I'm stuck between a hammer and a nail. And my fingers keep getting smashed.
When someone files an accessibility support ticket, the support team passes that request down the line. They don't know where it's going or what happens next. They just hit send and move on. That's the hammer swinging.
The product team is the nail. They're buried under roadmaps, deadlines and competing priorities. They don't see these tickets. They don't know there are customers waiting on the other side.
So I'm that thing in between. I translate what customers need. I chase down whosoever is responsible for fixing it. I explain the urgency. I follow up. I escalate. I plead. I beg.
The hammer and the nail rarely, if ever, talk to each other. The hammer doesn't know what's taking so long. The nail has no bandwidth to explain what they're working on.
And me? I'm the one caught in the middle, seeing the hammer swing and eyeing the nail out the corner of my eye not even close to where it'll fall.
It's exhausting. I keep telling myself that someone has to do it. Even if it hurts like shit.