116: Marcy Sutton

🌱 This post is in the growth phase. It may still be useful as it grows up.

Summary

• 04:00 how she got in
• 05:00 it’s still bad
• 07:00 shining stars
  • https://www.a11yproject.com/
  • https://twitter.com/TatianaTMac
• 10:30 the biggest problem — the education issue
• 12:00 from there builds curiosity and compassion
• 13:00 automated tools can only find certain things
  • design questions a tool might not be able to answer for you
• 13:50 “shift left” why
• 15:30 “shift left” definition
• 16:20 the discussion needs to happen earlier. so that client isn’t sold on something that can’t be built accessibly
• 17:30 strategies for shifting left
  • 18:00 might not be able to have the “agency” to do it
  • 18:35 sometimes it’s like watching it in slow motion. watch it fail then being a supportive voice that people want to work with
• 19:45 carrot vs stick
  • persuesion
  • legal compliance. wait for it to crash and burn
  • 20:30 managing up
• 21:00 it takes persistance and what keeps me alive is thinking ‘what
• 22:00 “yes, and”
• 23:00 “living in the tension is your job”
• 24:00 the biggest impact you can have in putting weight on that user side is to show leadership what it’s like to use that site with assistive technologies
  • 25 most powerful thing you can do
• 26:00 showing someone is more powerful
• 31:00 “oh that’s an edge case”. that’s not an edge case, that’s a person
• 31:50 it’s teaching the team how to think. and it goes beyond just one screen or one prototype

career

34:00 wanted to go independent for a while “leader of my own destiny” 37:00 what is most fulfulling. what would make you happiest. work back from there 37:30 “i wish i had done that” story 39:15 managing career

• privilege 41:00 > if you’re hitting that much friction. it’s probably time to move on… 42:30 how are decisions made?
• whoever overruled the decisions needs to be held accountable for that 43:45 i feel like a can give the most valuable part of myself back to the community — doubling down on my unique value

migrating toward a dream

• https://www.gatsbyjs.com/blog/2019-07-11-user-testing-accessible-client-routing/
• 45: risking burnout

  • if doing the things you love becomes taking a bite out of the things that get you your paycheck… that can be really difficult
• #ally, #accessibility hashtags on Twitter

“When you actually see someone struggling to use a product… that’s not an edge case, that’s a person. What I love about testing initiatives you can do with groups like Fable is that it goes beyond solving the one problem in front of you and teaches the team how to think and challenges your own biases.”