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As I think about it, I think part of the problem is that so many young developers with no industry experience rush to start startups. How can they not keep repe

As I think about it, I think part of the problem is that so many young developers with no industry experience rush to start startups. How can they not keep repeating the same mistakes, including no regard for accessibility? They think they're doing a good thing by avoiding all the bureaucratic bullshit and moving fast. And indeed, accessibility often falls under "compliance" at big companies, which gives it that boring, bureaucratic feel. But it matters. People can lose their jobs, or at least be severely hampered in their productivity, when it's ignored. Maybe we need to encourage young developers to spend some time at a mature software company before starting their own. Edit: I made the same mistake myself. While I was still in college, I became sole developer for a tiny company that developed software for blind people. So I was obviously hyper-aware of accessibility for that user base. But I was ignorant of other important considerations, like internationalization, security, corporate manageability (working well with Windows Group Policy and the like), and even accessibility for other disabilities.

misterhtmlcss 8y ago
I don't think that's a reasonable comment. Any business first needs to address a marketplace that's enough to sustain itself and assure it's future existence. Beer chased men because more men drank, then when more woman started to drink it they started advertising to it. While that's perhaps a different example due to one group not being actually excluded from something it shows how business behaves. Then you consider the risk of staying a startup to your future, your retirement, the funders cash/investment and honestly I'd you spent a dime on accessibility at this stage it would be reckless behavior. Now having said that, once a product mix and the positive trajectory path has been established, then I don't think it's reasonable to delay, not even to say 'wait until we are profitable', because at that point you need to start addressing access to everyone equally as part of your business and if your business cannot sustain itself being inclusive then it's best to establish that earlier than later IMO. Ps. I'm in no way poo pooing your point about the needing to be more training around accessibility, because ultimately that's part of the meat and potatoes of bring a dev. Like knowing SQL, JS, etc. All part of the basic skills we all need to survive most days at work. And accessibility is in the group. I'm only saying that a startup needs to first determine demand for it's product with the largest addressable group in it's core target audience, then branching out should immediately include accessibility IMO.

misterhtmlcss 8y ago

I don't think that's a reasonable comment. Any business first needs to address a marketplace that's enough to sustain itself and assure it's future existence. Beer chased men because more men drank, then when more woman started to drink it they started advertising to it. While that's perhaps a different example due to one group not being actually excluded from something it shows how business behaves. Then you consider the risk of staying a startup to your future, your retirement, the funders cash/investment and honestly I'd you spent a dime on accessibility at this stage it would be reckless behavior. Now having said that, once a product mix and the positive trajectory path has been established, then I don't think it's reasonable to delay, not even to say 'wait until we are profitable', because at that point you need to start addressing access to everyone equally as part of your business and if your business cannot sustain itself being inclusive then it's best to establish that earlier than later IMO. Ps. I'm in no way poo pooing your point about the needing to be more training around accessibility, because ultimately that's part of the meat and potatoes of bring a dev. Like knowing SQL, JS, etc. All part of the basic skills we all need to survive most days at work. And accessibility is in the group. I'm only saying that a startup needs to first determine demand for it's product with the largest addressable group in it's core target audience, then branching out should immediately include accessibility IMO.