Overcoming My Fear of Accessible Design

I avoid building web projects that require complicated accessibility work because I’m afraid I’ll do it wrong. Accessibility has always felt like a black box, with rules to follow but no obvious feedback. I’ve been scared to try because I can’t tell if I’m doing it right.

I think I can change that.

My new goal is to regularly turn on my computer’s accessibility features. I will enable my screen reader, put away my mouse, turn on voice navigation, or use Chrome Devtools to simulate color blindness.

My hope is that by eliminating the black box, I can change accessible design from a daunting task into simple problem-solving. This seems obvious when you say it out loud; I just never have. Apparently turning these things on is easy. Who knew?