In the 1960s, the standard technique for the athletics high jump was either the straddle technique or scissors jump. The scissors jump is like doing a sitting motion over the bar with legs crossing like scissors, while the straddle technique involves rolling your body parallel to the bar face-down while lifting one leg and then the other over it like you're straddling a horse.
Everyone was doing these. They were the standard.
But Dick Fosbury struggled with these techniques. He could have forced himself to work with the standard, but instead he started experimenting with his own method. Something that worked for him. That became known as the "Fosbury Flop." The method involved him turning his back to the bar and jumping backward, arching his body over the bar.
Everyone mocked his technique. But Fosbury kept refining his approach through small adjustments. He focused on improving the method and his personal best. This led him to win the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, clearing a height of 2.24 meters. Today, the Fosbury Flop is the universal standard in high jump.
Fosbury focused on making small improvements to find what worked best for him, rather than getting overwhelmed by the pressure to conform to existing standards. His success came from paying attention to incremental progress rather than trying to perfect the "correct" technique all at once.
So why am I telling you this?
In web accessibility, we're pushed to focus a lot on the standards. The WCAG is a complicated document and lots of times I've seen it create confusion, chaos and undue stress. It rarely pays off for a team to study the document and implement it all. It's a lofty sales goal without a strategy to back it up.
What I've seen work time and again is focusing on incremental improvements. It's important that you analyse your situation, clarify a strategy and come up with tactics to implement. By taking it one step at a time and setting meaningful internal goals, you can create much more accessible products.
And the best way to do this without burning out is to define success against your past self, rather than against the WCAG.