Sneak accessibility
I’m increasingly of the belief that the most effective way to fix accessibility issues in the sites and apps that we build is just do it.
Don’t ask. Don’t have a lengthy discussion about it and ask the client or PM how they want to proceed or “if they want to fix it.”
Just fix it.
Can’t fix it with the current design? Change the design. Need a different interaction pattern? Do it.
Just. Fix. It.
Ask forgiveness, not permission, and all that. An electrician isn’t going to ask you if you want your wiring done to code or the install that may catch fire and burn the building down is “good enough.” They’re just going to do it the correct way.
Be a craftsperson. Do your craft.
In my experience, people are a lot more agreeable to accessibility-related changes when they can actually experience them live in a browser.
There’s this nefarious thing that happens a lot where a client or project manager will say some shit like, “we don’t have a lot of disabled users, so this isn’t really a priority.”
This is dumb for a bunch of reasons, including…
- You can’t actually tell which visitors are disabled and which ones aren’t.
- If your site sucks to use for people with disabilities, of course those people won’t use it. You’re actively harming your own traffic.
- You’re literally saying you don’t give a shit about disabled people. Insert Michael Jordan meme here.
There are exceptions to sneak accessibility, of course.
I’ve worked with teams where people genuinely care and simply don’t have the depth or breadth of knowledge on certain aspects of accessibility yet. In that case, pointing out issues, talking through how to fix them, and educating folks is both good and important.
But if you’re experiencing resistance? Just do it.