Join fellow like-minded product owners looking to learn and contribute to authentic conversations on accessibility and inclusive design packed into just 5 minutes a day.
In the eye of the beholder
When a car company showcases its latest model, it's the sleek look that catches our attention. We marvel at its futurist shape, the seamless door handles and the headlights that gracefully pop out of the hood. The roar of the motor coming to life gives us chills. We go "Ooooo" and "Aaaaa" at the unveiling, but we don't instantly reach out for the checkbooks. Why? Because we need to know more. How safe is it on the road? What mileage does it get? Will it have enough space in the trunk? How many does it fit? "Can I easily drive it?" comes before "Does it come in red?" Aesthetics get you through the door, but what seals the deal is if the car works for you. Now think about your website. Is it designed with the latest trends? Does it have sleek animations and all the gimmicks that you've come to expect from a modern website? Does it make you go "Ooooo" and "Aaaaa" every time you see it? And then ask yourself:
All the attractive design gimmicks are memorable. But if they lack substance and cause harm, they're just that - gimmicks. |
Ship accessible websites. Faster.
Join fellow like-minded product owners looking to learn and contribute to authentic conversations on accessibility and inclusive design packed into just 5 minutes a day.
Does this sound familiar? The meeting was scheduled for 9:00 but somehow at 9:06 Zoom still says "Waiting for host to start the meeting." When it finally starts, the organiser casually mutters "sorry, previous thing ran long" while fumbling with screen sharing. It's okay though, because they'll happily steal those minutes back by running fifteen minutes over the scheduled end time. Everyone waiting lost those first minutes. And everyone with a follow-up commitment will nervously look at the...
It's very tempting to hand over responsibility over accessibility to other people. If you're a developer, it's the designer's job. If you're the designer, the developer needs to implement accessibility. If you're the product owner, it's the tester's job to make sure everything works with assistive technology. This is easy. Because if someone else accepts responsibility, then we're off the hook. I see two problems with this: 1. Someone else must always be willing to accept the responsibility...
Accessibility. 13 letters. We thought it was such a lenghty word that we use the numeronym a11y to write it out. It has all these definitions floating around, each one just slightly different than the next. I think the reason why we can't settle on just one is simply because, like the word itself, accessibility is a loaded concept. It's just like a bulky piece of luggage you lug around and when you finally set it down on the floor and start to unpack, it'll likely fill the room. The...