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You simply cannot expect that 2 days of training will get you to where you need to be when it comes to something complex.
You'd never expect to be a great designer after a 2-day training. You spend thousands of hours working on your design skills over a period of years.
You'd never expect to be a great designer after a 2-day training. You spend thousands of hours working on your design skills over a period of years.
You'd never expect to be a great developer after a 2-day training.
You learn new programming languages, new constructs, and new ways of thinking about abstract problem solving, and develop those over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You learn new programming languages, new constructs, and new ways of thinking about abstract problem solving, and develop those over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You'd never expect to be a great writer/content creator after a 2-day training.
You learn to write better, with more flow, and more richness by honing your craft over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You learn to write better, with more flow, and more richness by honing your craft over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You'd never expect to be a great Product Owner/Product Manager after a 2-day training.
You learn to prioritize and identify customer value after working on many products over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You learn to prioritize and identify customer value after working on many products over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You'd never expect to be a great Manager after a 2-day training.
You learn to listen, and make decisions, and direct a team after working with people over thousands of hours over a period of years.
You learn to listen, and make decisions, and direct a team after working with people over thousands of hours over a period of years.
But for some reason, when looking at becoming great at accessibility, suddenly a 2-day training will solve the problem.
It just doesn't work that way.
It just doesn't work that way.
When you're learning about accessibility, a 2-day training is going to get you a few things:
1. awareness of things you didn't know before.
2. some practical techniques you can use to improve your practice.
3. some seeds for strategic things you will need to think about later.
1. awareness of things you didn't know before.
2. some practical techniques you can use to improve your practice.
3. some seeds for strategic things you will need to think about later.
But it won't get you the things that you really need to become proficient with accessibility:
1. Time to practice on real projects.
2. Time to reflect on the things you learned from doing the work
3. Time to figure out how you'd approach it differently next time.
1. Time to practice on real projects.
2. Time to reflect on the things you learned from doing the work
3. Time to figure out how you'd approach it differently next time.
Yes, there's much more to it than that, but I'm going to stop here for now.
There's nothing WRONG with a 2-day accessibility training (or any other subject, for that matter). However, it has to be part of something bigger, not a thing that stands alone by itself.
There's nothing WRONG with a 2-day accessibility training (or any other subject, for that matter). However, it has to be part of something bigger, not a thing that stands alone by itself.
A 2-day training isn't going to give you what you need to become proficient. It gets you started, but doesn't take you all the way there.
We have always seen a lot of managers or others in power simply expect that a 2-day training in accessibility will solve all their problems.
We have always seen a lot of managers or others in power simply expect that a 2-day training in accessibility will solve all their problems.
Why?
1. Underestimation of complexity: "Accessibility = fixing some bugs/defects"
2. Underestimation of time it'll take to become proficient: "We should be all good in 3 months after the training"
3. Misunderstanding about how people build skills: "They were told, now they do"
1. Underestimation of complexity: "Accessibility = fixing some bugs/defects"
2. Underestimation of time it'll take to become proficient: "We should be all good in 3 months after the training"
3. Misunderstanding about how people build skills: "They were told, now they do"
re: complexity- yes, some things are just bugs. But not everything is.
re: time - yes, you'll do some things well after 3 months. Others take years to be really good.
re: skills - telling isn't teaching, listening isn't learning.
re: time - yes, you'll do some things well after 3 months. Others take years to be really good.
re: skills - telling isn't teaching, listening isn't learning.
<end of rambly thoughts on how people expect to transform their organization with a 2-day accessibility training>
And yes… you’re right… you could likely rewrite this as:
<end of rambly thoughts on how people expect to transform their organization with a 2-day [insert name of practice] training>
<end of rambly thoughts on how people expect to transform their organization with a 2-day [insert name of practice] training>
It’s the nature of learning and the nature of what we hope to be true versus reality.
@bethdean pointed to this last night. Couldn’t agree more: https://twitter.com/bethdean/status/1194841272239812608?s=21
@bethdean pointed to this last night. Couldn’t agree more: https://twitter.com/bethdean/status/1194841272239812608?s=21
