You’ve probably said (or at least thought) one of these:
- “This doesn’t apply to my field.”
- “I don’t have time to redo all my slides.”
- “Can’t AI just fix this soon?”
If so, congratulations—you may have experienced one of the Five Stages of Accessibility Grief.
When people begin thinking seriously about accessibility, the emotional journey often looks a lot like the classic five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
Not everyone moves through the stages in order. Some days we bounce between them. But recognizing where you are can help you move forward. In practice, many accessibility improvements—clear structure, readable slides, captions, and descriptive images—turn out to be things that help all students learn better.
Here are some common examples of “accessibility grief”.
Denial (It’s not just a river in Egypt…)
- “This doesn’t apply to me. No one in my field needs this.”
- “AI will probably fix accessibility in a few years—why don’t we wait for that?”
- “Isn’t this what the Office of Disability Resources handles?”
- “None of my students have disabilities.”
Anger
- “I don’t have time to do this.”
- “This makes everything harder.”
- “Why doesn’t the University hire people to do this for us?”
Bargaining
- “What if I just don’t upload the PPTs?”
- “What if I put the material somewhere other than Canvas?”
- “What if I just tell students to email me if they need something?”
- “Do I really have to do everything? What’s the bare minimum?”
Depression
- “I have SO MANY SLIDES.”
- “Some of these lectures are older than my students.”
- “This is never going to be finished.”
- “I don’t even know where to start.”
Acceptance (This is Reality)
- “I’ll just build accessibility into my workflow.”
- “Students actually appreciate the clearer slides and captions.”
- “Alt text, headings, and captions are just part of how I make materials now.”
You don’t have to fix everything at once—just make the next thing you create a little more accessible.
And wherever you are in the process, be patient with yourself and keep moving forward.