Accessibility is often treated like a quest with an ending. We audit, we fix, we ship, and we move on. But in real projects, the story does not stop at launch. Standards evolve, technologies shift, content changes, and new contributors join, sometimes undoing accessibility work without realizing it. Progress can fade quietly if no one is watching.
This session frames accessibility as a never-ending story. Not because the work is impossible, but because it lives inside systems that are constantly changing. Like any long-running narrative, accessibility depends on care, shared responsibility, and the willingness to keep moving forward, even when progress feels slow and familiar challenges resurface.
We’ll explore how accessibility holds up across the full lifecycle of open source projects, from early design and development through ongoing maintenance and content updates. Along the way, we’ll look at what WCAG 2.2 tells us about the barriers users still face, what the move toward WCAG 3 signals about the future of accessibility, and how the European Accessibility Act is reshaping expectations for digital products.
Rather than chasing a perfect ending, this session focuses on building practices that prevent accessibility from quietly sinking back into the Swamps of Sadness after launch. Attendees will leave with practical ways to recognize where accessibility slips, how to keep momentum without burnout, and how to design workflows that allow the story to continue.
