Someone asked me earlier this week what the hardest part of my job was.
I thought about it for a while. I was tempted to say quite a few things. I don't think they would have been surprised if they heard me say any of these:
- The legislation around accessibility
- The standards and understanding them
- The WCAG
- Testing with a screen reader
- Putting myself in other people's shoes
- Networking
- Being careful with the language I use
- Convincing stakeholders to allocate resources
- Keeping up with changing web technologies
- Balancing design and accessibility
- Accessibility audits
- Dealing with legacy systems
But that's not the hard part. Knowing what you need to do and how to do it - yes, it's not easy. But it's not the hard part.
The hard part is doing it every day, even when you don't feel like it.
Even when you've had enough of others pushing back. Even when you're sick of explaining the same things over and over again. Even when you feel like you're making minimal progress, if at all. Even when your recommendations are repeatedly ignored.
Even when the work feels emotionally exhausting and thankless.
Because if you wait for all the stars to line up, you've already lost.