Starting in Accessibility is like the Hype Cycle

My brain loves to draw comparisons across fields, especially if they are visually based. The Gartner hype cycle was created in the '90s to represent the maturity, adoption, and social application of specific technologies.

Graph with X axis of time, Y axis of visibility. It starts at zero on both, immediately jumps up the maximum called Peak of Inflated Expectations, then drops to the Trough of disillusionment, raises through a slope of elightenment, and finishes in a plateau of productivity at about 60% of the initial jump.

The thing is, I see quite a similar curve when people get into accessibility. Looking back, I think I went through this myself.

Most people know very little about accessibility to start with, unless they have a friend of relative with a disability they know well.

There is some triggering event, which could be meeting someone with a disability and seeing how they use technology. It might be training. I got a message on LinkedIn today thanking me for sparking their interest and getting them into accessibility, which is lovely to hear.

But, once someone dives into the topic there is a certain zeal that people often have. You might hear sentiments such as "make everything accessible!", "Why are people ignoring this?!", "anyone against accessibility must be evil!" (despite the fact they themselves didn't know about it until quite recently).

After a few months of fighting the good fight but not really getting anywhere, they enter the "trough of disillusionment", becoming frustrated and possibly burnt out. "It's so hard!", "no-one listens to me about this!".

Hopefully, and this is something we can help with, people get to what I would call the "zen of enlightenment". Understanding that there is more work than can be done, but progress is better than aiming for perfection. Every little win makes life easier for some people. If we focus on the most important things, prioritise, we can make a difference.

Graph with X axis of time, Y axis of visibility. It starts at zero on both with discovering accessibility, then immediately jumps up the maximum called Peak of Accessibility zeal, then drops to the Trough of disillusionment, and raises to a zen of elightenment.

As someone who's run a lot of training, I try to help people past the trough of disillusionment as quickly as possible. I think that's something we could all look out for and assist with.