Jesse asked on LinkedIn in response to an email I sent a while back about sitting down and doing the work instead of coming up with a plan.
How do you respond to teams that want a high-level picture of what needs to be changed to make something accessible, and ask something like "when will we be done with accessibility of this project?
This is a great question Jesse!
The short answer is that I try to steer them away from thinking about the "project" and "accessibility" as two distinct things. They'll likely never be done with accessibility on their project, because accessibility isn't a one-time fix.
But I can't tell them that.
Telling them work is never done, although obvious, will get me nowhere and I'll likely not even get a chance to get started.
Instead, I try to take charge of the conversation and see where that leads, knowing full well that it might lead to exactly what they asked for: a high level picture. Hint: it probably won't.
Here's how a conversation might unfold:
Bogdan: I understand you're looking for a high-level picture and a completion date for your website's accessibility. Before we dive into that, could you tell me a bit more about what sparked this focus on accessibility?
Client: We got some feedback from users about some things being inaccessible and we don't want to get into trouble.
Bogdan: It's good that you're taking user feedback seriously. Can you tell me more about the specific things they mentioned?
Client: Oh, it's mostly users who use screen readers and can't put things in their shopping cart. My team isn't trained to deal with accessibility so we haven't considered it yet.
Bogdan: I think it's important you're acknowledging these challenges. Given that your team hasn't focused on accessibility before, how do you think addressing these issues might impact your current development process?
Client: I think it'll slow us down. It might be worth it if it results in fewer complaints and more positive feedback. But we don't know what to do and how to approach it.
Bogdan: That's understandable. Given your current knowledge gaps, what do you think would be the most helpful first step for your team to start addressing these issues?
Client: We think we need an accessibility audit and a plan to move forward.
Bogdan: An audit can certainly be a valuable tool. I'm curious...Are there any immediate, known issues that you feel your team could start addressing right away, even before a comprehensive audit? Maybe you already identified some quick fixes for the shopping cart problems you mentioned?
Client: Yeah, we think with some guidance we can fix most of those issues. Our devs already started to look at...
And then I take them into a conversation about prioritising and planning these into a sprint, before I make sure to address their original request: the high level picture.
The idea is to try to steer the conversation from "let's make a plan" to "let's take some action while making a plan."
Why?
Because plans go out of date.
Why?
Because:
- you'll keep developing the product
- technology will change
- direction and priorities will change
- people will change jobs
But the issues you know are affecting your users with disabilities will likely be the same.
That being said, the problem I see is that lots of times teams think they first need a step-by-step detailed plan of what needs to be fixed before they can do anything. That plan becomes an absolute blocker for progress. It's better to fix some of the things you know about while you build your detailed plan.
But one doesn't exclude the other.
I hope this helps, Jesse!