The hard parts in accessibility aren't always the important parts. If you have the guts to dig deep and understand which is which, you're on step closer to shipping accessible websites that make a difference.
How do you tell them apart?
The hard parts are what the ones that knock the wind out of you. It's the moments where you curse your own existence and you vow to give up product development and go back to your roots and start farming. It's the problems you stare at for hours, maybe days. Where you go down rabbit holes until you're questioning every life choice that brought you to this moment.
If and when you solve them, you'll giggle with excitement. The hard parts are the ones where the solution will make your life better.
The important parts in accessibility are the problems you solve for someone else. To make their lives better.
It's when someone who's been locked out of using your product finally gets in because of something you did. Not for praise. Not because it was in scope. Not for a bottom line. Not to make your stakeholder happy. Not to get your paycheck.
But because you saw a barrier and chose to tear it down.
You're not doing it for the metrics or the bonus or the pat on the back in the team retrospectives. You're doing it for the person who just wants to fill out that form without crying.
The important parts can be hard and the hard parts can be important.
But when choosing what to do and what not to do, difficulty should play a much smaller part in your decision. If you start off and argue that the hard part is important, there's a chance you'll only work hard.
Working hard every day isn't a badge of honour. It feels...wrong. It feels like work!
Working on what's important feels different. It feels different when you know you're building something someone can and will actually use.