The Top 3 rule means you only ever have three accessibility priorities in play.
Authentic conversations so far...
This is an archive of the email messages I sent to my daily mailing list since March 12th, 2024. Enjoy!
Severity buckets force you to be honest about accessibility impact and fix what matters most first.
Screw the backlog: The fix-on-touch approach
Jun 15th, 2026
The fix-on-touch approach means developers resolve issues in the components they're already working on.
Access Denied #102: We're building up the backlog
Jun 14th, 2026
In Issue 102 of Access Denied, Gary thinks building up the backlog is progress.
I hate backlogs
Jun 13th, 2026
Bloated backlogs hurt your product.
Five questions to help you change how your team thinks about accessibility or how they behave.
You can't do both
Jun 11th, 2026
Trying to change how your team thinks and behaves about accessibility at the same time is impossible.
Changing behaviour
Jun 10th, 2026
Changing team behaviour around accessibility means building it into the process and holding the line.
Changing thinking
Jun 9th, 2026
Changing how your team thinks about accessibility is powerful, but slow to engineer.
Two paths to change
Jun 8th, 2026
Getting a team to take accessibility seriously means making a deliberate choice between changing how people think and changing what they do.
Access Denied #101: Inclusion
Jun 7th, 2026
In Issue 101 of Access Denied, Gary talks about inclusion, but cares very little for people.
You're not doing it for them
Jun 6th, 2026
Your employer might not deserve your best work on accessibility, but the people trying to use what you build do.
A simple way to prioritise your accessibility issues
Jun 5th, 2026
Here's a dead simple method for prioritising accessibility issues with no spreadsheet and no guesswork.
Do one thing
Jun 4th, 2026
Always have one accessibility thing in motion.
You can't do everything
Jun 3rd, 2026
Stop trying to fix all of it at once.
How far into the future are you willing to look?
Jun 2nd, 2026
Accessibility is a battle against our own short-sightedness.
The thing you can't see is the first thing to go
Jun 1st, 2026
Speed gets noticed. Accessibility doesn't.
Access Denied #100: The easy ones
May 31st, 2026
In Issue 100 of Access Denied, Gary thinks the easy issues are more important for the wrong reasons.
Go beyond the easy fixes
May 30th, 2026
Fixing accessibility issues because they're easy isn't always progress.
Easy to check, hard to ignore
May 29th, 2026
Accessibility metrics that are quick to check and genuinely high impact.
Easy to measure doesn't make it important
May 28th, 2026
Measuring web accessibility is easy. Measuring it right isn't.
Unnecessary ARIA
May 27th, 2026
Bad ARIA doesn't make your site more accessible. It makes it more confusing.
The uncomfortable
May 26th, 2026
Real accessibility work lives in the awkward conversations, the pushback and the decisions that create friction.
You're here to change your mind
May 25th, 2026
The goal isn't to have all the answers but to stay open enough to change.
Access Denied #99: Your gut
May 24th, 2026
In Issue 99 of Access Denied, Gary thinks a gut feeling is enough to test for accessibility.
The hardest thing to say in accessibility
May 23rd, 2026
Saying "I don't know" feels like failure, but in accessibility it might be the most honest thing you can say.
We might not need more time
May 22nd, 2026
Most teams don't lack the time for accessibility, but rather a decision that makes it non-negotiable.
I hate being the bad news person
May 21st, 2026
Nobody wants to be the person who blocks a Friday ship. That's who I am sometimes.
The worst part of accessibility
May 20th, 2026
The worst part in working in web accessibility is being the last person in the room.
The best part of accessibility
May 19th, 2026
The best part in working in web accessibility is when nobody needs me.
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I send out short emails like these every day to help you gain a fresh perspective on accessibility and understand it without the jargon, so you can build more robust products that everyone can use, including people with disabilities.