The Accessibility Operations Guidebook

About the Book

The Accessibility Operations Guidebook tackles a pressing and often unspoken reality in the digital accessibility field: burnout. Many practitioners enter the profession with the goal of building inclusive, usable products—only to find themselves pulled into a maze of advocacy, legal navigation, compliance enforcement, and internal education. These demands, while important, often go unacknowledged and unsupported. The result? Exhaustion, disillusionment, and high turnover.

Devon Persing offers a refreshing and much-needed perspective on how we can change that. This book isn’t a technical manual or WCAG checklist. It’s a deep, thoughtful look at the operational structures behind accessibility work—and how to make them better, smarter, and more sustainable.

Why It Matters

Accessibility professionals are often asked to wear many hats—designer, developer, advocate, trainer, compliance officer—all while working uphill to shift organizational culture. Without systems in place to support them, accessibility work becomes reactive, isolated, and unsustainable.

This guidebook centers the people doing the work and introduces a new approach: one that blends data, strategy, and empathy to build operations that last. It’s about designing how accessibility work happens, not just what needs to be done.

What You’ll Learn

• How to recognize and prevent burnout in yourself and your accessibility team
• Frameworks for building inclusive, sustainable accessibility programs
• The role of organizational psychology, systems thinking, and social science in digital inclusion
• Strategies for scaling accessibility work beyond a single advocate or department
• How to make your program more intersectional, data-informed, and community-driven
• Tactics to move from gatekeeping and compliance enforcement toward enablement and empowerment

Book Structure

Part One: Understanding the Landscape

A crash course in the social science behind organizational behavior, equity, and burnout. This section draws from theories in psychology, education, disability studies, and information literacy to help you understand the systemic barriers that make accessibility work harder than it needs to be.

Part Two: Building Better Systems

An actionable strategy guide that applies those theories to real-world operations. Learn how to build a program that supports long-term accessibility goals, centers disabled voices, and makes accessibility everyone’s responsibility—not just the job of a few overburdened champions.

Who Should Read It

• Accessibility professionals and specialists looking for long-term sustainability
• DEI leaders, HR managers, and program directors supporting accessibility initiatives
• UX and product leaders seeking to integrate accessibility into team operations
• Digital transformation teams building or evolving accessibility programs
• Anyone who wants to build a healthier, more strategic accessibility culture

Final Thoughts

The Accessibility Operations Guidebook is a must-read for the people behind the push for digital inclusion. If you’ve ever felt like you're doing too much with too little support—or that your accessibility efforts are being stretched thin—this book offers a powerful reframing. It’s not just about keeping up with standards; it’s about creating systems that let people thrive while doing the work of accessibility. Devon Persing provides not only insight, but hope, for a better way forward.