Boy, do we love to complain!
I think the second we learn to speak, we start to complain about something. The weather, the food, politics, the economy and our jobs take the top of the list of things we complain about. It's like it's become inherent in our way of life to complain and this has been certainly pushed to the limits and well past them ever since we first heard that "the customer is always right!"
Well, if I'm right, then they're wrong and I will spend the rest of my day making sure they know it.
If complaints worked, we'd eventually run out of things to complain about. Come to think of it, we'd probably complain there's nothing to complain about.
But complaints rarely work! So why do we bother?
In accessibility, we complain because we want to make things better. Because we want to change things for the better.
Here are some of those common complaints.
- Accessibility takes too much time to implement.
- We don't have the budget for this extra work.
- Adding alt text to every image is so tedious.
- The contrast requirements make our brand colours look ugly.
- Captions for videos are a pain to create and sync correctly.
- I don't even understand what "semantically correct HTML" means.
But complaints won't make things better, no matter how hard you shout! The best way to make things better is to make them better. To put in the work required.
Most of the time we complain to let off steam and bond with others who share our views. Maybe we even hope that by banding together and shouting in unison change is more likely to happen.
The problem is that complaints in and by themselves do not contain a solution.
By all means, complain all you want. But don't stop there. Change how you shout to push for a solution as well.
- Accessibility takes too much time to implement. And here's how we can shorten that time.
- We don't have the budget for this extra work. By doing things this other way, we can avoid some of that cost.
- Adding alt text to every image is so tedious. Here's how we can do it easier.
- The contrast requirements make our brand colours look ugly. By applying some of these minor tweaks, we can be accessible while staying on brand.
- Captions for videos are a pain to create and sync correctly. Here are some tools that can help us in this regard.
- I don't even understand what "semantically correct HTML" means. But I know where I can find out.
Solutions are more likely to bring about change.
Unless the reason why you complain is to avoid responsibility and point to someone else. In that case, I cannot help you.