Accessibility checks are necessary.
They are also insufficient.
I’ve tested systems that passed automated tools, audits, and acceptance criteria, and now many many sites that passed AI audits — and still placed an unreasonable burden on the person using them.
Compliance Describes a Floor, Not an Experience
Standards tell us what must be present.
They do not tell us whether the interaction is calm, confusing, or cognitively expensive.
When teams stop at compliance, the remaining work doesn’t disappear — it moves.
It moves to the user.
Effort Can Be Technically Acceptable and Ethically Wrong
A user who can eventually complete a task is often treated as a success case.
But accessibility exposed something I used to miss:
Effort is a cost, even when outcomes are achieved.
When we don’t account for that cost, we normalise exhaustion — and call it inclusion.
That’s the gap I now look for when I test.