I've spent years pretending to know things I didn't know.
I realised this the other day in a meeting when someone asked if some widget will work with screen reader. And I went hmm instead of no idea.
The irony isn't lost on me either.
Accessibility is literally about admitting you don't know about other people's experiences. I am not my user.
Experts are the worst offenders. The more you know, the harder it gets to say you don't know. If you're an expert, people expect you to know things. And after a while, you start expecting it of yourself too. You stop leaving room for uncertainty. Expertise, left unchecked, closes doors.
"I don't know" is generous because it keeps those doors open.
Why then is it so hard to say that we don't know? I propose a little experiment. Say it out loud right now.
I don't know.
Feels weird, right?
I think that weirdness is fear. It's the fear that not knowing makes you somehow less. Less, I don't know, less credible, less useful, less worth listening to.
And nobody wants that.