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Small actions and master plans

2 minutes read

You've read more than once in my emails that it's more important to start than to get bogged down by having a master plan to solve accessibility. And I stand by that.

That being said, if you want to have a long-lasting change, you need to implement a systemic change in your team. Small changes here and there won't do. A systemic change in your organisation will survive and spread across teams and people. People change jobs, technologies change, frameworks change. And they do that at a pace we can't keep up with. A system change is the only one that survives all these changes. And for that, you need a plan.

The thing is, if you want to eat healthier, don't bother locking your processed foods in a drawer out of easy reach. Get rid of it completely from your kitchen and in doing so you get rid of the temptation altogether.

If you want a more accessible product, don't bother with an accessibility statement saying how hard you're trying. Instead, spend the time, effort and resources to educate your team, raise awareness organisation-wide and implement accessibility checks from the planning all the way to the deployment stages of your development process.

For that, yes, you need a plan.

But don't use the plan as an excuse to deny access to your product for people who need it.

Here's why I stand by my statement that a small action beats a master plan.

If you want to go to the gym, making a plan for how many times to go, what to do there and what equipment you need is not going to get you out the door tomorrow.

What will get you out the door is if you lay out your gym bag, clothes and shoes the evening before so that's one less excuse standing between you and the gym. Small actions beat master plans.

Did you enjoy this bite-sized message?

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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