It is very common to structure our work as a project and this digital society of ours shows us that it seems to be the best methodology to get things done. A project has almost always a project manager, sometimes as a independent role and sometimes a member of the team gets project managers role besides other role. It depends. Sometimes even a single person can have multiple roles – it is totally possible that a single person is a designer, full-stack developer, database administrator, DevOps, SecOps and project manager.
It is almost my mantra – accessibility should be incorporated in almost all activities and it should be done at the beginning if we want to deliver accessible products. This is where the program managers role has to be crucial. Project managers concerns, among other, are most certainly scope and definition of done and accessibility must always be in both if we want to make our products work.
Project managers must learn about end users and embrace accessibility
The role of project manager should cover much more than bare minimum of supporting and managing the team and reporting to stakeholders. They should also advocate for end-users and make sure the scope of projects involve them. And to include end users we have to embrace accessibility, and do it from start. I will not go into different project management methodologies but I have to emphasize that adding accessibility early and often is the key to success.
So first we have to know about accessibility. Project manager must understand that accessibility is beyond legal obligations and nice to have add-ons. Accessibility must be at the core of the product. It has to be implemented into processes, from kick-off low fidelity designs to user testing, quality assurance and project documentation.
Understanding user needs is related to empathy and when we are informed about different user needs and understand the importance of accessibility for end users – we are more likely to involve accessibility in the core.
Project managers must therefore learn about users and their needs and understand what accessibility really is and that it is not just another compliance checklist that we must go through at the end of the project. It is an integral part of the product, therefore it deserves to be in the center and there from the very beginnings.
Project managers must understand how team works toward accessible products
The key is to understand that some roles need more focus on accessibility and that some key activities can make or brake it. Let’s start at the beginning – if we do not have any influence on the design then we will most certainly fall into different accessibility problems. For example – a special, non standard widget that has to be made from scratch carries a lot of potential accessibility and usability questions that has to be answered before we start with it’s implementation. So project manager should understand that it may be best that designers define accessibility when they present the widget, otherwise it will fall on the developers and if developers do not understand the requirements it can very quickly be a problem when quality assurance takes over and finds out that there are multiple accessibility issues that needs attention. It would be much more effective if every team member would be aware of their role. The potential errors would be caught when developer would first get the de-brief from designer for example.
When project managers understand role division in regards with accessibility they can act on it at the start of the project and also follow up in any other phase of the project. Then we can be more assured that the final product will be more accessible and have less or none issues. If accessibility is treated as one of key criteria then it is less likely it will fall out and cause problems later in the lifecycle.
When accessibility is treated early and often and when team understands that it is
Project managers must advocate for accessibility
When project managers understand importance of accessibility and that it is always in the scope and a part of definition of done on a task level it also help to advocate accessibility when faced with financial planning with stakeholders. This can be discussed from multiple points of view, not only the legal one.
Project managers must communicate the potential risks if accessibility is treated as an add-on, and those risks spread beyond legal, so it is important that compliance is not the only motivator.
Users with different abilities present about a fifth of all population, sometimes even more, so it can also be a strong argument if stakeholders try to dismiss the potential costs related to accessibility efforts. At the same time it is again worth noting that accessibility early and often almost guarantees that we save time and money.
