To pay for university, I worked during the summers in the U.S. on work and travel visas. Not much travel, a lot of work. The hours were usually long and the pay not that great. One of these jobs was at a McDonald's as a line cook.
McDonald's keeps things efficient. Every customer should get their order in 90 seconds or less. The way they do it is of course not by starting to grill each burger patty when an order comes in. We did it by always having patties available in case an order came in. That way, when it did, all we had to do is put the burger together. And that took less than 90 seconds.
The downside of this is what happens to the burger patties if no order comes in. Burger patties were placed in trays with timers and when the timer ran out, the rule was we had to throw away the patties.
We rarely did that.
Except when an inspection from high up was coming.
On those days, we tried to run a tight ship. Watch the expiration timers. Routinely wash hands. Routinely clean up the food line. Mop the floor. Change the fryer oil.
Because we weren't really used to doing things the right way, we frequently messed it up. Wouldn't it have been better to always act as if we had an inspection?
I've seen this with accessibility as well.
I've seen organisations scramble to make their websites accessible when they face an audit or learn that a major client requiring accessibility compliance is evaluating their product. They try to quickly implement all the proper practices. Add alt text to images. Ensure proper heading hierarchy. Fix keyboard navigation. Add ARIA labels.
With this rushed approach, it leads to mistakes. Developers who aren't used to writing accessible code make basic errors. Alt text descriptions are hastily written and unhelpful. ARIA labels are misused because the team hasn't developed the expertise that comes with consistent practice.
Food safety isn't about passing inspections. And accessibility isn't about passing audits.
You don't know who will visit your website and be stuck because it's inaccessible.
So wouldn't it be better to always act as if every single person that lands on your website has a disability?
Wouldn't it be better to build accessibility into your daily practice? To write semantic HTML by default. To add alt text to images that need it. To test with screen readers as part of your regular QA process.
You'll help your customers.
And you'll pass the audit too.