Resistance Is Futile

By now most design teams know the European Accessibility Act exists. The fines are documented. The scope is clear. The overlay widget shortcuts have been called out as non-compliant.

What's less discussed is how accessibility ended up needing a law to get taken seriously in the first place.

In most rooms I've been in, it wasn't deprioritized. It wasn't cut from the roadmap after careful consideration. It simply wasn't on the agenda - until someone from design brought it up. Every time. Meeting after meeting, project after project, the same hand going up to add the same item that should have already been there.

That's not a compliance problem. It's a process problem.

A product team that only addresses accessibility when design raises it is one that hasn't made it structural. And anything that depends on one person's vigilance to survive a meeting isn't a practice - it's a favor.

Mature DesignOps puts accessibility into the workflow before the conversation starts. Into the component library. Into the definition of done. Into the review checklist. Not because the law requires it, though it does. Because retrofitting it after the fact costs more in time, money, and credibility than building it in ever would.

Treat it as a mandatory part of the process. Or pay the price. Literally.