I went to the dentist today. I have to go twice a year for my checkup and cleaning and I must say I'm not terribly excited about these visits.
The dentist's office recently moved right across town, in a new development area. I found the area easy enough, but finding the entrance to the office was anything but. I circled the building a few times, looking for a sign, any sign, pointing to the dentist. I checked Maps and sure enough, I was in the right spot.
But no door! This being a new building, still under construction, no one thought to put a big sign anywhere that says "Dentist this way, you idiot!"
And that's how I felt. Like an idiot after surely having passed the door a few times. But I wasn't an idiot. The door was badly designed.
Bad design is what loads of people have to experience every single day on the web. Buttons without accessible names. Forms controls with no labels. Images with poorly written alternative text, if it even is written.
And when I show up to talk about it in a design review, I get push-back. Listen, I'm not there to school you. I'm not the hall monitor.
If you can't understand that the responsibility isn't on users with disabilities to navigate broken shit and then politely explain why it's broken, far be it from me to fix your ignorance.
I'm happy to help. I'm good at that.
But if the starting point is "convince us this matters," I'm out the door.