My accessibility committment

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Photo from Design102

I spent my summer doing work in preparation for the ncurrently still active but could be shelved) 2026 digital accessibility deadlines. It was a good reminder of why digital accessibility must be a core concern for communicators. We have been wrong in ignoring that. We have assumed “hey, it works for me” and “our followers will say if there is a problem,” and, therefore, we allowed accessibility concerns to be pushed to our mythical “I’ll do that when I have time” list.

This must stop—not because of legal mandates or fear of reputational harm. This must stop because we are not communicating when we knowingly ignore well-documented barriers that are entirely fixable.

Indeed, it is true that we will not be able to fix every accessibility concern immediately. Frustratingly, accessibility will not be a one-time fix. We will also make mistakes and, at times, it may feel like our best efforts will never be good enough.

That is a responsibility we took on when we decided to call ourselves “communicators.”

What I have done

I have always tried to keep accessibility in mind when working on website content. In particular, I have done the actions I know, such as using headers, descriptive links, and adding alt text to my images.

I have been reluctant to post an accessibility commitment due to fear I’d be told those efforts are insufficient. I told myself I needed to learn more about WCAG standards and how to test the template I’ve selected. I was worried that any statement I made would simply be virtue signaling—in reality or appearance. So I kept putting it off, but that stops now.

My commitment

Rather than trying to write a perfect statement or test for 100% compliance, I will make a simple commitment. It is nothing more than what I have already said here: It is my intention for my website and content to be accessible, and I commit to prioritizing that going forward.

I am not an accessibility expert, and I know I will miss things due to my skills and privilege. This is no different than me being a generalist who sometimes designs documents, despite not being a graphic designer. I strongly support hiring experts rather than having me do half measures, and I say they get to charge us whatever they think is appropriate.

I commit to including accessibility in my ongoing learning. And, most importantly, I commit to listening and acting when concerns are raised, rather than second-guessing their priority or demanding workarounds.