Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
Change their mindset. Small businesses that are “we need compliance” thinking will never be able to afford to be compliant.
Instead what I like to do is to slowly guide them the realisation that a11y is the path to profits (size of the market, spending power etc. Are the tools at your disposal here).
It takes some effort, but once they realise that full buy-in and “a11y first” thinking benefits the business your whole approach can change and it becomes affordable.
They focus on long term improvement plans, rather than a VPAT and minimal fixes. They change their development and procurement processes to build a11y in from day 1 and so it adds very little cost.
These are all achievable for a small business, making sure that everything they do going forward is accessible and that they have a plan to slowly fix old mistakes does not add an undue burden. In fact, if you can help them shout about their improvements (without it being virtue signalling) and their commitment to improvement it will add to their bottom line and be a major differentiator for them.
So to answer the question, sadly there are no cheap fixes in the short term I am afraid. But if you can get long term buy-in then it is no longer a cost, it is a growth strategy and your job becomes 100 times easier (you are advising on a11y before they take action, so you can find accessible libraries, components etc. early and save tech debt (a11y debt) being a barrier.
Hope that helps a little, not sure if it made sense as it is hard to write long comments on my phone! ❤️
P.s. thanks for the shout out / for tagging me in Abbey ❤️
Change their mindset. Small businesses that are “we need compliance” thinking will never be able to afford to be compliant.
Instead what I like to do is to slowly guide them the realisation that a11y is the path to profits (size of the market, spending power etc. Are the tools at your disposal here).
It takes some effort, but once they realise that full buy-in and “a11y first” thinking benefits the business your whole approach can change and it becomes affordable.
They focus on long term improvement plans, rather than a VPAT and minimal fixes. They change their development and procurement processes to build a11y in from day 1 and so it adds very little cost.
These are all achievable for a small business, making sure that everything they do going forward is accessible and that they have a plan to slowly fix old mistakes does not add an undue burden. In fact, if you can help them shout about their improvements (without it being virtue signalling) and their commitment to improvement it will add to their bottom line and be a major differentiator for them.
So to answer the question, sadly there are no cheap fixes in the short term I am afraid. But if you can get long term buy-in then it is no longer a cost, it is a growth strategy and your job becomes 100 times easier (you are advising on a11y before they take action, so you can find accessible libraries, components etc. early and save tech debt (a11y debt) being a barrier.
Hope that helps a little, not sure if it made sense as it is hard to write long comments on my phone! ❤️
P.s. thanks for the shout out / for tagging me in Abbey ❤️
Excellent answer, especially on mobile!
😅 Not gonna lie - I was like "I just develop. My company has whole departments for this. Who do I know who is brave enough to do this on their own?"