Organisations fund stories, not problems and some work will never have a good enough story.
Authentic conversations so far...
This is an archive of the email messages I sent to my daily mailing list since March 12th, 2024. Enjoy!
Accessibility debt doesn't come from nowhere.
Innovation and risk
Jun 25th, 2026
Many business conversations sound like innovation, but they are really about risk.
Saying no
Jun 24th, 2026
How to refuse accessibility work that delays the user fix without sounding like you are dismissing it.
Cut the scope
Jun 23rd, 2026
Smaller scope helps you protect the user outcome and ship useful fixes faster.
Accessibility needs an end
Jun 22nd, 2026
Accessibility work gets sharper when you define the outcome, target date and what stays out of scope.
Access Denied #103: Check back in a month
Jun 21st, 2026
In Issue 103, Gary insists the backlog is the best way to fix accessibility.
Screw the backlog: User journeys
Jun 20th, 2026
Most accessibility approaches fix issues. Journey ownership fixes experiences.
Screw the backlog: Disability sprints
Jun 19th, 2026
Disability-led sprints are built on what users experience rather than what you think matters.
Screw the backlog: Fix or schedule
Jun 18th, 2026
When you find an accessibility issue, you either fix it now or give it a real date.
Screw the backlog: The top three
Jun 17th, 2026
The Top 3 rule means you only ever have three accessibility priorities in play.
Screw the backlog: Buckets-based triage
Jun 16th, 2026
Severity buckets force you to be honest about accessibility impact and fix what matters most first.
Screw the backlog: The fix-on-touch approach
Jun 15th, 2026
The fix-on-touch approach means developers resolve issues in the components they're already working on.
Access Denied #102: We're building up the backlog
Jun 14th, 2026
In Issue 102 of Access Denied, Gary thinks building up the backlog is progress.
I hate backlogs
Jun 13th, 2026
Bloated backlogs hurt your product.
Five questions to help you change how your team thinks about accessibility or how they behave.
You can't do both
Jun 11th, 2026
Trying to change how your team thinks and behaves about accessibility at the same time is impossible.
Changing behaviour
Jun 10th, 2026
Changing team behaviour around accessibility means building it into the process and holding the line.
Changing thinking
Jun 9th, 2026
Changing how your team thinks about accessibility is powerful, but slow to engineer.
Two paths to change
Jun 8th, 2026
Getting a team to take accessibility seriously means making a deliberate choice between changing how people think and changing what they do.
Access Denied #101: Inclusion
Jun 7th, 2026
In Issue 101 of Access Denied, Gary talks about inclusion, but cares very little for people.
You're not doing it for them
Jun 6th, 2026
Your employer might not deserve your best work on accessibility, but the people trying to use what you build do.
A simple way to prioritise your accessibility issues
Jun 5th, 2026
Here's a dead simple method for prioritising accessibility issues with no spreadsheet and no guesswork.
Do one thing
Jun 4th, 2026
Always have one accessibility thing in motion.
You can't do everything
Jun 3rd, 2026
Stop trying to fix all of it at once.
How far into the future are you willing to look?
Jun 2nd, 2026
Accessibility is a battle against our own short-sightedness.
The thing you can't see is the first thing to go
Jun 1st, 2026
Speed gets noticed. Accessibility doesn't.
Access Denied #100: The easy ones
May 31st, 2026
In Issue 100 of Access Denied, Gary thinks the easy issues are more important for the wrong reasons.
Go beyond the easy fixes
May 30th, 2026
Fixing accessibility issues because they're easy isn't always progress.
Easy to check, hard to ignore
May 29th, 2026
Accessibility metrics that are quick to check and genuinely high impact.
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I send out short emails like these every day to help you gain a fresh perspective on accessibility and understand it without the jargon, so you can build more robust products that everyone can use, including people with disabilities.