In my 20+ years of professional web-based software development, mostly in the commercial space, accessibility was never made a requirement. This spanned more than a half dozen clients/companies and more than a dozen projects/teams. Fast forward to last year when I re-platformed my personal blog [1]. During that effort, I decided to make it accessible. It was my first time every really delving into the a11y space.
Despite the time warranted, I found that effort to be interesting, challenging, and worthwhile. And I think it was/is the right thing to do. This despite my blog getting a low amount of traffic and nobody ever requesting that I make it accessible.
As an online creator, I have the ability and privilege to make my (small) online corner of the world a better place. For me to simply ignore the needs of those who are less able seems wrong.
Despite the time warranted, I found that effort to be interesting, challenging, and worthwhile. And I think it was/is the right thing to do. This despite my blog getting a low amount of traffic and nobody ever requesting that I make it accessible.
As an online creator, I have the ability and privilege to make my (small) online corner of the world a better place. For me to simply ignore the needs of those who are less able seems wrong.
[1] - https://michaelscepaniak.com/