How do I convince my team that accessibility debt is worth the investment when we're already behind on delivering product features?
Lots of people see accessibility as a roadblock. So your main task is to bust through this myth.
Show your team that fixing accessibility debt now prevents way more time consuming and expensive issues later. You'll have an easier time convincing them accessibility is worth the investment.
The easiest way to do this, that I know of anyway, is to get specific with numbers. Figure out how much time you're currently losing to constantly fixing accessibility bugs and how much support time is wasted on customer tickets that come in. Once you have these numbers, you can make it about people and not compliance.
People means users. Accessibility is abstract until you show how someone with a screen reader uses your product. When developers see accessibility as solving real problems rather than ticking boxes, they get invested.
People also means your team. Their team and their nerves aren't unlimited. Make accessibility about their most precious resource: time.
And the key bit is to start small and prove value quickly. Once you've got quick wins under your belt, use it to justify bigger investments.
About the worst thing you could do is to lead with legal threats and compliance requirements. Nothing kills team buy-in faster than "we have to do this or we'll get sued." That just breeds resentment and half-arsed implementations.
You have to make your team sees accessibility as making better products, not jumping through hoops.