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Real talk: What if we don't have disabled users?

2 minutes read

I got this push back a lot.

We don't have disabled users so there's no need to worry about accessibility. People with disabilities can't do the job so our product doesn't need to work with screen readers. Maybe for other industries, but not our target market.

Their target market was in healthcare. Healthcare!

I've never heard anybody say they don't care about disabled users. I guess that's frowned upon.

Instead, they hide behind other excuses.

We don't have the budget

You had budget for the office ping-pong table and casual team dinners. That new branding must have cost you a pretty penny as well.

It's not a priority

Quick translation: We don't care enough about it right now.

Our users don't care

Did you ask them? Or are you just hoping they won't sue?

Our team doesn't know how to implement accessibility

Funny how they were able to pick up React, Docker, Kubernetes and AI. But semantic HTML is just too complex for them?

We'll do it after we launch

Bold move. Kind of like saying we'll add safety features after the car crashes. Good luck with that!

Accessibility will ruin our design

If your design breaks when people can actually use it, it wasn't good design to begin with. What you had was a pretty obstacle course.

We're in startup mode

Yes, you want to disrupt and innovate. Right. Nothing says disruptive innovation like recreating the same barriers disabled people face in the physical world. Truly groundbreaking. Give yourself a round of applause!

I feel like I could go on, but I might run out of material for the Sunday jokes. Although probably not.

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I send out short emails like this every day to help you gain a fresh perspective on accessibility and understand it without the jargon, so you can build more robust products that everyone can use, including people with disabilities.

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