Accessibility is just an experiment (wait, hear me out)

I think we have a philosophical problem in digital accessibility, and I'm not the only one saying it.

Seeking perfection over progress

Because so many of us come into the accessibility field as exceedingly experienced and thoughtful design or dev practitioners, we want to see the perfect ecosystem of our dreams built into the enterprise we're hired to help become inclusive.

We're burning ourselves (and our teams) out

As such, we inflict such high expectations of affecting sweeping change across roles, platforms, vendors and leadership — feeling an immense weight to become more than a change agent — rather seeking to be some kind of tech savior.

I think the "Accessibility Evangelist" label has contributed to this; and as that title falls out of favor (for good reason) I think we can consider a different label: "Accessibility Experimentalist".

What's an Accessibility Experimentalist?

It's not a job title, but it is an approach.

Researcher, analyst, detective, inspector… all related but have the wrong connotation now in tech. In 2020 HBR published this thoughtful piece, "Building a Culture of Experimentation" stating, "It takes more than good tools. It takes a complete change of attitude."

We have plenty of tools for measuring accessibility: surveys, scans, assessments, user testing. Our accessibility expert philosophy, attitude and approach are what needs adjusting.

Experimentalism is the way

Dictionary.com defines experimentalism as:

1. doctrine or practice of relying on experimentation; empiricism.
2. fondness for experimenting or innovating:

Best practices don't prove anything

So much great content has been written on accessibility best practices, but it's the rare exception that mentions the steps necessary to achieve that system —?(my own writings included).

Best practices do tell tell you what to change in a specific product, but not what to change about the team. Best practices don't tell you how to measure the results. Best practices don't tell you when to implement a training. Best practices don't tell you why to prioritize work in a specific sequence.

When I began writing The Book on Accessibility, I imagined it as a series of measurable best practice commitments an accessibility practitioner could use to outline the changes necessary in an enterprise. It lays out the "how and what" to commit to for every role.

What the book was missing was a philosophy for sequencing the implementation; essentially the "why and when".

How to become an Experimentalist

I'm trying to lead the way with a new series of guides: Turning commitment into action, playbooks for creating measurable experiments.

Each playbook has ~3 plays for conducting an accessibility experiment.

Each includes:

• Assumptions made
• Stakeholders
• Skillsets required
• What gets measured

The plays grow in complexity from a very basic play involving Product Owners, Designers and Developers as stakeholders to more institutionalized solutions requiring buy in from UX research, scrum leaders, procurement and QA testers.

Start small

The overall theme is "start simple" and "find something observable to measure."

For example, across Product, Design and Dev — the first experiment centers around accessibility annotations; a singular change fostering greater collaboration between design and development.

Why start here?

Because it's a fast experiment. The scope is quickly understandable. Training can be minimal and grow with the annotations. Success is easy to measure.

Imagine — if your teams simply started annotating heading structure and alternative text in the next sprint cycle, would you affect a measurable change in your teams outputs? Would this allow you to compare the following?

• Previously delivered code with code based on annotations
• Time spent per sprint cycle following annotations vs remediating accessibility bugs in production
• Collaboration between design and development

With that information, after just a few production cycles you'll be able to show a measurable improvement (and value) in accessibility, likely with no additional costs in development time, and a survey can demonstrate a sense of greater collaboration between designers and developers.

It's your turn

What is an experiment you've run in your "lab"? What small measurable plays have you seen make a big difference?

Looking for more insights like this? Charlie Triplett wrote The Book on Accessibility, your playbook for accessibility at enterprise (or any) scale. Get your operations manual for core program components, commitments by role, example experimental playbooks, roles and responsibilities for the accessibility team and the accessibility coach playbook.