Hello! My name is David Swallow and I work for The Paciello Group, a US-based accessibility consultancy. We provide advice to companies and organisations about how to make their websites, software applications and mobile apps accessible to people with disabilities.

With input from people on this forum, I wrote some blog posts last year about features of websites that might contribute to feelings of anxiety or panic (and how we can avoid them). My aim was to provide insight and practical guidance for anyone creating websites.

Part 1: https://developer.paciellogroup.com/...orders-part-1/
Part 2: https://developer.paciellogroup.com/...orders-part-2/

The blog posts were well-received but it has recently been suggested to me that removing anxiety triggers in websites is essentially encouraging avoidance, which may worsen the anxiety long-term. Instead, it was suggested that the triggers should remain and people with anxiety should be encouraged to confront their fears.

This seems counter-intuitive to me, as surely anxiety triggers on the web don't have to exist at all? Designers and developers are responsible for shaping user experiences from scratch and should surely be looking to remove or avoid any kind of barrier rather than deliberately leaving them in?

That said, I'm no expert here, and I'd hate to be recommending actions that conflict with established medical guidance. So it would be great to get people's views on this issue. Does removing anxiety triggers on websites essentially encourage avoidance?