Real talk: We'll get there eventually

2 minutes read

I’m sick of hearing "we’ll get there eventually."

I won't even get into the fact that they don't even know where "there" is!

Accessibility isn't some optional feature you can cram in later. It's this damn attitude why you're already behind. Not because it's expensive or time-consuming. It was cheaper yesterday and it'll be more expensive to fix tomorrow.

Cost and time are the reason I've seen product owners often not prioritise accessibility. To them, it's extra cost and effort with no immediate ROI. They believe users won't notice the difference, so they focus on features that will bring in more traffic and revenue. Or at least, traffic and revenue they can measure.

But the truth is, accessible design benefits everyone. Users with disabilities and those without alike. It's not something you can track either because you can't attribute it directly. That's the sad part.

The annoying part is that because of it we're ignoring accessibility. Because it's easier to push the responsibility off onto someone else and delay it until "later."

It's a cop-out, plain and simple.

We're not just talking about some abstract timeline here. We're talking about real people who rely on accessible design every day. These aren't hypothetical users either. They are your customers, your community and sometimes even yourself in different circumstances.

Isn't it time we stopped pretending that accessibility is optional or a future priority?

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