It can take years between the time something went wrong and the time you hear about it.
Imagine you're running an e-learning course platform. You launch a new interactive course module and it looks gorgeous. Works great with a mouse. Fails horribly for keyboard users. They're stuck on module one.
But you won't hear about it for months because these users have learned to work around the broken experience. They usually suffer in silence before someone speaks up.
And then it'll take many more months before you do something about it.
The damage compounds.
Every inaccessible feature trains users that your platform isn't for them. They stop trying new courses and soon they stop renewing their subscriptions.
By the time accessibility issues surface through complaints, lawsuits or user research, it's already too late to undo the damage. You have to fix the code. But you're not just fixing bad code. You have an even bigger task rebuilding trust. You're retrofitting entire learning paths. You're explaining to stakeholders why enrollment dropped in certain demographics.
The fix isn't just technical. In fact, it rarely is.
You need new testing protocols. Staff training. Content audits. Sometimes complete redesigns.
Smart product owners build accessibility checks into every sprint. They test with real assistive technology users early and often. They know that catching these issues in development costs hours. Catching them in production costs months.
That's months you don't have.
The art isn't noticing faster. The real art is preventing the damage before it starts compounding.