There's always one. The manager who discovered accessibility exists about five minutes ago and somehow has 30 minutes of theoretical wisdom to share about it.
These accessibility philosophers love abstract discussions about "user journeys" and "inclusive design thinking." They completely avoid practical questions. They'll spend 20 minutes explaining their vision for "truly accessible experiences" without once mentioning any real user needs.
You'll know an irrelevant monologue will follow when you start to notice them going on tangents. When you ask about colour contrast ratios, they suddenly start discussing the Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect and how it invalidates all contrast algorithms.
It's all "look how clever I sound" while doing nothing to help someone fix a button that fails 4.5:1.
And the worst part is they are such nice people. They genuinely believe their theoretical knowledge is valuable.
Meanwhile, the actual accessibility expert who knows the difference between JAWS and VoiceOver sits there watching precious meeting time evaporate. . These managers mistake talking about accessibility for actually doing it. Unfortunately, no amount of passionate monologue ever made a website usable for someone with a disability.
All theory, zero practice, infinite hot air.
Here are three ways you can prevent these theoretical discussions from derailing accessibility meetings:
- Set clear boundaries. Start the meeting by stating "we need to focus on actionable decisions today" and establish a "no theory without practice" rule.
- Redirect and refocus. When they launch into theoretical tangents, interrupt politely with "let's park that bigger conversation for later and get back to the immediate question."
- Time-box. Give each agenda item strict time limits and announce them. "We have 10 minutes to decide on colour contrast that matches our branding guidelines."
My advice is to be confident enough to interrupt without sounding aggressive. These people rely on politeness paralysis. Everyone's too nice to cut them off. Break that cycle and meetings actually get somewhere.