Digital accessibility is a mission-critical commitment for every organization, enabling all individuals to navigate, understand, and interact with digital content, applications, and services. Yet, according to a 2022 survey, a shocking 97% of the top million home pages suffer from accessibility issues detectable with free tools. Many organizations that prioritize accessibility still grapple with genuine progress. This blog post will unravel the root causes of this common accessibility conundrum and provide actionable solutions.
Trapped in a Vicious Cycle: Understanding the Break/Fix Approach
The underlying cause of the constant accessibility struggle is the pervasive "break/fix" cycle, an approach in which accessibility issues are addressed only after they've surfaced. In this model, digital accessibility is treated as an afterthought rather than being integrated into the product development lifecycle.
Let's paint a clearer picture of this flawed but common approach: A company decides to prioritize digital accessibility following external pressures like a lawsuit or sales impact. The team requests a thorough audit of their digital property, pinpointing countless issues across the platform. Developers then embark on a race against time, trying to fix the critical bugs, leading to delayed product roadmaps and a pause on new feature releases.
Over time, as more updates that disregard accessibility are added, the platform reverts to its inaccessible state, eradicating all the hard work previously done. As a result, the organization finds itself in an incessant cycle of breaking and fixing digital experiences – a costly, time-consuming, and inefficient approach to accessibility.
How Did We End Up Here?
Most organizations don't willingly choose a flawed process. The break/fix cycle is often born out of a well-intentioned bid to solve accessibility problems quickly and cost-effectively. Many believe that tackling every bug in one go will reduce future accessibility maintenance. However, treating accessibility as a "one-and-done" project often results in higher long-term costs and recurrent issues.
The sudden, unexpected need to address accessibility can also disrupt development roadmaps and damage organizational reputations. Furthermore, few organizations can keep up with the pace of enterprise development to address every issue surfaced in an audit.
Breaking Away From the Status Quo
The current model for handling digital accessibility is reactive and expensive, placing an undue burden on developers. By waiting until a massive backlog of accessibility bugs surfaces, organizations spend considerable time and resources retroactively untangling these issues.
The break/fix cycle also inflates costs by monopolizing development hours on repeatedly fixing live digital experiences rather than innovating new features. This, combined with disrupted roadmaps and missed opportunities, creates substantial financial and reputational risks for organizations.
Moreover, the constant back-and-forth can frustrate teams and impact morale, leading some organizations to de-prioritize digital accessibility. This strategy, in turn, excludes current and potential customers, increases vulnerability to legal risk, and potentially falls short of internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.
Embracing an Agile Approach to Accessibility
As a vendor focused on accessibility, Zenyth proposes a shift from the break/fix cycle towards a more sustainable model, one aligned with the W3C accessibility maturity model. This approach requires organizations to prioritize digital accessibility throughout the entire digital experience life cycle, from design to implementation, testing, and maintenance.
Adopting an agile approach means embedding accessibility into every stage of the digital experience life cycle, constantly iterating to develop stronger and more inclusive digital properties.
In this framework, digital accessibility isn't just a developer's responsibility. It is a commitment that extends to designers, product managers, marketers, and every other team involved in the process of creating and maintaining digital experiences. By distributing ownership and fostering a culture of continual learning and improvement, organizations can maintain accessible digital experiences while keeping workflows streamlined and workloads manageable.
Breaking Free with Zenyth
At Zenyth, we provide end-to-end accessibility services to help organizations escape the break/fix cycle and foster sustainable success in digital accessibility.
Our suite of services includes automated and manual testing, monitoring, governance, and developer tools that integrate with existing QA practices. We also offer design evaluations and role-specific training, facilitating the prioritization of accessibility at every stage of the digital experience life cycle.
If you're ready to break free from the break/fix cycle and embed agile accessibility into your organization, we're here to help. Reach out to us at Zenyth for a consultation on our end-to-end accessibility services.