As you might have noticed, I've started covering more topics around process, metrics, governance and less about technicalities around accessibility. That's not because I don't think having the tech chops isn't important. But I don't think that's where the problems lie and also not where I think I can make the most impact.
I still care a lot about the technical side. Quite a lot actually. It's still where I work the most right now. Keyboard access matters. Screen reader output matters. Semantic HTML matters. Focus order matters. All of that still matters immensely to me.
But most accessibility problems I see don't start because someone forgot an ARIA attribute.
They start way earlier.
They start when nobody is sure who owns accessibility. They start when design decisions get handed over without enough detail. They start when QA finds problems after everyone thought the work was done. They start when teams disagree on what "ready" or "done" means.
By then, accessibility becomes rework.
And rework slows delivery.
That's the shift I'm making with this newsletter. I'm going to write more about the product habits behind accessibility problems. Things like:
- how accessibility debt shows up before anyone calls it that,
- what product leaders can measure before issues get to production,
- where ownership gets blurry between Product, Design, Engineering and QA,
- why some teams keep fixing the same kinds of issues,
- how accessibility decisions affect patient portals, booking flows and clinical workflows,
- how teams can make better decisions while the work is still happening.
I'm also creating a new free email course for digital health product leaders who want fewer late accessibility surprises, less rework and teams that know what done means.
The course looks at five places where accessibility rework usually enters delivery:
- why finished work keeps reopening,
- why your definition of done is missing accessibility,
- why shared responsibility creates unclear ownership,
- why QA keeps finding avoidable problems,
- why the same accessibility issues keep coming back.
That course is part of the same shift.
I'm also saying this plainly. I'm trying to learn more about this new market, digital health companies and the people I want to help most. That means Heads of Product and other product leaders in growing digital health organisations. The people who care about accessibility, but probably don't wake up thinking they need an accessibility consultant.
They wake up thinking about quality, delivery, risk, patient experience, team focus and all the other things competing for their attention.
I want to understand those problems better.
So, I need your help.
Who do you know that I should talk to to learn more?
It could be a Head of Product, Product Director, founder, delivery lead or anyone working on product inside a digital health company. I'm not trying to sell them anything. I just want to listen. I want to understand where accessibility creates friction, where rework shows up and where their team feels stuck.
Anywho. I'd encourage you to stick around at least for a few weeks to see where I'm going with all this. If you don't want to, no hard feelings at all! I thank you deeply about your attention for the past 2 years or so.
When is this happening? That might be useful information, right?
All this starting next week with Monday's email. See you then!