Now that you've assigned clear roles and responsibilities, what's next?
Without concrete targets, even the best intentions will inevitably fall into the "we'll get to it later" category. You need measurable goals to turn paying accessibility debt from an abstract ideal into tangible progress.
Numbers matter. And math doesn't lie.
"Improve accessibility" sounds good in meetings but changes nothing in the real world. Contrast that to "Fix 10 missing form labels this sprint." It's quantifiable and verifiable. If you can measure it, you can improve it.
Here's how I tell meaningless from measurable goals:
- Measurable goals create urgency. When you assign a deadline, you're more likely to get it done.
- Measurable goals show progress. If you see you fixed 7 out of 15 issues this sprint, you are encouraged to get to the remaining 8.
- Measurable goals prevent burnout. By breaking massive debt into chunks you can work through will give you more confidence you will be able to do them all.
So how can you set goals that stick? Here are my three rules, with examples.
- I start with critical wins. There's no way I can redo the entire product to reach AA accessibility. But I can work towards achieving 100% keyboard accessibility in a key user flow like the checkout by the end of the sprint.
- I make progress visible to all. How? Add accessibility metrics to sprint dashboards and celebrate with the team for every milestone.
- I tie goals to existing workflows. Every sprint can include a minimum number of overdue accessibility tickets.
Try this for your next sprint planning session.
Choose one metric. Nothing complex, even "all images have alt text" will work fine. And start tracking it. Have a way to count remaining images without an alt text and display that number for everyone to see. Let me know how that goes.
Next time, we'll tackle my favourite way to build team accountability: including accessibility in your Definition of Done.