things out of the items we use every day, and testing with a more diverse set of needs in mind (and a diverse pool of testers) gives us a better chance of helping a wider swath of readers.
We test with real people
A key part of our initial review process is imagining how others may use the product differently than we do. But imagination and empathy can only go so far. In addition to talking and testing with other staff members, friends, and family, we need to actually test the products with folks who are living with disabilities or bodies that aren’t otherwise sufficiently represented on our staff.
In the fall of 2023, Wirecutter launched its Paid Tester Program to address this gap. In the months prior, we’d met with senior editors about what perspectives were missing from our coverage. The themes we heard across teams, from kitchen to tech to style to sleep, were that we needed representation of all kinds of people—those who use mobility aids like walkers or wheelchairs, those who are bigger, shorter, older, low-vision or blind, and those who have limited dexterity in their hands.
Since then, we’ve hired 10 paid, part-time testers who come into our office in Long Island City, New York, once a month and test with our experts. They’ve tested more than 80 products across the categories we cover—everything from mattresses to salad spinners to yoga mats.
Their input has made us think about different needs for certain products, such as vegetable choppers; our paid testers, some with limited dexterity, had high hopes for their accessibility, but overall found them difficult or impossible to operate. And it’s even made us reconsider long-standing conclusions about products like laundry detergent pods. Although they don’t clean as well as liquid or powder detergents, our tester in a wheelchair found them much easier to use.
We’re specific about accessibility claims
Our goal isn’t to tell readers what will or won’t work for them—we have no way of knowing that. We won’t ever tell you that a product will work well for you “if you use a wheelchair” or “if you have low vision.” Needs and abilities are so diverse even among subgroups of disabilities that this kind of prescriptive advice would most often not be helpful.
Instead, we communicate our findings by describing the features we believe to be important for anyone with accessibility concerns. We describe the product, from unpackaging it to setting it up to operating it, cleaning it, and charging it, in the type of detail that’s useful from an accessibility perspective. Are the buttons raised or flush? Do you have to hold down a button to operate it? Does it require the use of two hands? Does it give both audio and visual cues?
Sharing the research and testing we’ve done in detail gives you the information you need to make the buying decision that’s best for you.
We understand there is no one-size-fits-all solution
Even if we’re executing all this perfectly, it’s impossible to recommend one thing that works for everyone. The world of needs, preferences, and abilities is just too large.
What we can do is consider readers’ needs from the very beginning, seek out accessibility-forward products during testing (even if they don’t meet all our other criteria), and work with a diverse panel of testers who can give us detailed feedback on what features are important for their needs and physical abilities. And in doing that, we can show disabled and older readers that Wirecutter is a place that serves more than just most people.
This article was edited by Amber Angelle and Jason Chen.
Meet your guide
I oversee our coverage of products for disabled and older people and their caregivers, and I work with writers and editors at Wirecutter to make sure we’re considering accessibility at every stage of the review process, from testing to finding sources to writing. I also manage our Paid Tester Program at our Long Island City, New York, office.
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