You contracted an outside agency to do an accessibility audit. You talked to them about your product, why you want an audit and they told you they can get it done quickly. In a few weeks, they'll deliver their extremely detailed report that will cover everything in a few hundred pages. You can't wait to see the result and share it with your team. Then, they'll be able to understand not only what the problems are, but how to solve them as well.
You're in meetings all day long and, at the end of the day, feel like you've been productive and successfully carried the torch for accessibility. You've made great arguments to convince stakeholders to prioritise accessibility next sprint and everyone nodded in agreement. The meeting ended on a high note of excitement. Ah, what a great day this was!
You're always paying attention in your company chat to the ongoing discussions. You jump at the opportunity to clarify what accessibility means, what alt text to add to images or how to test with a screen reader. After all, raising awareness is done one chat at a time, one person at a time. You're in it for the long haul and you're quite happy you've managed to pitch in to one conversation today.
It will feel like you've won many battles.
But unless you ship, you'll have lost the war.
Forget what experts tell you are best practices. Forget the internet telling you to start with an accessibility audit, or to convince your stakeholders because that's half the battle, or to create friendships and network to raise awareness.
Just. Get. Shit. Done.
Because unless you ship an accessible product, the people you're trying to help won't benefit at all. No one will be able to appreciate all those days spent reading audits, the countless meetings or you raising awareness with your team.
Why?
Because after all the auditing, and the meetings, and the awareness raising, they still can't use your site!