How can you possibly celebrate accessibility work when leadership is asking why you're not shipping faster? You've got Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to hit and a roadmap that's already behind.
But wait!
I bet your OKRs probably include things like user satisfaction, conversion rates and reducing support tickets, right?
Accessibility directly impacts all of those.
When your checkout form works with a keyboard, you're helping everyone who finds a mouse annoying, everyone working on a laptop trackpad and all the power users that rely on keyboards. It's not just users with a disability.
What about when someone voluntarily adds alt text? Why care? Care because they did. They're preventing bug tickets. That is hitting your OKRs.
Maybe you understand me wrong. Celebrating doesn't mean throwing a party.
Just a quick "nice work on those focus styles" during standup. You're highlighting accessible work in sprint reviews. It takes a few seconds and it creates a signal for what good looks like.
The problem is, if you only celebrate shipping fast, you get fast shipping. When you celebrate shipping things that work for everyone, you get quality.
You might think you're choosing between speed and accessibility. But you're not. You're choosing between shipping fast now and fixing it later or building it right the first time.
Which one do you think will help you hit those OKRs?