Even as an extremely no-nonsense accessibility strategist, I have heard, “Sorry Sheri, the release has to go as is,” or “Too bad the features took too long, so we couldn’t fix those accessibility bugs.” Why does this keep happening? 
Lack of Representation: We don’t have enough designers, developers, and product owners with disabilities. Their perspectives are crucial, especially when the accessibility team isn’t in the room.
Lack of Psychological Safety: The few people who work in product who do have a connection to disability inclusion often don’t feel comfortable bringing up accessibility or disability inclusion in product meetings.
Incentive Structures: People are typically rewarded for getting releases out on time and completing features. Rarely do we hear, “Great job making this product more accessible! Here’s a promotion, $10K, and some stock.” 
This is even more disheartening when the features don’t have that much of an impact, but the buggy accessibility effectively blocks people.To make lasting change, the script must be flipped on those three elements We need more representation, more psychological safety, and incentive structures that reward accessibility. Companies who do this have a culture where accessibility is a priority, and those who make it happen are recognized and rewarded. Accessibility is never an accident
Alt: two NBA press conference tables, one with a crowd of people the other with one guy sitting alone. The text for the one with the crowd of people is “product owners drooling over new features” and the other side with the guy alone the text says “people with disabilities waiting for any access at all.“