Accessibility Starts with Leadership (Not Your Dev Team)

The moment hits every tech leader eventually. Maybe it’s when your competitor’s accessible checkout converts 15% better than yours. Or when a major prospect asks about your VPAT and you realize you have no idea what that means. Or when you discover that none of your user personas include the 25% of adults who have disabilities.

Whatever the trigger, there’s a moment when you realize accessibility isn’t just another item in your backlog. It’s a fundamental product decision that affects who can use what you build.

You can’t delegate your way to inclusive products. This choice starts with you.

You can’t delegate your way to inclusive products. This choice starts with you.

The Compliance Trap

Most tech leaders treat accessibility like a QA checklist. “Just make sure we pass the audit” becomes the entire strategy. Legal forwards some WCAG guidelines, engineering adds it to the technical debt pile, and accessibility gets filed under “we’ll address this later.”

This approach misses the real opportunity.

I’ve worked with dozens of teams, and the difference between companies that succeed with accessibility and those that struggle isn’t about technical skills. It’s about how leadership sees the problem. Leaders who treat accessibility as something to retrofit are always playing catch-up. The ones who see it as a product advantage build better software from the start.

The shift is simple: instead of asking “How do we avoid getting sued?” start asking “How do we build better products for everyone?”

What Accessibility Leadership Actually Looks Like

Real accessibility leadership isn’t about memorizing ARIA labels or color contrast ratios. It’s the same strategic thinking you use for any product decision.

Set the vision

You decide that your software should work for all users, not just the majority. When you define what “good” looks like for your product, accessibility is part of that definition from day one.

Allocate resources

You build accessibility into sprint planning and roadmaps, not as an afterthought. Just like you budget time for security or performance, you plan for inclusive design.

Invest in your team

Most designers and developers didn’t learn accessibility in school because it wasn’t taught. That’s not their fault, but it’s your opportunity to help them grow.

Integrate processes

Accessibility becomes part of design reviews, user testing, and release criteria. You don’t ship features without considering how they work for users with disabilities, just like you wouldn’t ship without testing mobile responsiveness.

Track progress

You measure accessibility like any other product metric. You set targets and hold your team accountable for inclusive outcomes.

This isn’t about adding bureaucracy. It’s about making accessibility visible and valued.

Why This Matters for Your Business

Here’s what gets lost in compliance conversations: accessibility is about reaching more users and building better products.

When your product excludes people with disabilities, you’re missing 25% of your potential users.

Market reality

One in four adults has a disability. When your product excludes people with disabilities, you’re missing 25% of your potential users. That’s not a niche market—it’s a significant chunk of people who could be using your product.

Better UX for everyone

Accessible design often improves usability across the board. Clear navigation helps all users find what they need. Good color contrast makes interfaces easier to read in bright sunlight. Keyboard shortcuts are essential for users with motor disabilities and helpful for power users.

Legal landscape

Accessibility laws are expanding globally. It’s easier to build compliance in than retrofit it later.

Competitive advantage

While others scramble to add accessibility after the fact, you’re building it in from the start. Your products work better, reach more users, and meet compliance requirements without the last-minute panic.

Teams that prioritize accessibility early capture users others miss and build loyalty while competitors play catch-up.

The Cost of Waiting

Every sprint you wait, you’re building features some users can’t access.

“We’ll tackle this next quarter” sounds reasonable until you think about what it actually means: you’re excluding real users today.

Every sprint you wait, you’re building features some users can’t access. Every product decision made without accessibility creates technical debt that’s more expensive to fix later. Retrofitting is always harder and costlier than building it right the first time.

Your accessible competitors aren’t waiting. They’re building relationships with users who have disabilities, establishing themselves as inclusive brands, and capturing market share.

Here’s the thing: if inclusive design isn’t worth prioritizing now, when will it be? After a lawsuit? After losing a major contract? After your biggest competitor launches an accessible version of your core feature?

How to Start (Even If You’re Behind)

You can start making progress right now, even if accessibility feels overwhelming.

Get the full picture first

Run an honest assessment of your current product. This doesn’t have to be a formal audit. Basic testing with keyboard navigation and screen readers will reveal critical issues.

Break it into manageable pieces

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Test one user flow, fix what you find, then move to the next. This keeps findings relevant and builds accessibility habits into your development process.

Set clear standards

Decide what level of WCAG compliance you’re targeting and make it part of your definition of done. If a feature doesn’t meet your accessibility standards, it’s not ready to ship.

Assign real ownership

Accessibility needs a champion who can advocate for inclusive design in planning meetings, not just someone who fixes issues after they’re built.

Build it into your roadmap

Treat accessibility improvements like any other product initiative. Set goals, assign resources, track progress.

Make it visible

Talk about accessibility in product updates and company communications. When you communicate about it publicly, you create accountability and signal your values.

Your Choice

Accessibility will impact your product one way or another—either through intentional design or reactive fixes. Legal requirements are expanding, user expectations are rising, and competitors are already moving.

The leaders who choose to champion inclusion early are building the products and companies that win long-term. They’re attracting better talent, reaching wider markets, and creating products that work for everyone.

What kind of product leader do you want to be?