Last week, I talked about accessibility metrics that will give you early warnings about potential issues. I gave eight examples of good metrics to track.
What about some examples of bad metrics? Metrics that merely just confirm what you already know or that won't let you take any action to affect the outcome.
Here are 10 examples of metrics that don't tell you much. I wouldn't call them useless, but they do fall into the "don't bother" category.
- Number of accessibility-related lawsuits or legal complaints.
- Percentage of users abandoning the site due to some accessibility issues.
- Negative reviews or ratings mentioning accessibility problems.
- Time spent retrofitting accessibility into existing products.
- Decreased user engagement from people with disabilities.
- Number of accessibility issues found during a third-party audit.
- Delayed product launches due to last-minute accessibility fixes.
- Accessibility issues found during user acceptance testing.
- Decreased conversion rates for users with assistive technologies.
- Features requiring redesign due to overlooked accessibility requirements.
What do all these metrics have in common?
They reflect the consequences of poor accessibility practices rather than giving you any actionable insights for improvement. They often indicate problems that have already impacted users or the business, so they're useless for preventing issues in the first place.
These metrics encourage a reactive approach to accessibility. I argued time and again that a reactive approach is wasteful, costly and leads to team burnout.
What's the alternative?
Being proactive with accessibility. Aiming to prevent accessibility issues before they're built into the product. Only this way can you reduce the need for costly retrofitting and improving the overall user experience for everyone.