Authentication

The process of verifying a user's identity before granting access to a system, service, or protected content. Common authentication methods include passwords, PINs, biometrics, and security tokens. Authentication presents significant accessibility barriers: people with cognitive disabilities may struggle to remember passwords; people with motor impairments may have difficulty entering complex passwords quickly; and CAPTCHAs often exclude people with visual or cognitive disabilities. Accessible authentication requires extended timeouts, multiple method options, clear error messages, and alternatives to time-pressured challenges.