Over the holidays, I've been cooking more than usual.
I'm from Romania, so that makes sense. We have a culture where the table is always super full for the Christmas holidays. Whatever you think is enough isn't enough. So you buy more food, cook more meals. You're basically getting ready to feed an army.
During the year though, I eat out now and then. The food is good and I don't have to waste time preparing it or cleaning up afterwards.
But for both types of meals, you pay something. I don't want to get into how much now. I'd like to first talk about when you pay and when you enjoy.
For cooking at home, you obviously pay the price first and then enjoy the meal. But for eating out, first you eat and then you ask for the check and pay it.
That's the concept of "Buy now, Pay later."
And it's not just for eating out. The college degree you take a loan out for, the nice house you pay with a mortgage, the sports car you lease. Buy now, Pay later has become the norm. We've become addicted to getting our fill first and paying the cost later.
But the cost is undoubtedly higher if you pay it later. In terms of interest rates, leasing or just overpriced restaurant food. Buy too much stuff now you can't afford to pay later and you're in debt.
And so far, that's how we've handled technical and accessibility debt in product development as well.
We ship features fast. We launch new products. We hit deadlines. The users get their wishes right now.
Accessibility can always wait. We can test with screen readers later. We can fix the keyboard navigation in the next sprint. We can make it work for people with motor disabilities when we have time. Ship now, fix later. The thing is, we keep pushing "later" later.
And just like financial debt, accessibility debt compounds. And the interest rate on this debt is brutal. It's measured in people who can't use your product at all. People who abandon your checkout flow because they can't navigate it with a keyboard. People who give up and go to your competitor instead.
At least with a mortgage, you know what you owe. Accessibility debt is often invisible to the people who created it. Your product seems to work fine because you're testing it the way you use it. But you're not testing it with a screen reader. You're not navigating with only a keyboard. You're not experiencing it with a motor disability or colorblindness.
Some things are worth paying for upfront. Especially when you can afford them. Maybe it's time we started treating accessibility like that and paying for it upfront.
Because getting the bill later is going to be a hell of a lot more expensive than you think.