Blog Series : Previous Articles
Did you miss the previous blogs in this series?
So if you have read my previous posts in this series, you know the important components you need, how to get moving, the best ways to avoid roadblocks, now it is time to look at how you perform maintenance on your program.
If you don’t maintain your skates regularly, cleaning, oiling and checking for damage, they are going to be less efficient and eventually wear out. Regular maintenance of your accessibility program is just as important. If you neglect maintenance, overtime your program will become ineffective and it will break down.
Weekly (or fortnightly) maintenance
Skates get dirty fast! You wear them in all conditions, you can’t throw them in a washing machine and deep clean them, so every week or fortnight you need to take them apart, check for any damage and dull spots, then oil them up to keep them running smoothly.
If your accessibility program has been moving, well then you need to do this maintenance too.
Check your wheels / review your metrics and KPIs.
Are you moving freely? Are you meeting your expectations or are you finding you don’t quite have the right uniformity? Maybe there is a dent and some of your KPIs are suffering and not getting attention. I’m sure you check your metrics for uptime in production. Checking and reporting on the metrics for accessibility is just as important.
Oil your bearings / support your champions
Check your bearings and oil them up. Please don’t misinterpret this I’m pretty sure your accessibility champions don’t want to be greased up and play on a slip and slide, but they do want to get some recognition.
Check that your champions are supported. Ask how you can help, and work to provide the right amount of support they need. They need to be able to move freely but not get out of sync. Just like on skates, if you have one dodgy bearing it’s going to throw off the whole balance.
Adjust those nuts / check your plan
Finally check and review your plan. The plan holds it all together. If your metrics are good and your champions are happy, your plan should be progressing and allowing for autonomy. You don’t want to tightened so hard that everything is restricted and nothing can move.
Monthly maintenance
If you want your skates in good condition and safe then you need to monthly check that your trucks are strong, there are no unexpected surprises and you still have pivot in your skates.
Check your trucks and pivot point / Review your major risks
Get your team together and review the risks see how to manage them and check that no new risks, rules, laws or guidelines have suddenly developed which you need to assess.
Risk management can be a fulltime job just keeping up with risks and external changes. So for managing the external roadblocks I suggestion:
- Attend accessibility meetups
- Join your regions professional network (in Australia that is OZeWAI.org)
- Go to local conferences
- Travel to international conferences
For a list of regular conferences in the Asia-Pacific region and significant international conferences subscribe to my newsletter.
Inspect your plate / check in with people with disabilities
Inspect your plate for damage. Has what you have been working on delivered benefit to people with disabilities? Have you introduced new issues inadvertently making it harder for people with disabilities?
Check in with customers, staff and user testers. It’s possible that there is a crack in your plate, but if you didn’t check you wouldn’t know.
Realign your toe stops / check-in with your stakeholders
Finally check in on your stakeholders. Are they still engaged or has priorities and stress worn them down? Just as your champions need oiling sometimes, your stakeholders need realigning.
Your stakeholders need to celebrate the wins so they feel part of the team and stay engaged. When they do, their influence will span the procurement and tooling discussions.
Quarterly maintenance
Check your boot for damage / check-in with marketing
Are your skates still looking good to others? Do you think your laces will hold up for another 3 months?
Check in with your marketing team.
- How are there stat’s going?
- Are there improved conversion rates?
- Are you receiving more compliments than complaints?
- Are overall advertising costs reducing?
- Most importantly are the marketing team still engaged?
Check your laces / review your budget
You don’t want to wait until your laces are showing obvious sign of weakness, because if you do, they are going to snap right when you are in the middle of your workout. When it comes to budgeting it is the same.
There is always a little guess work when setting budgets. Sometimes you have a surplus, sometimes a loss, but you need to ensure this is reviewed regularly so you don’t run the risk of the budget breaking in the middle of the year. Take stock of the budget and forecast for the next quarter.
Yearly maintenance
Cushions / training, support and policies
The maintenance most skaters often forget (and most accessibility teams miss as well in the first few years.)
Now that we have been skating a while have we worn down and started finding things a little more difficult and bumpy? Likely it’s because as you make progress you learn more. So what started in your program as easy fixes and quick wins e.g. “This is missing alt text” or “We don’t have a way for people to request adjustments” becomes a little more complex. “We have items with gesture controls and can’t figure out how to make these more accessible” or “We have a workplace adjustment process but security on devices stops us being able to install required people’s required tools”
Now is a good time to review those cushions and replace them for a smoother ride.
- Re-enlist help.
- Offer refresher training courses for your teams.
- Get an independent audit.
Enlist help
You may have already enlisted help and if so, that’s fantastic! However, if you haven’t, now is a great time to start. External help can get you levelling up your program and have it grow with you. Areas that external help can be useful at this stage are explained in more details.
Providing an Accessibility Conformance Report.
Accessibility Conformance Reports allow you to check if what you have been doing is matching up to expectations of an independent 3rd party
Training
Take some of the load of training away from your accessibility champions so they can work on other important accessibility initiatives. External training providers can also ensure you are learning of new developments and new features in the digital accessibility space.
Summary
So before you next hit the rink get your equipment in order so it can better serve you. And most importantly after you complete your skating get on to your regular maintenance.