Bookmarked Wishcessibility by .
Nic Chan’s coinage is useful here, giving a name to a situation I’ve encountered too often myself. She emphasizes that wishcessibility is not diabolical, but always performed by people who want to do the right thing.
While I would normally be somewhat wary of placing too much emphasis on intent over impact, I genuinely believe it is a useful distinction here because it mirrors the career trajectory of many accessibility practitioners I know. Most of them (including me) started with a sincere desire to make things accessible, and some of us were lucky enough to be allowed to fail, over and over again, until the net good of our work became greater than our failures. Having good intent doesn’t cancel out a negative impact, but I believe cultivating that good intent will result in greater accessibility, turning wishcessibility into actual accessibility.