I've seen product teams that focus obsessively on the WCAG and checklists. And I've seen teams that push heavily towards user testing and research. Neither extreme works well on its own.
The teams that worship the process will certainly be efficient at ticking boxes. They'll follow standards to the letter, documenting everything. In the end though, there's no guarantee. They might create technically compliant products that still frustrate actual users with disabilities.
The audit becomes the goal rather than the means.
On the flip side, those teams that reject the process entirely and focus only on the users can miss perspectives.
There's simply no such thing as a representative sample of people with disabilities.
The users who can participate in your research sessions are just the tip of the iceberg. Your product will certainly work for them, but what about everyone else you haven't tested with?
There's a sweet spot.
It's somewhere in the middle.
Sure, use processes and standards as your foundation. But bring in real users to challenge your assumptions.
Let checklists guide you, but let people complete the process.
You'll create more accessible products when you respect both the process and the people. Neither alone is sufficient, but together they create something that just might work for everyone.
Yes, the sweet spot is in the middle and that's a vague idea. But that is on purpose. That middle will likely depend on your product, your team, your customers. Your middle will be different from my middle.
We can take a look at the whole picture and decide if what we need is more process, or more people.