Regaining your accessibility spark

All jobs have up and down cycles. Try these steps to get back on the upswing when you are on a down cycle in your accessibility journey.

Authors note: Because of Medium’s refusal to address its accessibility issues for both authors and readers, I’ve moved my last three years of blogs to Substack. Please sign up there for notices of all new articles. Thank you for your continued readership and support.

It is inevitable that somewhere along an accessibility journey, accessibility professionals hit walls. They run out of steam. They go to that well of energy one more time only to bring up an empty bucket. When (not if) this happens to you, all of the suggestions below have helped me get back on a positive track without becoming toxically positive.

Remind yourself why you do the work

Stop looking at only the trees, and focus for a little while on the forest. This bug, those negative test results, that cross-functional business struggle — that’s the stuff that gets us down. Those events are all accessibility “trees.” It is easy as an accessibility professional to allow your focus to be pulled to the immediate crisis du jour. Let’s face it; there are usually plenty of crises to chose from when you are an accessibility professional.

Everyone has a “why” for being in the field of accessibility.

• It is rare for anyone to end up in an accessibility career accidentally.
• Accessibility training needs to be sought out. It is rarely a topic you get exposed to in the average CS, business, or design degree.

Remember your why. When you get frustrated or lose your way, go back to it. Your feelings about your accessibility work might change over time, but your “Why” very rarely will.

Alt: trees in a forest, some of them green, many of them with changed colors

Think about how far you/your program has come.

Celebrate the small victories in addition to the large ones. This is another variation of forest/trees — if you think of…