Accessibility from day one is cheaper than accessibility ever
Retrofitting a11y onto a shipped product costs 4–8× more than designing for it from the first wireframe. Here's the lean checklist we run on every new engagement.
Every team agrees accessibility matters. Most teams still ship products where the contrast ratios fail WCAG, focus order is random, and screen-reader users hit dead ends. The fix isn't a bigger compliance audit at the end — it's five lightweight habits applied from week one.
Five habits, week one
- Set the contrast floor in your tokens, not your linter. If a color combo can't clear 4.5:1 for body text, it doesn't ship as a token.
- Mandate visible focus on every interactive element. The default browser ring is fine — turning it off without a replacement is the bug.
- Test screen-reader flow on a single representative path each sprint, not 'all surfaces at the end.'
- Keep target sizes at 44×44 minimum on touch, 24×24 on pointer. Audit at component level, not screen level.
- Caption every demo video the moment it's recorded, not before the launch.
The math
We've shipped 40+ products. The ones that built accessibility into the design system shipped on schedule and passed external WCAG-AA audits with under 30 minutes of remediation. The ones that bolted it on at the end averaged 9 days of rework and pushed launch by 2–3 weeks.