Screen readers for small teams

We end up explaining this on discovery calls often enough that it deserved writing down. Most advice about screen readers assumes a team that does not exist at your size. Here is the version that does not.

The cost of retrofitting accessibility is several times the cost of building it in. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

What to keep

Test with one and the theory becomes obvious. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

What to drop

Process that exists to coordinate ten people is overhead when there are two of you. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens.

The practical version

Announced changes need live regions. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

The short version

Accessibility work almost always improves the experience for people who have no impairment at all. Three things worth confirming about screen readers before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Test with one and the theory becomes obvious — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.