I got this question earlier this month. I'm paraphrasing a little bit for clarity, but it goes a bit like this: We think it'd be better to start working with accessibility a bit early in the process next time. Wouldn't that save some work later on? How early is early enough? First off, yeah, it warms my heart when I hear stuff like this coming completely unprompted. So how early is early enough to start thinking about accessibility in the software development lifecyecle (SDLC)? Follow the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
If you've never had a headache so bad you needed bigger text or you've never watched a video on mute in a waiting room, of course you're going to think accessibility is about disabilities. But accessibility isn't about disabilities. It never was. This idea that it's a niche concern for a minority of "people with disabilities" is one of the most damaging myths in design history. To be honest, I have no idea if subtitles weren't built for the deaf. But I know it would have taken me longer than...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
We've covered a lot of ground. Time. Money. Responsibility. Authority. Priorities. Relevance. Six objections, six different ways of saying the same thing. Not yet, not us and certainly not now. I'll be honest with you. I didn't always know how to have these conversations. For a long time I got it wrong. I probably still do a lot of the time and I have to stop myself. I'd walk into a meeting armed with statistics and moral arguments and a genuine belief that if I just explained it clearly...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Of everything we've talked about so far, this frustrates me the most. I've heard quite a few variations. They say their users don't have "special needs," whatever that means, or they're too small to even consider accessibility. I've even heard the young and tech-savvy audience argument. These all boil down to the fact that they don't think they have users with disabilities. And since they consider accessibility as only dealing with users with disabilities, they don't think accessibility is...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Once I've deflected most other objections, I usually end up face to face with someone with enough seniority to set priorities. Authority or responsibility are objections that come from people who can't make the call. This one though comes from people who can. The founder or the chief product officer. It's someone who controls the product strategy and is telling me to my face that accessibility isn't part of it. When I hear this, I know they're not deflecting. It's their decision and it's hard...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Sarah: None of these personas have a disability. Gary: Really? We have 20 in total. What about Tyler? Sarah: Tyler forages for mushrooms on weekends. Gary: Priya? Sarah: Priya ferments her own hot sauce. Gary: Derek? Sarah: He hand-grinds his coffee at 5am "for the ritual." Gary: Impressive. Sarah: What's impressive is the level of the detail that's completely useless. Gary: Wait! Marcus. He occasionally uses dark mode. Sarah: That's not a disability. Gary: It's a start.
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Responsibility is about who owns accessibility. Authority is about power to approve the work. Of all the objections in this series, authority is the hardest to push back on. Not because it's the most valid, but because it's the most polite. It sounds professional, like someone who knows their place and respects it. So they just say: "It's not my call." They might genuinely not have the final say. But that's different from having no say at all. Responsibility and authority can look identical....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Of all the objections I've heard, responsibility might the most slippery. It feels like cheating. Time and money are at least honest. Someone's telling you directly that they're not willing to commit. But responsibility is different. They won't say no to your face. It doesn't even sound like an objection. It sounds like a process. "That goes through the dev team." "It gets picked up in QA." "We have a workflow for that." It sounds like someone's handling it, just not them. So who is handling...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The money objection lands a bit differently than the time objection. Time is personal. Time is finite and you can never get it back once you've spent it. Money on the other hand is political. It's not finite. And, most importantly, you can make more of it. I never talk to someone who spends their own money on accessibility. So they have no reason to really be protective of their wallet. Which begs the question, what are they protecting? My guess is they don't want to look like they're making...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read