The other day I talked about the false certainty that WCAG gives you.
Today, I thought it'd be interesting to explore uncertainty.
If you're in charge of shipping an inclusive experience as a product owner, you run the danger of falling into the trap of waiting for certainty before taking any action. You become engaged in a never-ending game of "What If" where any hint of uncertainty becomes a convenient excuse to maintain the status quo.
Imagine flipping a coin. It's a 50% chance you'll get tails. I wouldn't take that bet.
Now have a look at the 2024 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages. The number of distinct accessibility errors on homepages hasn't changed much since last year. It hasn't changed that much for the past five years actually.
So there's a good bet that next year won't be that much different. More or less the same errors show up across all five years. Probably next year will be the same. It's a good bet to make if you're thinking of fixing those errors on your own website.
Here's the thing.
Demanding absolute certainty when faced with decisions about accessibility sets up the perfect storm for doing nothing. Because the only thing you can be certain of is yesterday and how you can change today. But not tomorrow. Never tomorrow.
Yes, you can make bets and try do decrease risk.
Yes, you might hit some bumps along the road. Some bets might not pay off. That's ok. Stay the course, because most bets will. And that's a risk worth taking.
Just don't flip a coin.