Seek accessibility impact, not control

Attempting to bully a product team or 3rd party partner into compliance is a bad plan. That should go without saying, but apparently, I need to say it and should have been saying it earlier.

Controlling is lazy and transparent

There are multiple ways I've seen it attempted, and I can tell you it doesn't work. Here are (some of) the variations I've observed:

• I have the backing of leadership, do as I say!
• Your audit report has 1000 issues, do as I say!
• You're a vendor, so you work for us, do as I say!
• I brought our legal counsel with me, do as I say!
• I (or people on our team) have a disability, do as I say!

All of these try to create the same dynamic: the accessibility team is somehow an inflexible and unassailable entity that cannot be reasoned with.

Everyone you work with is smart enough to know it's not true.

An accessibility team with some degree of authority and passion for inclusion might mistake controlling outcomes for real impact. This might be true for a quarter, but remember:

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still. — Grandma

Helping people instead of demanding compliance is your best play, 98.8% of the time. Controlling people is a playbook for having a marginal and short-lived impact while becoming everyone's least favorite teammate.

Empowerment IS the work

Instead of enforcing strict compliance, which might not always be feasible due to complexities or constraints, focus on guiding teams to accessibility commitments and meeting targets.

Guide, don’t police

Learn when to act as a helpful advisor or coach rather than exerting control. This approach saves time and frustration, avoiding repetitive, unproductive meetings. Let leadership enforce measurable accessibility targets, as they can incentivize teams much more effectively than the accessibility team.

Ask and understand

Take the time — by asking questions you can better understand a team’s challenges and you may just make friends along the way.

This builds trust and helps identify ways to make inclusion easier, reducing friction in compliance.

Knowing the team's challenges allows you to go beyond just asking for compliance; you can focus your efforts on how you can facilitate it.

Adapt and improvise

If you don't know the the team, you can't adapt your program to their needs.

Understand the unique processes of different teams by asking about constraints like budget, talent, or deadlines. This helps in recognizing why a team may struggle with inclusion.

Engage in sprint refinements, share resources like AtomicA11y.com, and build a relationship permitting you to assist in redesign efforts early and often.

Prioritize with the team

Allow teams to prioritize their work according to their needs. Instead of setting priorities, define the severity of issues and let product teams decide what takes precedence. This collaboration strengthens relationships and builds trust.

Adapt tools to their systems

Understand and adapt to their project management processes, whether it’s agile, Kanban, Trello, or something else. Tailor your approach to fit the team’s workflow, helping them integrate accessibility without overwhelming them.

Incorporate tools like AtomicA11y.com, accessibility target dashboards and automated checkers into their workflows. Remember, using the tools (not just having them) is what matters:

 “You can't change the way people think, all you can do is give them a tool, the use of which will change their thinking." — Buckminster Fuller

Escalate surreptitiously

While there is a time to directly confront a team if they're overtly ignoring or even actively attempting to obfuscate accessibility barriers, even then it's crucial to do so with leadership's backing in advance and in a way that leaves the door open to future collaboration.

If a team resists inclusion (and some will), follow escalation procedures quietly and involve leadership to set priorities while you help guide the team to meet them. You'll be surprised how effective this routine is in portraying the accessibility team as the "heroes" here to save them from management.

This article is adapted from Impact, not control from The Book on Accessibility