Imagine. It’s a cozy Saturday afternoon. Not perfectly sunny but the spring air has come around the corner and you see the cherry blossom buds everywhere. They should be in full bloom next weekend. So, you go outside for a stroll. Out on the street, you see people walking here and there at a comfortable distance. Not as crowded as the rush hour, but not as lonely as the hour the final train has departed. And you notice a man sauntering on the other side of the street, not wearing a mask.

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Would you go tell him to wear a mask?

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That man, without a mask, was me.

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I admit that I was careless. Maybe because I was too happy and relaxed that the recent project was well received by the client. It was supposed to finish in 4 weeks but it actually took 7. But with the help of all my teammates, I was able to complete my first corporate project as a designer. I didn’t have to get up at 4:30 in the morning anymore. I didn’t have to dread checking new Slack messages. I was officially off the hook. To celebrate, I decided to go for a walk; A cup of fresh coffee from my favorite cafe would be perfect. The only imperfection of the day was, I could’ve ended up killing that man in more than one way.

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The past few months went by rather quickly. Didn’t we just have a Halloween? I feel like we started 2021 about 2 seconds ago. Yeah, and a couple of seconds is all it takes to kill a man or to be killed, depending on how you look at it. I’m not a martial art master, but from experience, I know how short it takes to physically neutralize someone. Life is short. If I feel like the past 3 months have gone by in a few seconds, what would I feel on my deathbed? A few years? Or maybe 30 minutes or so? If life is so short, why waste my time trying to change someone’s mind? 

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The final week of the project was the most stressful part. Last-minute changes and requests were flooding in while I was asked to scope out the timeframe and budget for the upcoming project. There is a good reason I never waited for a table. I’m a terrible multi-tasker; I can’t juggle so many plates at once. The next project seemed challenging but manageable but there was this one line that made me feel uneasy. Requirement: ADA compliance. What the heck? When you make a professional website, it needs to meet certain requirements like being able to provide a good browsing experience on all kinds of devices. After some googling, I found out that ADA stands for “Americans with Disabilities Act” and in my next project, I was asked to bring up the website’s accessibility standard. It sounded to me like, “We don’t want to get our ass sued.” Well, neither do I. It took me a week of research, and some trial and error to know that this part of the job is going to be a significant burden on my end but there also is going to be more money on the table. Should I take on this project? 

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Long story short, I won’t do it. A homebuilder analogy works great here. Making a website is like assembling a house. Images, texts, and databases are like windows, walls, and ceiling components. HTML, CSS, and JS are nails, bricks, and mortars that hold the structure together. My websites are reasonably accessible with good enough legibility and an easy-to-navigate information structure. I believe it follows the modern user experience best practices. But to actually promise ADA compliance, I would need to do some coding in the backend. Like, I need to shut off the water valve and start getting my hands deep into the sewer pipes. Wait, isn’t that a job for a plumber? Exactly. I could get a plunger from a local Home Depot in case the toilet gets stuck but that’s not enough when it comes to guaranteeing ADA compliance. I’m not a lawyer nor an accessibility expert. I can do my best in following their guideline, but I know I would still fall short no matter what I do. For those clients requiring strict ADA adherence, I’m going to rely on a third-party service provider from now on. I’m a home builder, not an MIT plumber.

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Every project is a learning opportunity. Just when I thought I’ve made it, there it is. Another peak to climb. Leveling up with ADA compliance could be a lucrative skillset to add on, but honestly, I find it boring as hell. There are other aspects of building a website that is a whole lot more exciting to me than “the legal plumbing works.” That’s just my opinion, but if I were to live my life, I guess it makes sense to listen to my opinion. In fact, if my life has not much time left, there is no time to waste doing stuff I care very little about. 

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Some men are walking on the street screaming, “Kill me! Kill me!” Maybe not literally, but nevertheless, you can see them begging for a one-way ticket. Perhaps they are immortals of some sort. Too bad I’m not one of them. But I was lucky enough to receive their visit yesterday. That masked man has risked his own life to deliver a gift: My clock is ticking. So live it.

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That's what a good Saturday afternoon ought to be.